www.macmillaneducation.com

The Macmillan Education Group is one of the world’s leading publishers of English-language teaching and school curriculum materials, with over 150 years of publishing experience. Working with teachers, students, institutions, educational authorities and Ministries of Education, they develop high quality course books and supplementary materials to suit the needs of teachers and students of all levels.

The Semantico Access Management System (SAMS) handles access and subscriptions for some of the world’s busiest and most successful publishing sites and dawsonera has become the first to upgrade to SAMS v3.9 which fully supports Shibboleth 2.

Working with the world’s leading academic publishers, Dawson has ensured that over 120,000 ebooks are available for purchase from the dawsonera platform. The early release of Shibboleth 2 (SAML 2) guarantees the dawsonera platform is fully interoperable ahead of the June deadline, the end-of-life date for Shibboleth v1.3. Customers of Dawson currently using Shibboleth v1.3 may continue to use the service without interruption.

SAMS provides a flexible and sophisticated approach that can integrate simply with third-party systems to control access, subscriptions, reporting and contact information across multiple product sites and covers access models for journals, e-books, reference works, directories and scholarly publishing.

Shibboleth 2 allows sites to operate across a much larger number of federations. With some national federations insisting on Shibboleth 2 compliance this upgrade is essential for all sites with an international audience.

Jude Norris, eBook Sales & Marketing Manager comments “Extending our reach with federations worldwide provides simple and secure access for library users, taking full advantage of single-sign-on technology.”

Richard Padley, Managing Director, Semantico said: “Shibboleth is becoming an increasingly essential market requirement as a way of managing the complex issues that surround online identities. This upgrade will further strengthen support for dawsonera’s international audience.”

An improvement of 35% in turnaround from the time a publisher identifies a need to beginning work on a project has helped Semantico’s clients continue to bring successful online publishing projects to completion with 48% growth in the number of projects awarded to Semantico in 2009. As well as substantial development work for some of the world’s leading publishers, including Oxford University Press and Wiley-Blackwell, Semantico is completing projects for major new clients including Macmillan Education.

2009 saw the growth of Semantico’s collection of online publishing products including the launch of SIPP Rapid, an important new publishing platform that brings Semantico’s expertise to smaller publishers who need a fast and flexible online publishing platform in order to put their books online and become a part of the growing e-books market.

SAMS, the industry leading access management system which manages the access control of some of the world’s most successful and busiest product sites has received major new enhancements including Shibboleth 2 compliance.

Richard Padley, Managing Director, Semantico said, ‘Of course we’re delighted that Semantico has had the opportunity to be involved in producing innovative online publishing projects that provide revenue for our clients in this uncertain economic climate. In the coming months we’ll be pushing ahead with the development of smart phone applications and focusing on the opportunities that both the iPad and the iPhone offer to publishers and anticipate that 2010 will be another great year.’

Richard’s talk, eBook Readers and the impact of new technologies, will cover how ebook readers and mobile devices are changing the publishing landscape, affecting supply chains and enabling disruption and disintermediation.

Along the way he will also examine mobile devices, ebook readers and the software landscape including ebook platforms and App Stores. The role of digital rights management and its relationship to data formats currently in use will also be addressed.

We invite you to register for The Future of Academic Book Publishing on Thursday 18th March, held at the British Institute of Radiology in London.

The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest Online is a comprehensive resource covering the history of protest and revolution over the past 500 years – throughout the modern era of mass movements.

The site is powered by the Semantico Information Publishing Platform (SIPP). It integrates with Wiley-Blackwell’s larger online offering and can communicate seamlessly with existing processes, including statistics reporting and access management.

The flexibility of SIPP allowed Wiley-Blackwell to create a micro-site for the Encyclopedia so that users see a stand-alone site, providing clarity for the readership of this extensive and complex set of volumes.

‘We are pleased to partner with Semantico to bring Wiley-Blackwell’s reference content to our customers in a user-friendly format. The Semantico platform allows our customers to find the material that they need and allows us to easily provide updates that take advantage of the latest research.’
Katherine Ward, Associate Product Manager, Wiley Blackwell

For a limited period, Semantico is offering a free consultancy day to help publishers upgrade to Shibboleth 2 or implement Shibboleth authentication for the first time. Shibboleth is an essential component of most major online publishing sites and the June 30th end-of-life date for version 1.3 is a deadline publishers cannot afford to ignore.

Publishers who take advantage of the offer will be able to have their questions answered about what the end of Shibboleth 1.3 means for their business, and will learn the practical steps they  need to take to implement Shibboleth 2. The offer runs until the end of March 2010.

Richard Padley, Managing Director, Semantico, said: ‘We are aware that many publishers and information providers have pain points around the June deadline for Shibboleth 2, and have brought in this offer to give a bit of timely help. Consultancy offers such as this one are a valuable way for us to discuss specific issues with publishers and share our expertise in this area.’

Publishers who wish to take advantage of the offer can book their free consultancy day by calling + 44 1273 722 222 or emailing info@semantico.com.

NB: Offer closes 31st March 2010

Semantico is pleased to announce the release of the Semantico Access Management System (SAMS) version 3.9. The new version is compatible with Shibboleth 2.

The release of this latest version of SAMS will enable publishers to upgrade to Shibboleth 2 well in advance of the June 30th deadline recently announced by the Internet2 Shibboleth team as the end-of-life date for Shibboleth 1.3. Implementing SAMS 3.9 before June will help publishers to avoid disruptive unplanned upgrades after this date.

