We had some fun in a recent meeting with the "top 10" reasons to attend our upcoming RSuite User Conference.  Curious?  Check it out below...

So while the video was lighthearted and homemade and all, the event will actually be fantastic!  We're excited about the content and we're excited about our attendee list so far.The full agenda will be revealed in the next week or so, but a few of the highlights include:

• Customer Panels
• Ask an Expert Sessions
• "Lightning Round" Demos of New Functionality
• XML Editing Tools Discussion
• Exploring Workflows in RSuite

Don't miss out!

2016 User Conference & Tech Day
September 21st & 22nd
The Hub CityView, Philadelphia

Just a quick post to invite all interested parties to the 8th annual RSuite User Conference and Tech Day.  Join the RSI team, our clients, industry experts, and others as we share the latest in publishing automation and shape the future of content and digital asset management.

WHEN:

• TECH DAY - Wednesday, September 21, 2016
• USER CONFERENCE - Thursday, September 22, 2016

WHERE:

• The Hub CityView, Philadelphia

AGENDA:

The full agenda for both days will be published soon, but some of the highlights include:

• Success stories told by our customers
• Showcases of new features and functionality
• Demonstrations related to key industry topics like
  • Authoring tools
  • Content lifecycle
  • Worklows
  • Search and discoverability

NOTE:  For those who have attended our annual event in previous years, please note that we are switching Tech Day to Day #1 (Wednesday), which will be followed by our Evening Reception and the RSuite User Conference on Day #2 (Thursday).  We hope to see you there!

We're having our bi-monthly RSuite Online User Group meeting on Tuesday, July 26. This meeting is for all key end users, IT developers, and executives who have implemented RSuite.

In this edition we'll be:

• Discussing our upcoming RSuite User Conference.
• Showing creative new functionality regarding XML Editing in RSuite
• Answering questions and chatting about pertinent topics in our regular "Users Helping Users" segment.

You can request a seat by visiting https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/8377680845092700674.

At SSP 2016, Table 7

Schedule a demo at SSP and discover how RSuite can help you publish 50% faster than today

• MS Word-based Authoring and Editing
• Easy-to-use XML Editorial Tools
• Semantic Enrichment
• Automated Output to ePub, PDF, and more
• Rules-based Packaging and Distribution

SEE YOUR CONTENT IN RSUITE
AT LONDON BOOK FAIR STAND 3B72

 Will you be at London Book Fair? See your content transform from Word document to EPUB right in front of you by following these steps:

1. Schedule a demo with your content here
2. Send us your Word document (book chapter, journal article, etc.)
3. See your Word document transform in RSuite at London Book Fair

RSuite was built specifically for publishers for their centralized publishing solution. It is optimized for the creation, management, reuse and delivery of multi-format, multi-channel content. RSuite utilizes an enterprise‐strength workflow engine and manages any and all forms of digital assets (MS Word, PDF, images, audio, video, etc.) and its associated metadata.

Not ready to send us your content? No problem. Schedule your RSuite demo at RSuite's Stand 3B72 now:

1. Schedule a 15 minute RSuite demo
2. Schedule a 15 minute discussion with one of our representatives

Audubon, Pa.— March 8, 2016 — On Tuesday, March 8th, at the Digital Book World Conference in the Hilton New York Midtown, Lisa Bos, CTO and Co-founder of RSI Content Solutions, will be speaking on a panel with four of her esteemed industry colleagues on the Production Automation: Strategies, Solutions, Successes. This session will be a lively discussion among panelists who develop, use, and in many cases depend on production automation to do their work.

“RSI has always been at the forefront of automated publishing,” stated Lisa Bos, Chief Technology Officer at RSI Content Solutions. “I’m very excited to discuss methods of automation that have been successful in our experience as well as struggles that I’m sure we’ve all experienced."

RSuite, RSI’s automated publishing solutions with highly-configurable dynamic publishing platform for managing and optimizing modern end-to-end publishing processes, will be exhibiting at Digital Book World booth 313 on March 8th and 9th. Schedule your meeting for either day now.

RSI Content Solutions Launches New Version of its Award-Winning RSuite Publishing Solution 

Latest release provides enhanced integrated workflow and automated publishing capabilities, to be unveiled in live webinar on February 16.

Audubon, Pa.— February 9, 2016 — RSI Content Solutions, the industry-leading content agility company, announced today the availability of RSuite® 5, its next generation publishing solution based on the MarkLogic® platform.  The latest version provides a more tightly integrated user experience to efficiently create and manage all types of digital content.  In addition, improved navigation and workflow features provide the user with a visualization of workflow steps to better understand the state and status of individual and team work assignments.  These innovative advances in managing content and business processes significantly improve user efficiency and support our historic product time-to-market reduction of 50%.

 “We have taken a significant step forward with the release of RSuite 5” stated Lisa Bos, Chief Technology Officer at RSI Content Solutions.  “This version will provide a more integrated view of the content and assets to users and managers and immediately improve overall publishing efficiency."

 RSuite 5 builds on the solution’s core publishing capabilities, including:

• Word-to-XML transformations
• Multiple integrated browser-based authoring/editing tools
• Support for Adobe InDesign as well as automated composition of PDF, HTML, EPUB and other outputs
• Component content reuse
• Semantic content enrichment integration and exploration

A live webinar showcasing RSuite 5’s new and improved publishing automation features and user interface will be held on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 10:00AM EST.  Interested participants can register here.

