News Release
Sep 4, 2009 12:00 am

HACHETTE FILIPACCHI MEDIA U.S. SELECTS BLANCHARD SYSTEMS

TO IMPLEMENT A SENDMYAD ADVERTISING PORTAL SUPPORTED BY A DALIM TWIST PRODUCTION AUTOMATION WORKFLOW.

NEW ORLEANS, LA – September 3, 2009

Major publisher Hachette Filipacci Media US (HFM U.S.) has successfully implemented the SendMyAd ad portal supported by a DALiM TWiST workflow engine, all integrated by Blanchard Systems, to support major publications such as Car and Driver, Road & Track, ELLE, and Woman's Day.

HFM U.S. decided to bring advertising management in-house to streamline its ad management process. "Sometimes the ramifications of adopting new technology are not investigated adequately. There can always be shortcomings if you do not do ample research. Blanchard took the time to help us understand, in depth, the features of their SendMyAd and the DALiM TWiST system, while giving us a sense of their future direction," remarks Michael Esposito, VP of Operations. HFM U.S. went live on March 1, and rolled out the system to its advertising community on April 1.

"The Blanchard team exceeded our expectations. They were extremely well prepared and professional. They simplified the complexity of the system, and the project remained on schedule and within budget throughout the integration process," adds Esposito.

The system allows HFM U.S. to quickly accept ads digitally over the Internet from its advertisers. SendMyAd normalizes files so they are delivered to HFM U.S., within the required specifications. Thus, HFM U.S. avoids receiving out of spec ads that require additional labor to fix them. The DALiM TWiST production automation system was installed as the workflow engine supporting SendMyAd. Once ad materials are received, the files are handled in an automated way to put the ads into production. Partial page ads are placed within an editorial page and converted to PDF X1/a files for final production. Meanwhile, customers appreciate knowing the ads they submit through SendMyAd will meet HFM U.S.'s specs before final delivery.

With SendMyAd, production efficiency has increased by 30%, helping the team manage productivity better. The operations team can use dashboard features to determine ad page volume monthly by title, or, if necessary, daily. Attaining a live view of volume levels helps HFM U.S. maximize resources by enabling a strategically sourced work environment. "We are prepared to handle our labor-intensive work cost-effectively during periods of both peaks and valleys. SendMyAd helps us efficiently project peak volume periods so we can allocate resources accordingly. Our goal is to plan in advance to have resources available to work on files that best fit our capabilities. The end result is a quicker production turnaround at lower cost levels," remarks Esposito.

"We think the system is scalable and may eventually be used as an ad portal for handling classified ads and cross platform for digital ads for our websites. When used correctly, SendMyAd and DALiM TWiST are great tools to help streamline operations and increase productivity," concludes Esposito.

The SendMyAd service is available immediately. Publishers interested in SendMyAd can visit www.sendmyad.com, email contact@sendmyad.com, or call 504-274-4080.

About SendMyAd, LLC. SendMyAd, LLC, wholly owned business unit of Blanchard Systems, provides a subscription service, available as the first end-to-end solution for publishers, letting them create a web-based environment where advertisers and agencies can collaborate online to automate the workflow of receiving, approving and delivering ad materials. The easy to use system provides five major, functional services: Ad Preflight, where uploaded ads are preflighted to the publicationís specifications; Softproofing, where advertisers can preview, annotate and manage print-ready ads; Trimming of ads over the Web, an interactive tool allowing an advertiser to change the trim size of an ad to fit a publicationís specification size; Insertion Orders, creating AdsML-compliant job tickets, allowing one to tracking an ads from the moment it enters the SendMyAd workflow until it is printed; and Digital Receipt, attaching all the insertion order information as a multi-page PDF file. A preview showing the positioning of the ad verifies how the ad will print on the magazine page. The SendMyAd system is supported by a major co-location web backbone. To preserve data, the system is fully redundant, with offsite storage.

About Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. (HFM U.S.) (www.hfmus.com)


Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. (HFM U.S.) serves consumers' passions and lifestyles through trusted, expert content that entertains and inspires on all media platforms. Illustrated with extraordinary images, these engaging editorial environments combine with highly-targeted demographics and scale to create rich opportunities for our advertisers. Our prestigious brands fall into five sectors: Fashion & Beauty (ELLE, ELLEgirl); The Luxury Design Group (ELLE DECOR, Metropolitan Home and PointClickHome); Women & Wellness (Woman's Day, Woman's Day Special Interest Publications); Automotive (Jumpstart Automotive Group, which includes Car and Driver and Road & Track) and Motorcycling (Cycle World). HFM U.S. is part of Lagardere's (www.lagardere.com) media division Lagardere Active, a producer of special-interest content in more than 40 countries.

About Blanchard Systems, Inc.  (www.blanchardsystems.com)

Blanchard Systems is a computer systems integration company providing the best digital prepress solutions in the industry. As the North American distributor for and shareholder of Dalim Software, Blanchard specializes in automating workflow solutions that solve its customers' most pressing issues. Their systems include: workflow servers, SANs, RAID subsystems, backup subsystems, high-speed digital file delivery, real time soft-proofing, and asset management systems. Through Blanchard's exhaustive research the company developed Vortex, a system of integrated solutions combining best-of-breed hardware and software exclusively designed to meet the needs of the prepress, printing, and publishing industry. Every Vortex system is engineered to ensure a reliable and scalable solution that is infinitely flexible and fully adaptable to meet customers' future requirements.

For more information, visit Blanchard Systems at www.blanchardsystems.com.