Client Case Studies
Imaging Solutions Helps H.W. Wilson Drive Electronic Publishing
H.W. Wilson, founded in 1898 and located in the Bronx, NY and Dublin, Ireland, is a leading publisher of reference materials and databases primarily for the library market. Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, introduced in 1901, quickly became a classic in the field and continues to be a primary reference tool today. The company's other indexing and abstracting publications and reference materials are relied on worldwide and are available via the Internet, CD-ROM, magnetic tape and print. Wilson has been providing an invaluable service for librarians and researchers for over a century, and currently offers over six million entries from over 4,000 periodicals and books. Wilson biographical databases hold a reputation for depth and accuracy - "one-stop" sources for information that requires no double-checking.
The Problem:
With the deluge of new information being produced at an ever increasing rate in today's information age, H.W. Wilson recently faced the issue: How to keep up with the volume of material needing to be indexed while keeping with their 100-year reputation of editorial integrity and quality of workmanship?
Solution:
After gathering requirements from business and technical users, Imaging Solutions evaluated several products on the market and decided to deploy a combination of third party software and custom developed software. From all of the products that were evaluated, Imaging Solutions, Inc. chose a third party workflow product and wrote the central desktop control module called the WorkCenter. The Scanning, Indexing, and Cropping modules were developed by Imaging Solutions. Since H.W. Wilson processes many types of paper media including bound scientific journals and glossy magazines, an extensive scanner test was performed to evaluate the handling of varied source media.
The process starts with preparing the periodicals, scanning the articles and basic document indexing. The rules engine automatically assigns work to queues based on the index information. Editors log into the WorkCenter system via a VPN connection and get a list of work customized to their areas of expertise. Each editor chooses what work to do, and all relevant work items are downloaded to their personal workstation. Assignments may be in more than one queue, so work is pulled on a first- come, first-served basis.
As articles age, their priority increases. When the editors go to their task list to see what is available, the lists are automatically sorted on their priority. This was an essential piece of the application to make sure what is most urgent gets done, and the workflow product's extensive priority management features greatly facilitated the implementation of this feature.
To do the abstraction, WorkCenter brings up the articles in PDF format, and finished abstracts are uploaded electronically when the editors log back into the WorkCenter server.
When a publication comes in, the workflow process splits the scans into articles, parses them out for abstracting, and then rolls the finished abstract back up into the issue. While many workflow products do not support this capability, the split and merge features were essential in allowing this part of the workflow process to be implemented properly. Another important aspect of the WorkCenter application is its distributed capabilities. Using the unique disconnected workflow features, Imaging Solutions engineered a solution to allow servers at multiple locations to coordinate the sharing and hand-off of work.
Benefits:
H.W. Wilson has derived several benefits from implementing this solution:
- The system as a whole has improved indexing turnaround from an average of 45 days from receipt in-house to an average of 10 days.
- The ability to attach full text to product was improved from an average of 60 days to an average of 5 days.
- Transport time of 3-4 days was eliminated which has had the additional benefit of significantly reducing a huge shipping budget.
- Editorial staff was reduced from 180 indexers, abstractors, and clerks to 145 indexers and abstractors and 7 scanner operators.
- When the scanning system was implemented, Wilson was able to cancel their double and at times triple subscriptions to journals to save close to $1 million each year.
- Articles no longer need to be photocopied prior to shipment saving additional time and expense.
- A previously complex and error prone assignment process is now done automatically, resulting in a better dispersion of work and eliminating any mapping problems when workers are unavailable. Work for a publication can be performed simultaneously by several specialists.
- Managers can now keep track of critical metrics such as the progress of any periodical, the workload of a specialist, and the identification of which processes are in need of adjustment or which tasks need to be reassigned. The workflow map can be changed as management identifies bottlenecks or chooses to add a task to the process.
- Since their process was converted to an entirely electronic process, the abstracts are now web-ready by default. Not only is the process cheaper and faster, they get the benefit of web ready results which is a huge competitive advantage in the current web centric marketplace. By incorporating additional PDF software into their systems, PDF page images now accompany full text articles on WilsonWeb, their on-line reference guide, bringing users all the graphs, diagrams, charts, photographs, and illustrations that accompany articles.
Conclusion:
Wilson has had to reinvent themselves many times over the years, and the adoption of workflow is just another step in this continuous process of evolution. With the help of Imaging Solutions and the WorkCenter application, Wilson continues to produce reference materials with care and precision, while maintaining their dedication to quality content continued forward since the company began producing reference materials over 100 years ago.
Imaging Solutions has received numerous awards and recognitions for this implementation.
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