Uncompromising Digital Transformation of a Specialized Publisher
Breaking New Ground with Neos CMS
The project presented an exciting challenge, as it involved the integration of e-commerce, complex content management at various levels with corresponding access control, cross-channel capabilities including conversion tools… And all of this was brought together in the Neos content management system.
The Neos data structure proved to be ideal for this complex platform: Neos’ underlying tree-like data structure is similar to the DITA data format on which the project’s content is based. This meant that Neos’ built-in tools—such as the search function—could also be utilized.
In addition, the Neos interface can visualize the structures of the data format, making it very easy for editors to navigate. For this project, we received the Neos Gold Award at NeosCon 2018.
But the project was particularly interesting not only from a technical standpoint: The resulting platform offers specialized publishers an opportunity to build a new business model in the digital age. This is achieved not least by “unlocking” the vast treasure trove of content from backlists, journal archives, and online content. Once this content is brought together, categorized, and made searchable, the result is an extremely powerful product: access to expert knowledge via search. This way, professionals in the insurance industry receive not just a subscription, but genuine support in their daily work.
A new business model featuring a sophisticated online platform—that’s what we’ve developed together with VVW, a publisher specializing in the insurance industry. The focus is on answering customers’ technical questions based on the vast wealth of content from books and magazine issues.
Over 500,000 nodes in the Neos CMS
Complex rights management
Intelligent conversion tools
The multichannel platform brings the publisher into the digital age
Some Technical Highlights
The content—news, magazines, and books—is stored in a flexible content repository, which currently contains approximately 500,000 content items.
All publication data is stored in DITA format and can be edited both in a custom DITA view and in the web interface.
Custom Neos React UI elements for editing footnotes and importing tables from Excel
Articles can be automatically transferred to Adobe InDesign thanks to the Article Manager—a specially developed, cross-platform Electron app.
