20 years of innovation in content management
Topix and vjoon – a strong team
20 years ago, the partnership between Topix and vjoon was launched and today we proudly reflect on an outstandingly successful cooperation. Two decades in which more than 50 customers in Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein have benefited from a custom-fit solution package consisting of our software for efficient content management and Topix's excellent expertise in IT services.
"What started 20 years ago in the early days of publishing has lasted until today. This long-standing partnership is only possible when people, technology and organization work together," said Fabio Sacilotto, Partner & Project Manager, Topix AG. "Our thanks go to our partner vjoon, our long-time and loyal customers, our past and future companions. They all contributed to this success story."
One of these success stories, for example, came about at a Swiss daily newspaper. Thanks to Topix's expertise and exceptional performance, a comprehensive and fully integrated newspaper production system for print and digital was realized within the record time of only 3 months. In addition to setting up the necessary server and network infrastructure, the project included the implementation of the K4 publishing system and the integration of web content management, planning and advertising systems, as well as a system for image optimization. The print edition alone comprised 5 regional editions, produced at four printing locations, with a circulation of over 430,000 copies. In addition, K4 also supplied the articles and images for the online edition in a highly automated workflow. As a result, the main editorial office and regional sites were able to work reliably in one system. Overall, the customer's expectations regarding the fast and professional implementation of this complex project were clearly exceeded overall.
At the forefront of the first hours of tablet publishing
2010 was a very special moment in the partnership between Topix and vjoon. It was the year in which Apple launched the iPad and Adobe gave publishers and corporate publishers a tool to extend their brands into the digital world of tablets with the Digital Publishing Suite (DPS, later AEM mobile). Shortly after K4 customer and U.S. media giant Condé Nast published "Wired" magazine, the first American magazine app created with DPS, the customer magazine of a major Swiss bank followed as the first European app produced with DPS and K4. Topix managed this project from the beginning, was deeply involved in the implementation and led it to success together with all parties involved. Over time, not only were other periodical publications of the major bank transferred to the digital world, but other customers followed with their annual reports, magazines, brochures and catalogs.
Topix inspires its customers again and again with great experience and high technical and conceptual understanding. This is also the case in the field of individual developments, which use the flexibility of K4 and extend it with customer-specific requirements. For example, Topix developed an SAP connection for financial reporting. This involved exporting financial data from SAP, transforming it into fully designed tables and importing them into K4 for the InDesign layout. Approximately 2,100 tables were automatically created or updated daily. In total, this project regularly produced 12 financial publications in 3 languages with a total of about 500 pages. All in K4 and based on SAP data. Other projects to extend K4 involved the transformation of ICML articles into Word documents that could include track changes as well as notes. Among other things, these documents were used for translation processes and versioning for legal traceability of the content.
The power of Topix and K4
All of these projects, and many more, demonstrate the power of K4 combined with the extensive knowledge and experience of a partner like Topix. This is even more evident in the long-term customer relationships - many customers have been with Topix and vjoon since the early hours of the partnership. For example, AVD Goldach AG, which today produces about 30 publications with K4 and with technical as well as conceptual support from Topix. These include the Swiss women's magazine "annabelle," which was recently named "Magazine of the Year" at the European Publishing Congress 2023.
"For us, long-term partnerships are the key to successful projects. Over the years, an enormous amount of know-how is built up, from which customers benefit to the maximum and innovative ideas can be implemented quickly," says Holger Kraemer, Director of Business Development, vjoon GmbH. "In a package with our software solutions, Topix thus delivers the kind of stability and future viability that a customer needs to secure his investment in the long term. We therefore look forward to many more years of joint projects with Topix, including initial integrations of our new digital asset management platform vjoon seven.