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Web Application: Elsevier

Top Line Result: Developed and operate a global web-based solution for book development and distributed authorship.

Situational Analysis

Elsevier – one of the world’s largest publishers – was looking for a web-based solution to improve its editorial development process for large multi-author titles. The existing editorial process was handled without a centralized system, and the process relied heavily on e-mail communications and spreadsheets to track hundreds of manuscripts and thousands of images.

Despite wanting to change, business users in the company remained hesitant to adopt a technology solution for this process because of legitimate concerns about a steep learning curve for an automated system and the need to provide technical support for globally distributed authors.

Strategy

A "prove the benefit and grow solution adoption" strategy was chosen.  In some ways this is very close to the agile development approach of using extensive "beta test" programs.

Working with a single publishing group responsible for developing 1000+ page medical texts, OHO conceptualized a system that would meet the business users' requirements:

  • A single deployment that could handle multiple titles
  • A flexible work-flow engine and review process that could be configured for each title
  • The ability to manage, track and review high-resolution images and figures
  • A need to manage page counts and image allocations to ensure economic viability of book

The solution needed to overcome adoption issues and user objections about system complexity and the need to train authors. To address these concerns, the strategy:

  • Adopted emerging Web 2.0 interface concepts to streamline the interface and expose actionable items as they are needed
  • Base the author's work flow on a single landing page
  • Provided rich on-screen help with step-by-step instructions eliminating  training time

Implementation

Alfresco Oracle Ajax

OHO developed and rolled out the new application in less than 6 months. Our in-house development team built the application, including a work flow engine and notification systems, on a customized content management system that runs using an Oracle database environment. The site was reviewed and tested by editors within Elsevier and by authors world-wide. 

Adoption

The decision to marry emerging Web 2.0 conventions and a clean, user-focused interface eliminated resistance to internal adoption by editorial groups. After just one demonstration of the easy-to-use system, internal business partners found new editorial groups ready to make the transition.

The initial beta-rollout swelled from several books to dozens in less than 12 months. During the beta phase over 10,000 authors and editors  in 60 countries are using the system.