Although the editors work in Poland, Greece, Germany and Great Britain, what they produce is a joint product: business partner magazine “Amagram” for American retail giant Amway - in 26 different issues in the respective national language. Something that automatically calls up images of floods of e-mails and tremendous photocopying sessions - but, in reality, is quite different. The intelligent censhare system effortlessly joins the staff together - despite being spread out over half the world - into a unified workflow, and smoothly manages the data flow in the background as well.
Every article in the quarterly information journal actually goes through 25 hands - at least virtually, since no hardcopy is actually sent. The documents travel via an electronic route from American headquarters to the German publisher and from there on to the national editorial offices and back, guided by an innovative content management system that also takes into account deadlines and authorizations, manages release dates and integrates external working places. During the end control process alone, more than 2000 pages run through a complex workflow without a hitch - a process which occupies around 20 staff members of the leading German corporate publisher Burda Yukom Publishing, including five freelance authors and graphic artists who team up with 75 translators, ten pre-press agency employees and 35 Amway employees.
It’s no longer just about print magazines. “For ten years already, online offerings have made massive inroads. And for five years now we have ascertained a tendency towards internationalization and are being compelled by our customers to increasingly focus our efforts on all mobile end devices,” explains Dr. Christian Fill, managing director at Burda Yukom Publishing. He sees it as a decisive advantage for censhare that the media channels, marked by their mix of multimedia and international elements, can be handled by its central data management. The highly-efficient workflow also gives Burda Yukom Publishing a clear competitive edge.
“In the past, there were 26 different Amagrams in Europe,” says editor in chief, Laura Schulte. "With censhare, a homogenous Amagram, localized in 26 regions, became a reality. Previously, almost all 26 steps had to be carried out individually. Now, we have a central collecting point for all data and can enter changes in one go, in one place, and make the results immediately available for all editorial offices, no matter how far away, which they can then edit locally as needed. This enables a very different workflow."
Burda Yukom Publishing places its full trust in censhare not only for Amagram, but also for supplementary newsletters and even for pure online media. The advantages have clearly proven their worth.
