As a provider of standard software solutions, Viamedici counts on continuous release management. Together with its customers, Viamedici’s software development team organizes between six and eight workshops every year. In close collaboration with the users, the system is fine-tuned for the next upgrade, taking account of user-friendliness, range of functionalities and technology. The latest 3.5 release therefore provides EPIM features which have been further developed for practical applications. In close dialogue with our customers, we have improved and technically updated the new functions according to their needs. The latest WEB 2.0 technologies have been integrated into the system in order to improve usability. For example, users can drag’n’drop files onto the web interface, which helps facilitate data collection and maintenance. Frequently used routine functions have also been restructured for more efficient and faster processes. Moreover, the comprehensive online help has been supplemented with new flash tutorials which give detailed step-by-step instructions on how to solve typical issues within the system as quickly as possible.

Of course, users can now also benefit from an even wider range of functionalities. Customer workshops have shown that many industries develop and use complex formulae to provide employees and end customers with important information. For most product information systems, collecting the formulae is often times not an easy task since the data cannot be directly administered using the GUI. It has to be created separately and then stored in a graphic file format. However, the formula editor of the new EPIM 3.5 release enables quick and easy collection of even very complex formulae in the system. The formulae are stored using mathematical XML. Viamedici EPIM automatically generates the presentations, graphic formats and resolutions required for print and online publications.

Another highlight is the deep level of integration into standard translation memory systems (TMS) which is particularly suited to the needs of international companies. In addition to the existing interfaces to Star, Dejavue or Trados, the connection to the system partner's Across system has been considerably improved. The integration is based on web services and allows Across TMS-based translation processes to be directly and consistently managed and monitored with Viamedici’s EPIM system. Working with EPIM therefore becomes even more user-friendly and ensures both controlled and consistent processes. The improved access to Across also helps the entire organization to substantially reduce costs and time involved in translations and translation management processes. From the technical point of view, exciting new features are the API web service and the wider set of specific web services. They allow EPIM to be easily integrated into external systems and so-called service oriented architectures (SOA). Additionally, the system architecture has been optimized in order to improve load balancing performance during peak processing times. Complex processes, which normally use a lot of computer resources, will now be allocated to other computers with free processing capacities. This means that idle time has become a thing of the past, even if extremely large volumes of data have to be processed. Thanks to load balancing, the EPIM performance has been substantially improved. This is particularly true for cross-media publishing, a sector which handles huge amounts of data, such as for data export to online marketplaces, catalogue productions or PDF on demand as well as numerous conversions into image or graphic files.

About Viamedici:
With numerous international locations and a multitude of renowned and enthusiastic customers, Viamedici is the leading software company for product information management (PIM) and cross media publishing (CMP) solutions. The focus lies on Viamedici’s EPIM product suite (Enterprise Product Information Management) which allows product information to be centrally collected and administered, and to be published in diverse target media, such as catalogues, brochures, user manuals, content management systems and online shops.