Content Imperative
interRAI is a not-for-profit, international network of medical practitioners and research professionals committed to improving health care for persons who are elderly, frail, or disabled. Its goal is to set the global standard in assessment and evaluation of care across a variety of health and social services settings. For many years, interRAI’s publications have been widely used yet not consistently recognized: “Everyone uses them, but no one knows where they come from.” interRAI turned to OBS to formalize and standardize its publications and publishing process, and to implement corporate branding throughout all publications in all languages — over 150 manuals and forms.
To reach the global market, OBS built a Publications Portal for worldwide distribution using print-on-demand and electronic fulfillment. Behind the scenes, OBS set up, configured, and maintains an O365 SharePoint repository for centralized storage of assets, organization information for Members, content for Vendors as well as administrative documentation for managing the multi-faceted Publishing Portal. OBS also keeps the Members’ online bibliography current, and maintains a toolset of editorial and design style sheets to facilitate consistency, translation, and localization. In spring 2011, OBS developed and launched interRAI’s own customized and branded e-bookstore.
“When I look back at what we were trying to do at the outset in terms of professionalizing our organization through publications, you guys have done it in spades.” —Dr. Brant Fries, PhD, President of interRAI Board of Directors
OBS’s Role
- Creative and business model consultation for reaching the global market
- Electronic and print publishing program development
- Global print on demand (POD) management and fulfillment
- Development and management of backend content repository
- Information design and branding
- Editorial and web project management
- Editorial services, including translation/localization, copyediting, composition, and proofreading
- Creation of InDesign templates
- Development of customized open source catalog website and online shopping cart
- Creation of customized e-bookstore, complete with unique branding, business model and marketing widgets, and institutional subscription access
- Customer service and administrative services, including CRM management
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