Mortsel, Belgium -- Decom announced today that through :Apogee Media they have managed to shorten publication time and further simplify the communication chain with their clients. :Apogee Media is the innovative content management and editorial workflow solution that Agfa Graphics launched at Drupa 2008.

"With more than 26 years experience in custom publishing, we are aware of the impact of publication flow on our clients' organization. Optimizing this aspect will lower overall costs and lead to more valuable products for our clients, "explains Roger De Laet, CEO of Decom. "We therefore came up with :Apogee Media, which offers our clients a powerful but user-friendly online editorial workspace that is transparent, open and future-oriented. An integrated environment in line with our clients' publications."

"As a result of :Apogee Media, we noticed a 25% drop in e-mail and telephone traffic," adds Olivier Van der Stede, Decom's Operations Manager. "If we also take into account the smaller number of personal visits required for final editing  and follow-up, the conclusion is that :Apogee Media plays a key part in optimizing the process."

According to Erick Meyers, Marketing Communications Editor at Management Centre Europe - the European headquarters of the American Management Association (AMA) - one of Decom's clients: "This is definitely the best service we've seen for years. :Apogee Media allows us to monitor our publication through a web browser from anywhere in the world. We're even able to change text in the original Indesign files, which is a huge advantage over PDF post-it corrections."

:Apogee Media offers the following advantages:

1)      One has access to the Digital Asset Management system via the usual web browser

2)      There is no need for a customer to buy any licences

3)      Texts, images, sound, video - everything is available in the open xml format

4)      Layout can be locally or 'remotely' via web interface, VPN or Citrix

5)      One can check proofs in the editor and insert any necessary text corrections

6)      The transfer from print to web can be automated thanks to the xml output

7)      The whole follow-up and approval cycle can be custom-tailored.

8)      One can keep close tabs on the publication in the making

9)      Low overall system costs

10)      One can increase the productivity of services and the quality of the end product