Background
This business to business publisher of a specialist daily energy report (in German) for the German Electricity and Gas markets had a limited subscription. The costs to produce the publication were quite high compared to the subscription revenue. Editorial contributors were located overseas and content needed to be e-mailed across and incorporated manually into the final publication.
The Challenge / Opportunity
Create a cost effective international publishing solution for a niche target audience its customers.
Our Thinking and Approach
The production and publication process needed to be made much easier and faster reducing the production time and cost. Cohezia carried out the design and development of a complete online publishing system. The new application features a custom database driven Content Management System and data collection functionality allowing the editorial team to quickly and easily publish the issues.
Technology Utilised
The new system is accessed via a browser based interface. It has been developed on a Microsoft platform using Microsoft .NET architecture and tools with a MS SQL Server database. The system also incorporates graphics utilities to allow viewers to zoom into graphs to see detailed views. The system has been developed to allow multi-language content to be stored and displayed.
Creative and Usability Design
The online publication needed to integrate complex data tables, editorial and graphical chart content in an easily readable and accessible manner. The Content Management interface was designed so that it was simple for editorial staff to enter content whilst under the pressure of daily deadlines.
Results
The new application allows editorial staff, from any location, to enter the editorial online. The production staff can very quickly and easily create the final issue and publish it online saving time and costs. It also allows the frequency of publication to be varied if required.