SAMS handles access and subscriptions for some of the world’s busiest and most successful publishing sites including OUP, CUP and Wiley-Blackwell. Semantico is already in the process of upgrading this essential access management software for several of its clients. The dawsonera book platform has already been upgraded thus allowing dawsonera users who access the site using Shibboleth to continue to use the service without interruption.

Shibboleth allows users to identify which institution they would like to use to authenticate their access to online resources. Users gain access through a Where Are You From (WAYF) log-in screen that asks them to choose which institution they belong to. SAMS 3.9 can feature an enhanced WAYF screen that uses geolocation to locate the user and suggest the nearest institutions. This simplification of the log-in process improves user experience.

Richard Padley, Managing Director, Semantico said: ‘SAMS 3.9 integrates Shibboleth 2 in a stable and controlled way but also to uses the upgrade as an opportunity to enhance the user experience of publisher sites. Early planning for upgrades such as this one can enable publishers to provide a dependable environment for their users and their business.  Any publisher who is not sure what Shibboleth 2 means for them should get in touch with Semantico straight away. Early planning for upgrades such as this one can enable publishers to provide a dependable environment for their users and their business.’

Sites need to be Shibboleth 2 compliant in order to to join the latest federations such as FEIDE in Norway. With more and more federations beginning to insist on Shibboleth 2 compliance the upgrade is essential for publishers with an international audience.

SAMS provides a flexible and sophisticated approach that can integrate simply with third-party systems to control access, subscriptions, reporting and contact information across multiple product sites and covers access models for journals, e-books, reference works, directories and scholarly publishing.

SAMS will enable Macmillan Education Group to manage users and subscriptions from a single place through a self-service web interface. This provides a more consistent access authentication model to end users across all online product lines covered by Macmillan Education Group, including Macmillan English Campus. It will also enable the business to handle hundreds of thousands of customer logins and transactions each year with plenty of room for further growth when required.

SAMS offers Macmillan Education Group a scalable, enterprise access management system with a proven track record of managing subscriptions for  leading academic and educational publishers. It is an essential component of a flexible system enabling publishers to meet existing and emerging customer requirements for online publications. The broad range of access and business model support enables publishers to maximise the value of their online content.

SAMS provides a flexible and sophisticated approach that can integrate simply with third-party systems to control access, subscriptions, reporting and contact information across multiple product sites. It supports up-to-date, and industry-standard, authentication mechanisms and reporting features such as support for Shibboleth 2.0 and COUNTER-compliant statistics respectively.

Richard Nathan, Managing Director, ELT Digital and Services, said: ‘As Macmillan Education’s digital businesses and activities including our high profile English Language Teaching (ELT) products Macmillan English Campus, Macmillan Practice Online, Macmillan Test Maker and Onestopenglish are growing rapidly we have decided to implement a new scalable flexible access management system. This will allow us to continue to innovate and design new services and products to meet our customers’ evolving and changing needs. We are delighted to be partnering with Semantico and working with their development team to build the strategic core technologies that will ensure we become even more responsive and customer-focused.’

Richard Padley, Managing Director, Semantico, said: ‘As publishers’ internet offerings grow and become more complex it’s essential to manage subscriptions effectively. This exciting new project will allow Macmillan English to become not only more efficient in the way they handle the user’s information but also more agile in their responsiveness to changing market requirements.’

The UCL Hospitals Injectable Medicines Administration Guide Online is an essential resource for nurses and healthcare professionals which provides online access to the key information and advice needed for the safe and effective administration of many injectable medicines.

The site is part of Blackwell Reference Online which is powered by the Semantico Information Publishing Platform (SIPP). Using SIPP, publishers can create their own microsites which appear very different at the user interface. The guide has all the functionality of a much larger online offering but is a stand alone site that can address users in a direct way.
“Delivery of up-to-date information for the safe administration of injectable medicines is essential in the modern healthcare setting. The UCLH guide is designed to display complex information in a clear and concise manner. The easy-to-navigate format means healthcare professionals can quickly access the information they need at the point-of-care, facilitating professional decision making and promoting patient safety. Wiley-Blackwell is delighted to be supporting this project.”

Dr Jon Walmsley, Managing Director (Professional), Wiley-Blackwell

Read an article about the UCLH guide in Information World Review.

The site is powered by the Semantico Information Publishing Platform (SIPP). Using SIPP, publishers can create their own micro-sites which will appear different at the user interface while retaining all the functionality of a much larger site.

The flexibility of SIPP allowed Wiley-Blackwell to create a micro-site for the Encyclopedia so that users see a stand-alone site, providing clarity for the readership of this extensive and complex set of volumes.

The micro-site approach means that the site integrates with Wiley-Blackwell’s larger online offering and can communicate seamlessly with existing processes, including statistics reporting and access management.

Richard Padley, Managing Director, Semantico said: ‘This approach to online publishing provides the flexibility for publishers to treat collections as really important individual pieces, while providing them with simplicity and stability for their business processes. We’re delighted that SIPP has allowed Wiley-Blackwell to put The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest Online quickly and easily.’

Katherine Ward, Associate Product Manager, Wiley Blackwell, said ‘We are pleased to partner with Semantico to bring Wiley-Blackwell’s reference content to our customers in a user-friendly format. The Semantico platform allows our customers to find the material that they need and allows us to easily provide updates that take advantage of the latest research.’