IEC e-tech online magazine

Before 2015, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) published a monthly print magazine, with only a few articles available on IEC’s main website. This approach limited the magazine’s promotion and reach, particularly among audiences not directly involved with IEC. The technology in use made publishing cumbersome and required a specialized workforce. Articles were created in MS Word, lacking version control, copy editing, and approval automation.

I was assigned the responsibility of identifying the ideal platform for an online magazine to streamline and automate the publishing process. I thoroughly examined the entire publication pipeline, including the print version, and compiled a report comparing various Content Management Systems (CMS), both free and paid.

I evaluated Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, Adobe CQ5 (the predecessor of Digital Publishing Suite – DPS and Adobe Experience Manager), and eZ Publish. Considering the project’s scale, the board opted for the paid eZ Publish platform.

eZ Publish provided the following benefits:

1. Online content creation and collaboration
2. Custom approval pipeline
3. Version tracking
4. Front-end responsiveness
5. Multiple feeds
6. Subscription management and newsletter creation
7. A–>B article recommendations based on visitor’s reading history
8. Direct export of selected content to prebuilt Adobe InDesign templates

These features resulted in time and budget savings of over 30%.

As the Project Leader, I was responsible for:

1. Researching and analyzing potential platforms
2. Designing layout, functions (UX and UI), and publishing pipeline
3. Preparing RFOs and selecting the best developer
4. Testing and coordinating content migration
5. SEO and platform maintenance

The platform remained in production until early 2021. In addition, as part of the project, I developed the IEC e-tech mobile app for offline magazine reading.