Success Story - Mitsumura

Challenges

The legacy workflow posed numerous challenges – the editors were overburdened with administrative and logistic tasks. Collaboration with external users in the workflow was difficult. In general, the editorial and publishing processes were complicated and error-prone. As a result, efficiency was low and the high-quality standards at risk.

Evaluation

The publisher decided to search for a powerful workflow system to significantly increase process efficiency. The system should allow to discharge the editors of administrative and logistic tasks so they can refocus on creating the educational content again. It should also enable easy collaboration internally as well with various external partners. Tomoko Nishimura, Vice Editor-in-Chief of the production department at Mitsumura, saw WoodWing Studio (previously known as WoodWing Enterprise) at a trade show and quickly became confident that the system was the best solution for the company.

Implementation / Integration

The implementation was executed by Visual Processing Japan, WoodWing's Authorized Solution partner in the country. The designers are using InDesign to create the layouts on the server. Then the editors leverage InCopy to insert the text. This way, all parties can work simultaneously on the master file, further reducing workflow complexity. 

Results & benefits

• Enterprise is the main workflow system for editing and producing all textbooks and supplementary reading materials. 
• This system is used by more than one hundred users – not just from Mitsumura's own editorial department, but also from their subcontracting partners. 
• Soon after the full-scale implementation of WoodWing Studio, Mitsumura achieved positive workflow effects.
• The new production environment enabled the publisher to tap significant time savings, the workflow has become flexible and efficient.
• Progress management has improved dramatically too – the editors can now check the latest progress status on the server via their web browser.