The web-based voting tool to identify the 100 best-dressed Germans was delivered to the editorial team by us in a matter of days

IT Service for Condé Nast's new German edition

How editors in Berlin produce the new weekly with the help of CODE COUTURE

Before any publication appears on the newsstand, a complex production machine must be set in motion. The key factors, as always, are time and technology.

There is no such thing as physical distance in a digitalized editorial department. So success depends more than ever on a smooth-running copy flow and production system, the IT infrastructure linking publishers, editors and the printer.

Editorial departments require special know how

Journalists working with German Vanity Fair editor Ulf Poschardt and managing editor Markus Albers started with hardware and software that was maintained once a week by an outside supplier, because it was unfeasible for the Munich-based company to send part of its IT staff to Berlin for the magazines launch. But the original supplier wasn't up to the challenge. "The company simply had no experience with copy flow, so they were unable to help us setting up a copy processing scheme," says Albers. But processing copy is a key competency in a magazine, and state-of-the-art work flows are a must. Ideally, editors and layouters should be able to work on pages at the same time. And progress on each page of the production process must be visible to all. So editorial experts were required.

Image work flows in editorial operations...

... is a complex area. That's why the publisher...

... hired us to create a custom digital workflow...

... that perfectly fit the needs of editors.

We need IT editorial experts

Jürgen Lüders is CIO at Condé Nast Germany, and he was the one responsible for getting CODE COUTURE Software Solutions & Support GmbH involved: "The company responded flexibly to our needs and knows how the editorial process works." CODE COUTURE has been installing editorial systems for years with success, and manages production work flows from the start of a project, regardless of which system is preferred. This is a key requirement of many companies looking for IT support. They are looking for a service provider that has broad IT experience as well as a specific focus, and one that can adapt to their unique requirements. Says CODE COUTURE managing director André Jay Meissner: "Our customers don't have to bear the training costs of keeping up to date, we take care of that." Meissner goes on: "We have to be fully knowledgeable of latest updates and procedures in everything we do. This is something which can easily be overlooked in the stress of daily workloads." The staff of companies we work for have access to an enormous body of knowledge in IT issues; each CODE COUTURE employee can rely on the experience his or her 26 colleagues.

IT support regardless of who is on holiday, sick, or gone AWOL

A centralized network permits Condé Nast a swift, up-to-date and cost-efficient production operation. It also is the technological basis of innovative and creative projects. But there are also economic reasons for Vanity Fair's choice to continue working with CODE COUTURE. Working together with IT staff at Condé Nast, CODE COUTURE has created a shift system to guarantee uninterrupted service to VF editors and art directors. Thomas Ochs, the IT director at Condé Nast in Berlin, says: "This allows us to double the number of workstations we can service, but at the same time, remain flexible when the work load increases."

CODE COUTURE maintains individual work stations, installs new ones, and instructs VF editors. "If we only had our own IT people, what would we do when they go on holiday, or get sick?" asks Thomas Ochs. "CODE COUTURE is here seven days a week, pretty much round the clock." VF's breakneck weekly publishing cycle in Germany means late nights are a regular thing. Says Ochs: "Nobody else is offering this kind of service,"

» VANITY FAIR online