Prepress
Thomas Cook optimises catalogue production with QuarkXPress Server and cmi24
Monday 19. July 2010 - New dynamic publishing solution based on QuarkXPress Server reduces external agency services significantly
Today Quark Inc. announced that Thomas Cook AG will be relying on cmi24, a dynamic publishing solution based on QuarkXPress Server, for its catalogue production. Due to workflow automation introduced in 2009, Thomas Cook has been able to organise its catalogue production activities more efficiently and cost-effectively, achieving a significant reduction in external agency services.
Thomas Cook AG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thomas Cook Group plc. In Germany, the company is the second-largest provider of tourism services and products. In order to publish holiday catalogues for tour operator brands such as Neckermann Reisen and Thomas Cook Reisen, as well as group travel flyers and folders, through a variety of output channels and in a manner that is appealing both on a visual and content level, Thomas Cook required a solution which not only allowed for automated and standardised work processes, but also offered excellent creative options. Following a comprehensive competitive analysis, the company decided for cmi24 from eggheads CMS GmbH – a dynamic publishing solution which relies on QuarkXPress Server as the core publishing technology.
Powered by QuarkXPress Server, cmi24 supports the entire publishing process from importing and managing multimedia data to design, revision, and output. Images, text, and product information are maintained and updated in a central database and can be combined into high-quality and print-ready layouts for a number of different catalogues and brochures in just a few steps. In addition to its XML interfaces for a variety of systems (such as ERP and materials-handling systems), cmi24 also offers the complete individual layout and design functionality offered by QuarkXPress in combination with the server-based performance and automation opportunities of QuarkXPress Server.
In-house designers at Thomas Cook design templates for catalogue pages or routes using cmi24’s template editor. The templates contain specific design rules and define the creative scope for the design of catalogues and brochures. The template-based design process guarantees a uniform brand presence at all times without compromising creativity.
Page planners now define the catalogue structure by moving templates to specific pages using drag-and-drop. Thanks to the automated processes offered by cmi24 and QuarkXPress Server, Thomas Cook has been able to combine the subsequent visual briefing and layout process into one work step. As soon as decisions are made regarding the visual representation of individual products in the catalogue, the QuarkXPress pages are automatically populated with data, text, and images from the product database. The result: production-ready QuarkXPress pages that include all of the images to be used. Using the Web-to-print functionality, users can directly modify content or check layout pages in and out of the system. A more manual PDF workflow for revising pages is also supported. This means that last-minute changes are no longer a time-consuming activity. To improve process speeds, rendering takes place only after a product manager approves a page or section.
“With the performance offered by QuarkXPress Server, we continue to create excitement among our clients,” says Wolfgang Wichert, CEO of eggheads GmbH. “Users can display a print proof preview or different alternatives of a page design right away. In this way, decisions on design details can be made and implemented very quickly.”
Investing in the cmi24 dynamic publishing system has paid off for Thomas Cook. Since the new software has been in use, internal staff are now able to independently carry out activities which were previously performed by external reprographic agencies with significant time and cost savings. Thanks to the central CMS/PIM component of the cmi24 system, content is automatically available to all other publications, so that duplication of work steps for maintaining and updating information becomes a thing of the past. Kai Remy, who is responsible for production processes and Crossmedia-DB at Thomas Cook, says: “By using cmi24, our product managers are now in a position to quickly and effectively edit the catalogue pages for which they are responsible on their own, and they can check the layout in proof quality at any time with one mouse click. This saves time, money and nerves.”
“There are only a few of these complex but refined and easy-to-operate solutions such as cmi24 on today’s market,” says Matthias Gilke, Marketing Manager Quark Central Europe. “This dynamic publishing solution can be used in many ways, as it allows for industry and project-based adjustments. Using an XML interface, it can also quickly be connected to third-party systems. In this way, eggheads and Quark jointly provide our clients with the creative options of QuarkXPress in combination with highly automated publishing processes and XML’s future-oriented flexibility.”