The new ad delivery workflow has set new standards at VRM. “Whereas before, a lot of processes were manual, automated processes are now on the increase,” says Andreas Bräuer, production coordinator at the Rhein Main Publishing Group and project manager handling the installation of ppi Media’s new modules. AdMan, ppi’s ad production system, has been enhanced to accomodate the new workflow. AdMan monitors different data input channels, in particular e-mail boxes, round the clock. Incoming e-mails are processed automatically. AdMan assigns data such as the sender, subject, text and attachments either directly to an ad order, or creates a delivery job which the editor can easily assign to the respective ad order by drag & drop. It’s even easier with the web portal. In WebLink CI, customers can upload full and partial assignments for their booked ads. When AdMan has checked the files, WebLink CI displays the actual values for the job in the portal together with the preview for the production file, so that the customer can view the status of his jobs.

Process optimization with jobreport and PDF assembly
Apart from the ad workflow, the overall newspaper production workflow is also to be improved. The Rhein Main Publishing Group has commissioned ppi Media to install jobreport, its reporting and analysis system. When production has been completed, this system collects the operative data from the publishing modules PlanPag (production planning), AdPag (classified pagination), ProPag (page assembly) and printnet OM (output management) for long-term storage in a database. Queries for collecting long, medium or short-term production data as well as data on the utilization of the systems can be performed in a standard or customized process. Automatically generated reports can, for example, be visualized as diagrams or tables in SAP BusinessObjects. An order has also been placed for an end-to-end PDF workflow. Assembly is based on an XML description file and the corresponding input files in EPS or PDF format. Any combination of EPS and PDF elements on a page can be assembled to a PDF printing form.