1. Outsourcing Outside the Box:
Two Case Studies
SOCIETY FOR SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING
PRECONFERENCE
Patricia Shaffer
June 1, 2005
TWO OUTSOURCING STORIES TO TELL
Online hosting
§ From one simple platform to dual platforms
§ Different features and functionality for individual and
institutional subscribers
Composition
§ From full outsourcing (three different vendors) to hybrid
model (composition processing and quality control in
house, with bulk work outsourced)
What is INFORMS?
• Scientific society
• Formed by merger of two mature societies
in 1995
• 11,000 members
• 11 print and online journals, 1 open access
e-journal, small book program
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2. What drove INFORMS “outside the box”
strategy?
• Merger of two established publications programs with
different production strategies
• New publications department created at merger
needed a new production model
• Limited resources
• Entrepreneurial spirit
The first challenge: Getting the journals
online
• No infrastructure in house – had to outsource
• Financial constraints
• Math content – technology popular at the time (SGML)
costly and problematic for mathematics
What did INFORMS look for in a vendor?
• Competence (obvious, but always first requirement)
• Creativity (important for financial and technical reasons)
• Partnership
• Flexibility
• Trust
Solution: Vendor willing to provide a simple, cost -
effective, no-frills site, posting PDFs of issue content.
Journals went online in 1999.
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3. Revising the model:
Reference linking, usage statistics, security issues
(redundancy), and different strategies for individual and
institutional subscribers
Individual subscriptions
• Remained with first online host
• Current year plus “reading room” back to Volume 1 Issue 1
(low-tech archives)
• No reference linking
Revising the model (cont.)
Institutional subscriptions
• Moved to new host vendor just entering the
market
• More sophisticated “look and feel”
• COUNTER-compliant usage statistics
• Reference linking through CrossRef
• Current year plus four volumes back
• E-commerce option planned
Rationale for dual host strategy
• Individuals can browse through their own online archives, but
reference linking will drive them to their library’s subscription
for active research (and ensure usage of the library content)
’s
• The libraries’ requests for usage stats are met
• Redundancy is in place should one of the host sites fail
Cost: By 2004, hosting was becoming a commodity
business; dual hosting platforms and added functionality
were implemented at no increase in cost!
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4. Adjustments along the way and to come
• XML coding of metadata up front
• Telemarketing effort to facilitate libraries’ transition to new
platform
• TOC alerting service
• Archive product for institutions (2006)
• New features and new design for individual subscriber site
• New features for institutional site
• Brainstorming with vendor partners as technology evolves
• Regular reevaluation of strategy and marketplace to stay nimble
Composition outside the box: Background
Composition outsourced to three vendors
• Specialist in LaTeX composition processing
• Specialist in production for small societies
• Vendor with dependable history with INFORMS
Strategy worked fairly well but was not perfect
• Math issues with vendors not using LaTeX
• Inflexibility
• Three workflows difficult for production editors
2002 Crisis: One vendor in trouble
• Lost big customers and laid off two-thirds of staff
• Quality began to suffer
• Journals with heavy math content at risk
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5. Quandary: How to protect production
flow of journals and preserve quality
• Needed to transition to a stable composition
environment
• Wanted to continue composition in LaTeX
• Could INFORMS create a hybrid model where we did
the initial composition processing and quality control in
house, and outsourced the bulk work directly?
First steps
• Talks began with a LaTeX expert qualified to manage
composition process and with a typesetting contact in India
• We priced out the cost of doing the work using the hybrid model:
would hiring staff put the project into a higher price bracket?
• We requested a proposal from a commercial typesetter for
comparison – and for a back-up plan
• We decided the control provided by the hybrid model was the
best solution and worth some risk
• Cost was manageable
Off and running
Started in-house composition in September 2002
• Two staff members hired: publishing technologist and
assistant
• One-year trial basis
• Five journals
• Equipment needs relatively small: 2 PCs, scanner,
printer/copier, software
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6. Off and running (cont.)
In-house process
• Initial check of LaTeX manuscripts and art
• Convert Word files into LaTeX
• Correct problems, format, insert special macros
• Scan copyedited manuscripts and send files to India
• Proof work back from India
• Send electronic proof package to authors
• Process first-time pages and revises
• Send completed files to printer and upload to online hosts
How has it worked?
• Very well – trial quickly became permanent
• Within six months, composition of all journals moved to this sys tem,
way ahead of schedule
• Quality of art and mathematics improved dramatically
• Excellent quality output from vendor in India resulting from
personalized training in INFORMS style and direct communication
• Costs decreased significantly – 25% or more for some journals
• Proximity of composition staff and production editors is beneficial to all
• Flexibility in setting (and changing) priorities increases efficiency
• Faster turnaround time
Added benefits
• Math expertise on staff
• Ability to redesign style of articles for online publication
• Ability to typeset other INFORMS products (e.g., case
studies, books, awards) for a more professional look
• Preferential treatment from Indian vendor
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7. Drawbacks
• Specialized staffing no longer vendor ’s problem but ours
• Publishing technologist in demand internally for other high
level projects
• Reached capacity: Now looking for second assistant for
day-to-day work
Conclusions from INFORMS stories
• Know your organization’s culture, strengths, and risk
tolerance and build on them
• It is possible to find qualified and flexible outsourcing
partners who will share your view and work with you
• Try something different if it makes sense for your
organization
• Have a back plan
-up
• Remember that the marketplace changes and no strategies
or relationships, good or bad, are forever
Thank you!
Patricia Shaffer
Director of Publications
patricia.shaffer@informs.org
www.informs.org
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