Uncompromising digital transformation of a specialist publisher
Daring to try something new with Neos CMS
The project was an exciting challenge, as it involved the interaction of e-commerce, complex content maintenance at various levels with corresponding rights management, cross-channel options including conversion tools... And all of this brought together in the Neos content management system.
The Neos data structure proved to be ideal for the complex platform: the tree-like data structure on which Neos is based is similar to the DITA data format on which the project's content is based. This meant that the tools built into Neos could also be used for searches, for example.
In addition, the Neos interface can visualize the structures of the data format, which makes it very easy for editors to find their way around. For the project we received the Neos Gold Award at the NeosCon 2018.
However, the project was not only particularly interesting from a technical perspective: the resulting platform represents an opportunity for specialist publishers to build a new business model in the digital age. This is achieved not least by "lifting" the large treasure trove of content from backlists, journal volumes and online content. Once brought together, categorized and searchable, the result is an extremely powerful product: access to specialist knowledge via search. This gives insurance industry professionals not just a subscription, but a real help in their daily work.
A new business model with an elaborate online platform - this is what we have realized together with the specialist publisher for the insurance industry VVW. The focus here is on answering customers' technical questions based on the large treasure trove 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 publishing house into the digital age
Some technical highlights
The content - news, journals and books - is stored in a flexible content repository, which currently contains around 500,000 content elements.
All publication data is stored in DITA format and can be edited in a customized DITA view as well as in the web view.
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.
