Project Briefs

• Customer Objective: The Los Angeles Times wished to develop a service oriented architecture which would enable its advertisement booking and production systems to communicate with each other via XML messages which are based on the industry-standard AdsML Framework. They asked RivCom to ensure that the LA Times developers made best use of AdsML and did so in as efficient a manner as possible.
• RivCom Services Provided: RivCom provided targeted consulting services, including: developing "mappings" between internal information models and the AdsML messages; assisting in the selection and codification of the controlled vocabularies used in those messages; developing a reference schema to validate the messages; and facilitating orientation sessions for both managers and technical personnel.
• Result: LA Times successfully employed and continues to make use of AdsML in its architecture.

• Customer Objective: The AdsML consortium of news and media publishers wants to increase profitability through the creation of a suite of XML-based standards to support all processes in the development and publication of advertising materials.
• RivCom Services Provided: RivCom was commissioned by Associated Newspapers and the AdsML Consortium to provide a Project Office to coordinate all aspects of the consortium's activities, and since 2003 has chaired the Technical Working Group responsible for developing the standards.
• Result: In this ongoing project, the initial suite of standards and best practices has been
  published. While work continues on the next set of standards, RivCom is providing
  implementation support to organisations that wish to be early adopters of AdsML.
  

• Customer Objective: This global consortium of major news agencies, newspaper publishers, news distributors and vendors wanted to enable process improvement through the development of an XML-based standard to represent and manage news throughout its lifecycle, including production, interchange, and consumer use.
• RivCom Services Provided: RivCom was commissioned to act as editor of the standard and coordinated the technical work that led to the release of NewsML in 2000. Since early 2005 we have provided consultancy support to the development of the IPTC News Architecture, a comprehensive development framework which underpins all of the IPTCs standards development efforts, including NewsML 2.
• Result: The NewsML standard was successfully released on time and budget,
  and is now being adopted world-wide by Reuters and most key organisations
  in the sector.

• Customer Objective: Maintain competitive advantage and reach new markets by utilising new internet technologies to enhance the development and dissemination of information products.
• RivCom Services Provided: Working closely with the internal development team, RivCom analysed processes involved in developing information products across the business and developed an improved systems architecture.
• Result: RivCom's process analysis and high-level systems architecture served as the basis
  for the subsequent development plan, which included new IT systems to support the
  development and dissemination of information products.

• Customer Objective: Standardise global business processes to realise greater efficiency and
  simplicity, enhance the employee working and customer buying experiences, and gain potential savings of $500 million.
• RivCom Services Provided: RivCom developed:
  • the strategic process model, data model and framework that integrates all process
    improvement projects
  • the infrastructure that supports the capture, definition and publication of business
    processes.
  In addition, RivCom ensured the quality and consistency of terminology within and between
  projects, and published the work associated with all projects in a single, integrated and interactive
  intranet environment.
• Result: The infrastructure and models developed by RivCom are in place and Shell has made a
  strategic decision to use them as the foundation of a global streamlining initiative which is now
  underway.

• Customer Objective: Develop a workflow solution that increases
  efficiency, quality and controlin the processes relating to the development
  of brands for new products.
• RivCom Services Provided: RivCom:
  • defined the "as is" and "to be" processes involved in developing brands
  • developed the technical specification for a workflow management solution to support the "to be" processes
  • selected and managed the vendor who built the solution
  • provided training to enable a successful implementation.
• Result: A new workflow solution was implemented and successfully launched on time and
  budget.

• Customer Objective: Increase service customisation and customer value by
  leveraging new technologies and harmonising processes across four dispersed departments.
• RivCom Services Provided: Working closely with the staff charged with
  developing a unified technical solution, RivCom analysed existing processes
  and developed requirements, system specifications and business case reports
  enabling the department to determine strategic direction.
• Result: A strategic direction for harmonising processes via the introduction of XML-based solutions
  for content development and delivery was agreed upon.

• Customer Objective: Streamline operations and provide consistent
  guidance to all staff levels through the development of a comprehensive
  set of processes and procedures covering all aspects of the business.
• RivCom Services Provided: RivCom developed an XML application
  to enable simultaneous production of printed and interactive electronic
  versions of business activity models and procedure guides.
• Result: Logica is using this application to publish and update materials, thereby providing easy access and control of process documentation to world-wide staff via the company
  intranet.