Integrated Production Suite (IPS) creates a collaborative work environment for ad planning and display and classified ad control, while incorporating editorial pages, for the entire publishing enterprise. Using a SQL database, IPS manages and tracks all aspects of multi-user ad and page production, enabling status-driven automation, gathering of detailed business intelligence, and distributed issue production — across departments or across the country.
High-performance package
IPS includes new versions of MEI's Ad Layout System (ALS), Classified Layout System (CLS), IPS AdTrac, QuickLink and Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress for editorial and ad-building. The high-performance IPS Engine blends standards-based technology with innovative design to create an architecture that can scale from one paper at a single site to more than 100 publications at multiple sites. Its reliability and scalability have been battle-tested at demanding international publishers, where IPS produces thousands of pages every week for dozens of papers in multiple languages.
Grow with IPS
Best of all, because it's a modular suite of best-of-breed components, you can select the end-user tools that best serve your needs today, while establishing a framework that provides growth and migration paths for the future.
All-star products, positive results
MEI's sophisticated Integrated Production Suite was designed to inform high-level business decisions that bring positive results — improved efficiency, unparalleled security and control, cost savings and increased revenue — all from one all-star suite of products.
IPS Engine. At the heart of the Integrated Production Suite is the high-powered database hub through which MEI and other third-party tools connect and share data. Order entry systems feed ad and job data into the database, where they are aggregated and distributed to the other MEI tools. When connected to the IPS Engine, the other planning, makeup and pagination products change from standalone tools to collaborative workhorses. Real-time communication and updating between components of IPS provide parallel workflows and interaction for today's production groups.
As the hub, IPS Engine manages the exchange of information among these tools. Security in the form of user authentication, document control, and centralized or distributed file storage is managed within IPS. Additionally, all of the tracked information is available to MEI's Report Generator, which provides business intelligence on the production process.
Automation Services. Running in unison with the IPS Engine is a toolbox full of automation services. For example, if production is distributed among multiple sites, the automation services dynamically gather the ads on demand from multiple locations and deliver them to the tools that need them.
Ad Layout System (ALS). MEI's flagship product takes on a new dimension of issue- and ad-planning when connected to the IPS Engine. An intuitive interface allows the ALS user to bring an issue and all of its elements to the ALS workspace instantly. And if two ALS users would like to work on the same issue simultaneously, IPS supports page-level checkout of issues with access to the same runsheet of ads. Collaboration on deadline has never been smoother. When used in conjunction with QuickLink, ALS users can see previews of editorial pages to check for visual conflicts. Read more...
Classified Layout System (CLS). When linked to the IPS Engine, CLS becomes a fully integrated classified-planning system. Using the same intuitive issue-access interface shared throughout the IPS system, CLS users can select just those pages that are needed for classified, while other users continue to plan their pages. Additionally, CLS can pull as-needed items like multi-column headers and fillers right from the database. When managing PDF-based content, CLS can accelerate final pagination by exporting entire sections of a page as a single PDF. Read more...
IPS AdTrac. When used within IPS, AdTrac becomes the clearinghouse for all ad-level information. All of the other systems rely on the powerful workflow, status and materials tracking for which AdTrac is well-known. Additionally, IPS AdTrac serves ad previews to the other tools and makes sure that the final ad materials arrive in their proper location when it's time for pagination. Read more...
QuickLink. This innovative IPS-enabled tool for editors and paginators associates editorial pages with issues and ads from the database. QuickLink dynamically updates page content to reflect ad changes in the database so your editorial pages always have the right ads in the right place.
AdView/PageView. AdView gives your advertisers personalized attention through soft-proofing. Advertisers log in over the Web and see digital previews of their ads. With PageView, MEI's status-review tool, managers, editors and other authorized staff can check the status of pages in real time.
MEI's new Integrated Production Suite was designed to meet the demanding needs of Belgium's Passe-Partout, a sophisticated, fast-paced, multi-site, multi-language publisher.
Passe-Partout has five production sites — Ronse, Renaix, Leuven, Marche, and Turnhout — and publishes in four languages: Dutch, French, German, and English. Plus, Pas-uit, Info, az, and Passe-Partout are just some of the many shopper and newspaper titles they publish.
Click here to see an in-depth diagram of Passe-Partout's IPS workflow.
For more information about IPS and to arrange to see a demonstration, fill out the form below.
