Swift Communications signed a
contract to roll out Digital Technology International’s Liquid Media Advertising
software at each of its daily, non-daily and other specialty publications
located throughout Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and California.
“When we began looking for a
classified sales system we were first focused on marketing and sales with
seamless integration throughout all aspects of our newspaper operations,” said
Robert Brown, chief operations officer at Swift. “Internet had to be at the
forefront and was the foundation of the design process.”
Swift’s search for a
classified system began three years ago, according to Arne Hoel, Swift president
and chief executive officer.
Swift’s app will consist
primarily of ClassSpeed for both liner and retail order entry; PlanSpeed for ad
planning and pagination; and AdSpeed (incorporating Adobe InDesign into a
multi-user environment) to produce and manage display ads and the associated
graphics in a content management database. This will replace the use of
QuarkXPress and of single-user Adobe InDesign, along with the manual processes
of managing graphics on file servers, DTI said.
“Right now the data we collect
exists in a number of different places,” said Bill Waters, controller/director
of operating finance for Swift. “We can be more intelligent about understanding
our customers when we can bring this together in one system.”
Waters said he also sees
opportunities for some revenue growth from the ability to effectively facilitate
cross-selling of ads between publications. In addition, Swift can improve
services to online advertisers through an automated self-service model using
ClassSpeed Web Order Entry.
Sales reps will use mAdPad,
DTI’s new, wireless retail order entry app and retail customers will also
benefit from more online self-service using AdProof.
This project will be
implemented with the classified/accounting database hosted centrally on servers
in Reno, Nev., and with regional servers deployed to handle the production
functions at each of Swift’s regional production centers.
