Anness To Use TPT Union For Online Photo-Library

Anness Publishing plans to launch an online picture library using TPT's Union software as a front-end to the Xinet WebNative Venture database.

Anness Publishing plans to launch an online picture library using TPT's Union software as a front-end to the Xinet WebNative Venture database.

Anness Publishing, which claims to be the largest independent book publisher in the UK, has invested in TPT Union from Turning Point Technologies (TPT) to create 'Practical Pictures', a commercial online photo-library that will be launched in November.

TPT Union provides a front-end to Anness' existing Xinet WebNative Digital Asset Management (DAM) system.

Since 1988 Anness Publishing has sold in excess of 100million books, producing up to 300 new titles each year on subjects ranging from cooking and crafts to gardening, new age, reference, hobbies and transport.

All the company's books are meticulously produced by one of the largest editorial teams in Britain, and every title is lavishly illustrated with high quality colour illustrations.

The techniques, projects and recipes for all subjects are shown with step-by-step photography, all produced in-house.

The 'Practical Pictures' site will allow anyone, from editors to advertising agencies, to access the company's 500,000 images.

"The concept of a picture library offered by a medium-sized publishing company is revolutionary," commented Ben Worley, technical director of Anness Publishing.

"It is a logical extension to our business to offer this service and maximises the return on the investment we already make in photography for our books".

"By making our assets available to the industry at large we can generate another valuable revenue stream quite simply".

"When we researched the market we tested a range of DAM system providers, but Xinet's WebNative featuring the Venture database was by far the best system".

TPT Union has been developed by TPT this year to meet a growing demand for a higher level of DAM system control.

It is a highly customisable web portal enabling online artwork creation, soft proofing/collaboration, print ordering, job tracking, and sophisticated image syndication.

TPT Union complements Xinet's WebNative and FullPress workflow and asset management software that TPT sells and supports exclusively in the UK.

Using TPT Union Anness Publishing will fine tune its WebNative system to very specific criteria controlling a wide range of attributes including: access control, automatic user registration, download rights and integration with accounts departments for automatic billing etc.

A high level of reporting functionality is a strong feature enabling Anness to monitor audit trails and generate usage activity reports.

"TPT has been working closely with Anness Publishing to provide a fully integrated solution tailored to their individual requirements" said Tony Medford, customer services director of TPT.

"TPT Union brings uniqueness to an image library environment".

"With no separation between picture library and production it is so much easier to control".

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