Challenge

The market of print media is changing dramatically and poses completely new requirements for publishing houses. Multimedia-based competition displaces obsolete models of information reception. Those who want to address various customer groups are challenged to develop crossmedia strategies which combine print media and internet. Especially publishers offering premium content can support their brands and develop new markets in this way. Hubert Burda Media ranks among the pioneers implementing cross-media strategies and consequently counts on connecting online and print media in order to profit from integrated information, synchronized multimedia offerings and clustered journalistic competency.

Such strategies rquire robust and flexible solutions ensuring cross-company storage and distribution of contents.

Approach

To put this strategy to action Burda Digital Systems decided for an Information Management solution provided by *instinctools, which consolidates data of diverse, customer specific software applications in a single data base without changing data structure or content inside the source systems. This solution developed by *instinctools, an IT company based in Stuttgart, takes care of standarization and integration of several media formats and offers a variety of interfaces for further distribution out of the consolidated content pool. The system is suited for complex data integration and persues the principle of single-source publishing. This means publishing contents from a single source to various target media in different context. The same media element can simultaneously be used in online portals and printed magazines. The system is freely expandable. Synchronisation and conversion interfaces facilitate flexible connection of additional data sources.

Technology

The project for Burda Digital Systems has been implemented by means of the latest generation of the GateOne framework. GateOne is a Java-based Enterprise Application Framework conceived and consequently advanced by *instinctools over the last 7 years for developing solutions in the area of Information Management. The modular application infrastructure of GateOne makes it a flexible, powerful and future-oriented platform for individual solutions. Advantanges of the Cross-media Solution: Consolidated data Reuse Fast reaction on new customers New exports without programming Channel selection No change in existing systems Enhancements possible

Advantages

Supplying actual content to the portal TV Today (www.tvtoday.de) is the first mission for this solution. It is individually selected and prepared. Thanks to its comfortable user interface content packages can easily and efficiently be defined. New customers can be served on the spot as development of specific extract- and conversion programs are rendered unnecessary. Delivery of information can be managed manually, on-demand or automated by scheduler.

*instinctools offers software and services for intelligent solutions in the area of Information Management. The technical advance of the company is based on its Java-Framework GateOne which serves for data integration, structuring, standardization and personalization. *instinctools provides cost effective and tailor-made solutions due to combination of substantial international experience and nearshore programming facilities. Flexibility, reliability and innovative spirit are the fundament of our success.