How Digital Workflows can Better Editorial, Marketing & Sales Teams.
In recent years, recycling has become a major part of modern-day living. For example, in the UK, both individuals and families alike painstakingly separate their varied packaging materials and resources into the green or black boxes provided by our councils – and I’m sure that other countries have their own recycling procedures in place too. I don’t know about you, but it is so pleasing to me to see how quickly people embraced this practice for the good of the planet and the longevity of future generations. But it wasn’t always like this.
Once upon a time – way back when – all rubbish/garbage/trash (regardless of how recyclable the materials may have been) was dumped by each household (in the UK at least) into a single, large black bin and its varied contents were all subsequently condemned to landfill – or even worse – the sea, because no one had the time or the will to sort through it all! This meant that recyclable materials were not being identified in order for them to be even potentially processed for reuse; and this constituted a huge loss for everyone involved.
In many ways, a publishing house’s digital practices are similar to the effort of recycling. In the time and with the internal systems available to them, staff do the best they can by their company’s data and assets – manually processing each item and storing it in the relevant system for future use – but this process is laborious, time-consuming, error prone, and only succeeds in isolating data sources from the majority of your publishing ecosystem. After all, each team has their own purpose for an asset, but if the information or document is stored in a secluded folder (possibly on a specific team’s platform or hidden behind a password-protected area) the asset is rendered out of sight and unavailable to other teams for their own purposes. A duplication of workloads occurs as a result of this, or else (in order to counter the lack of accessibility) gives rise to increased internal communications, multiple email attachments, the same file (or varying versions of the same file) being saved on multiple systems, a plethora of passwords and file-sharing platforms being implemented, etc. and leaves staff and customers wanting for so much more.
The fact is, there is a better solution: robust and streamlined digital workflows – which can be initiated by the implementation of a more structured system, such as Biblio.
Biblio is a suite of publishing solutions, providing end-to-end support for the publishing life-cycle, that is specifically developed to meet the evolving needs of the organisations and people it serves. It is both workflow- and automation-driven:
enabling publishers to adopt digital workflows that allow for better, more streamlined processing and enhanced recording of valuable data and resources;
facilitating the sharing of this data with staff and permitted business associates at the click of a mouse; and
ultimately helping organisations to be more efficient, increase productivity and save time (by up to 80%).
Down in the (data) dumps
I don’t need to tell you that, over the past decade or so, the volume of books being published has increased dramatically. As a result, Editorial teams are lost in a sea of data which must be dealt with as part of their day-to-day workloads. Limited time and the use of multiple, restrictive systems across the Editorial, Marketing and Sales teams respectively make it hard to stay afloat, and it’s easy to understand why data files and resources are often ‘dumped’ in one of the many systems in use within the company, without rhyme or reason (and with little thought about to whom that data will be available and how easily it can be retrieved for future use).
Biblio, on the other hand, enables publishers to harness technology in order to digitize traditionally time-consuming, error prone and manual processes, allowing them to store all data, assets, resources and any associated paperwork (from pre-acquisition to contracts, through to rights and royalties) all within the same system.
The uses of Biblio to better your digital workflows are many and varied:
Pre-Acquisitions & Acquisitions
Estimate, forecast and model costings for any type of product, over multiple years, to make better, more informed decisions at the acquisitions stage – based on real data from your former products and their sales record!
Metadata
Create, maintain and share rich product metadata for any type of product (whether print, digital, packs or merchandise).
Be certain that your data will remain accurate, up-to-date and unduplicated across your entire organisation and those it is disseminated to across the supply chain – enabling your workforce to choose and control what they want to share.
Feed your metadata directly to business partners’ and retailers’ websites via automated ONIX feeds.
Stop the goose-chase: if there’s an issue with any of your data, you’ll know precisely where it is stored for all divisions and regions and how to rectify it – in Biblio!
Asset Generation
Auto-create assets such as reading samples or specific file formats and sizes for use by your Editorial, Marketing and Sales teams – and store them all in the same place, on the same system.
Storage
De-duplicate the storage of both metadata and assets by enabling teams to access this information from a single, central repository – where it need only be saved once.
Save on storage space across your organisation by up to 75%.
Access & File-Sharing
Provide company-wide access to your metadata and assets to all your staff (regardless of whether they are working from home or at the office), as well as permitted business partners.
Maintain complete control over your data and assets through Biblio’s versioning, permissions and time-limited access to assets for business partners.
Track the progress of your projects and assets internally through reporting and notifications in order to keep your teams informed and engaged with your content.
Share and record the dissemination of your time-sensitive assets, all within the same system, including images, contracts, projects documentation, review copies, printing specifications, and much more.
Permit access to your assets to different, internal teams at relevant stages within the products’ lifespan; enabling full control over the content of any project or product in its initial stages (especially those of a sensitive nature).
Security
Back-up your organisation’s data and assets on your choice of clouds (according to your individual requirements), enhancing the security of your IP.
Set up divisional securities, triggers and asset management.
Watermark your valuable assets for early release to business associates and customers alike, facilitating the sales process.
Share your content (or chosen sections of your content) with external representatives (including media and special interest partners) through permissions and control access using password-protected and/or watermarked assets.
Provide access to your content in a number of ways, from downloading it and sending it via email, to sharing it via Biblio itself or via a direct URL.
Save time and reduce your follow-up procedures by generating time-limited assets (in a variety of formats) that will only allow your business partners access to the chosen content for a defined period of time.
Marketing & Sales
Plan and track your promotional activities, generate AI sheets and share them – all within the same system.
Generate reports on a group of titles, as required, aiding the selection of titles for Sales teams.
Create data feeds for catalogue generation – saving your marketing team up to 12 weeks per year.
Transform your assets to the latest file format (including high resolution video files), preserving them for future use.
Upcycle Your Content!
Don’t consign your data and assets to the metaphorical black bin of your current internal processes and systems. Instead, give your staff the structure and software to not just record and store your data in a highly-accessible and company-wide location, but also give them the opportunity to share your assets with those who need and want them most (in a secure and tailored way). Your content deserves it and you’ll reap the benefits in increased sales and the provision of superior customer service!
Make digital workflows an integral part of your organisation! After all, the sooner we as an industry embrace digital workflows – for the good of our respective publishing houses as well as the book industry supply chain at large – the brighter our collective future will be.
Let’s future-proof our businesses, so they’ll be here for many more years to come!