About RSuite

RSuite has been built specifically for publishers to serve as their centralized publishing solution. RSuite is optimized for the creation, management, repurposing and multi-format, multi-channel delivery of content by utilizing an enterprise‐strength native XML repository which stores and indexes XML content in its natural hierarchical format.  In addition to its strong XML capabilities, RSuite manages any and all forms of digital assets (MS Word, PDF, images, audio, video, etc.) and all of its associated metadata. 

RSuite’s powerful and highly-configurable workflow engine allows customers to implement multiple workflows that incorporate both manual and automated tasks, such as transformations, packaging, delivery, and more.  Customers are implementing RSuite to manage the end-to-end publishing process, from content creation through multi-channel, multi-format deliveries.  For more information, please visit www.rsuitecms.com.

About RSI Content Solutions

For over 15 years, RSI Content Solutions has been at the forefront of implementing content agility solutions for publishers, media companies, Fortune 1000 businesses, government organizations, and more.  With headquarters outside Philadelphia, PA, USA, an engineering center of excellence in Chennai, India, and affiliate offices around the world, RSI has helped over 250 global organizations implement appropriate content agility solutions.  For more information, please visit www.rsicms.com.  

 Through presentations, panel discussion, and audience Q&A, attendees will learn:

• Key differences between RFQs, RFIs, and RFPs, and under what circumstances each is the right tool
• When to use an RFP, and perhaps more important – when not to
• The business drivers that lead to the RFP path
• How to structure RFPs to be less cumbersome and to allow for agile decision making
• Who to involve in the RFP process and decision making, and how to manage scope in a project team with different agendas and priorities
• When to involve a consultant to help with RFP management
• What to expect of vendors RFP bad habits to avoid How to create an RFP that focuses on what really matters to your organization and ensures you can differentiate between vendor offerings

The day will conclude with an audience-participation Q&A panel discussion representing views of publishers, vendors who receive RFPs, and the consultants who manage them, bringing a 360-degree view to the key issues raised during the day. Register now.

As a supplier of software solutions and publishing automation tools we regularly receive Request for Information (RFI) or Request for Proposals (RFP).  In many cases there is an aggressive supplier schedule to return questions, then submit a final document.  Some are just ridiculously short periods of time to adequately digest the information and respond appropriately, but we try our best to showcase our knowledge and software capabilities.  After working long hours to address the short turnaround time, one of the following inevitably happens: 

1. Schedule extended:  Solicitor received too many proposals and will need more time to review them.
2. Vendor pushback:  Submission period is extended since some suppliers balked at the short timeline and the solicitor wants their bids.
3. Mismanagement:  Nothing (worst case)

Lets look at each of these situations a bit more closely to get to the root cause of each one.

Scheduled extended – Many times a company has a template driven procurement process.  The procurement department forces the software vendor to adhere to the timeline without regard to complexity of solution or the number vendors being sent the RFP.  If there are only three vendors in a niche marketplace, procurement will still require the business sponsor to send the RFP to ten vendors regardless of their applicability to the actual project.  This happens over and over again when we receive Web Content Management RFPs when our software is classified as an Enterprise Content Management System.  With a little homework, the company looking for a solution can distinguish between the two, but in all fairness, some vendors blur the lines between solutions in their marketing speak to make their solution broader in capability then it truly is.  When the procuring business receives back way more responses than they anticipated, of course they are going to need more time to review each proposal.  Again, sending out an RFP to a large disparate group of software vendors is going to result in a large disparate group of RFP responses which then confuses the entire procurement process which leads to delays.  Think about receiving vendor proposals whose approach is to build from scratch versus vendor proposals that want to use best of breed tool integration versus vendor proposals listing third party systems that only require a little configuration.  Three valid types of responses, but very different RFP responses.  Confusion around solution approaches usually leads to procurement delays.

Vendor pushback – Let’s be honest, many companies have preferred vendors when they send out an RFP.  If those preferred vendors push back on the company because the timelines are just too short to respond, a miracle occurs and the deadline gets extended.  If the vendor is not on the preferred list, most likely the schedule will not be extended and the vendor will submit a basic response just to stay in the game.  Some organizations do however hold tight to the schedule regardless of how ridiculous the timelines for questions and RFP response truly are.  Those are the rules and its my game, so do as I say.  Unfortunately some very good vendors are weeded out when this happens because the procurement department is just too rigid.  There needs to be a give and take between the procuring business and the vendor.  Actually, realistic timelines would be most welcome.

Mismanagement – I could probably write an entire blog post about how poor some companies are with managing the RFP process.  In general, the process does not come second nature to anyone in the business and the procurement department is forcing the process onto the organization because that is their mandate from management.  In addition, many companies really don’t care about timelines after they receive RFP responses.  At that point, they have the information they need and will take whatever time THEY need to review the information and figure out next steps.  It always amazes me that suddenly when the RFP responses are turned in, a black hole appears and no communication comes out of the organization.  Timelines are missed by the procuring company, phone messages are left and follow-up emails are sent by the vendor…silence.  Miraculously communication picks up a month after the deadline to communicate to the vendors and now the procuring company has 100 questions that need to be answered in 48 hours or less.  And did I mention that if the procuring company actually read the RFP, the questions are answered in the text.  You see, most companies read the executive overview, look at the proposed implementation schedule, and obsess on the budget numbers.  The rest of the RPF response to them is filler.

There is no single way to fix the procurement process.  Some companies have a very good procurement process while others seem to do it to appease procurement and therefore really have no interest in following the process unless it is advantageous to them.  Let’s start by having both sides adhere to the timelines set forth in the RFP.  That includes final selection and start of the project.  All any vendor wants is a fair shot at winning the opportunity and having the procuring company live up to their side of the relationship.  

If you want to see why we receive RFPs for publishing automation solutions, register here to see a demo of RSuite®.