Intetics developed an editorial management tool for one of the world’s strongest platforms and continues to provide ongoing support.
An Editorial Manager is responsible for managing a company’s writing and editing strategy. They ensure that the department creates high-quality content that increases the organization’s market share, grows customer lists, generates quality leads, and extends their brand’s influence.
It’s quite a weighty responsibility, and the lists of tasks are endless. Here are just some of the duties that an Editorial Manager has:
- Generating story ideas
- Overseeing spending
- Commissioning stories and accompanying art
- Planning and assigning content
- Editing (and sometimes writing) content
- Overseeing editorial calendars and production schedules
- Supervising the editorial staff and freelance writers
It’s practically too much work for one person to do in a day. And, as an organization grows and requires more content creation, they would need to hire a squadron of editorial managers to oversee everything. That’s certainly not an ideal solution, as an editorial manager’s average salary in the US is $81,000.
Costs aside, if you have a full team of editorial managers over one department, things can start to get messy. Mixed up schedules and calendars, missed deadlines, confusion over who supervises who, duplicate content, and so on.
An alternate solution is to use an editorial management tool; it doesn’t do the work of a manager, per se, but it automates some of their processes, making their hectic workload much more manageable. Furthermore, it enables better department- and organization-wide communication, cutting down on related publishing issues. One such tool is Desk-Net, one of the world’s strongest editorial management platforms. In this use case, we’ll look at how Intetics built this solution, as well as how it has transformed newsrooms and editorial departments worldwide.
Case Study: Desk-Net
Desk-Net was founded in 2011; its founder, Matthias Kretschmer, aimed to help companies of all sizes adjust to the ever-growing complexity of the publishing industry. Desk-Net is focused on the needs of complex content teams, including large-scale editorial departments and fast-paced newsrooms. It gives editorial departments the ability to manage stories, arrange appointments, coordinate staff, and complete other workflow management tasks.
The Objective
Intetics was tasked with developing a secure, browser-based web application that lets users plan daily work. Furthermore, Intetics needed to deliver continuous system enhancement, as well as production server support and maintenance.
The Client desired a Software-as-a-Service solution, but they only had expertise in the domain, not in development. Therefore, the Client turned to Intetics to create this complex software. As such, Intetics assembled an Offshore Dedicated Team® (ODT ®).
The Solution
Intetics’ ODT® was composed of 21 members, including a Project Manager, System Analyst, Team Leads, JavaScript Developer, Java Developers, and Designers. Technologies used included GWT, Spring, Java Enterprise Edition, Hibernate, XSLT, Xdoclet, MySQL, OracleXE, Amazon EC2, Tomcat 5, Amazon S3, Ant, CruiseControl, Checkstyle, AWS, Cobertura, JavaScript, Angular, PHP, and WordPress.
The team worked together to automate major processes like staff coordination, storyboard management, and appointment planning. Main functionalities included:
- Quick, easy entry of appointments
- Express and detailed entry options
- Importing appointments from internal or external databases
- Single entry of appointments into Desk-Net
- Availability of special templates
- Assignments of staff to appointments
- Story management features like series planning, personal story repository, idea-list, and story search
Furthermore, Intetics has cooperated with the Client for 10 years, providing continuous support for this powerful tool.
The Bottom Line
“Intetics provided a long-term team that is similar to having your own team –without the hassle of having to manage it.”
CEO and Founder
After the release of the system, it achieved 200+ clients with a monthly active userbase of 20k+. The solution’s initial launch gave the Client the opportunity to start and manage a SaaS business successfully. This propriety software was a launching point for the Client, allowing them to create a strong global foundation (starting in Germany and expanding outwards).
Now, the Client is world-renowned for their powerful editorial planning software, and users have access to task automation that takes a little bit of hecticness out of the newsroom.
