Semantico’s new rapid offering helps publishers beat the crunch

Semantico Limited, a leading provider of services and technology for online publishing, is pleased to announce a reshaping of its service offering around the introduction of ‘rapid’ versions of its online publishing platform, SIPP (Semantico Information Publishing Platform) and its identity and access mangement system SAMS (Semantico Access Management System). The new rapid offering will enable dramatically shortened implementation times and lower cost without sacrifice of quality. The move has been undertaken in order better to meet the needs of publishers struggling to fund the development of their online offerings in the current financial climate. The company is also introducing a number of ‘crunch-buster’ service additions alongside its core offering.

Semantico continues the focus on quality and service which has built the company an enviable reputation as a developer of high-end custom digital publishing solutions but now offers, in addition, lower entry points for its richly-featured publishing solutions, and faster time-to-market.

The basis of the rapid offering is a streamlined, ‘Pareto principle’ implementation which provides the vast majority of the functionality publishers look for in an online publishing platform and a clear upgrade path. SIPP is now offered in three flavours:

• SIPP Rapid
• SIPP Rapid+
• SIPP Classic

All three flavours come bundled with the corresponding version of SAMS (SAMS Rapid, SAMS Rapid+ or SAMS Classic), providing a powerful and fully integrated access management solution. Each flavour offers an upgrade path allowing additional functionality and enhancements to be added at a later date. SAMS is also offered in all three flavours as a stand-alone solution, which can be easily integrated with an existing publishing platform using SAMS Gatekeeper.

Alongside these additions to its core offering, Semantico has also
developed a range of other ‘crunchbusters’:

• Book Widget taster (offered in association with Random House): publishers can trial a range of titles for a six-month period without making a major commitment to an entire library or imprint
• Z39 50/SRU compliance: increases the discoverability of titles by compliance with these existing cataloguing standards
• User-experience review: a 2-day consultancy package offering that helps publishers get more sales effectiveness out of an existing site

Richard Padley, Managing Director of Semantico, said: ‘Responding promptly and appropriately to the needs of customers is something we pay more than lip-service to at Semantico. What information businesses need above all to survive in the current climate, faced with the twin forces of recession and the shift to digital, is greater business agility. We’re giving them that. Publishers are telling us that now is the time to invest in online publishing, so that they are correctly positioned for the upturn: this new service offering allows them to do that within the short-term constraints they face of limited budgets and a more conservative decision-making environment in the C-suite.’