As many of you know, the biggest investment ASM is making during the three-year arc of the ASM Renewal is our Digital Transformation and Content Reengineering initiative. The strategic goal of that multimillion dollar investment is to render ASM technical content fully discoverable, searchable, accessible, and interoperable over the internet. In shorthand, we refer to this strategic goal as “crossing the digital divide.”
I am pleased to inform you that as of this writing, the overall initiative remains on schedule, on budget, and delivering the functionality targets originally planned in late 2016.
Between January 2017 and February 2018, ASM successfully implemented major systems and key integrations to deploy a modern, cloud-based eCommerce backbone. Those implementations include a new LifeRay web engine, Salesforce CRM, and a new membership management system (Fonteva’s MemberNation). Key integrations include the Moodle learning management system to track education certifications, Granta V.10 and 11 interfaces for our Materials Information Online offering, and links from the integrated Salesforce and MemberNation applications to Dynamics, our existing Microsoft financial system. We also completed the very first cloud-based implementation of Granta MI, in support of the ASM Materials Solutions Network.
While cleanup from those efforts remains in progress, we are forging ahead with the final stages of systems implementation and the initial stages of content reengineering as we finish 2018.
Our new digital library system, the cloud-based Silverchair platform, will provide both the electronic publishing and content repository functions required to cross the digital divide. This work is on schedule to go live in December, with the ASM Handbook series presented as our initial reengineered content.
In 2019, the balance of our three-year effort will focus on reengineering our existing articles, data, and educational content, as well as adding a modern electronic storefront to our website. The exact schedule for that work is yet to be developed, as we will need to conduct pilot tests with members, understand your preferences, and also factor in new content opportunities as they arise.
We will keep you informed as we finalize the 2019 Annual Operating Plan and gain more insight on the schedule for deploying our digitally reengineered content.
William T. Mahoney, CEO, ASM International
[email protected]
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