Wolverhampton-based publishing systems developer PCS have launched a potentially game-changing digital content management and publishing system to an audience largely from the corporate and magazines vertical at Publishing Expo in London.
The system, called Knowledge, simultaneously manages the collection, creation and production of digital content to multiple publishing channels for web, e-readers, mobile phones and print.
Knowledge revolutionises the gathering and distribution of content and is accessible through any broadband connection.

It embraces all the planning, design, editing and distribution functions a publisher needs – whether that’s in business or public service, magazines or newsprint – using built-in data-mining to help create intelligent workflows that let the content do the work.
Knowledge was commissioned from PCS by the Midland News Association, publishers of Britain’s biggest-selling evening newspaper, the Express & Star in Wolverhampton, its sister evening The Shropshire Star, based in Telford, and their associated weekly titles, to replace a number of ageing QPS systems and ancilliary wire, picture handling and archiving workflows.

After more than 12 months of research, work first began on a proof of concept in January 2008, with the go-ahead being given in the summer of that year.
Knowledge first went live with the Kidderminster Chronicle, part of the free-distribution West Midlands Chronicles series based in Wolverhampton, this time last year, with the remaining titles rolled out within the next three months.
Once the Shropshire Weeklies series – a mixture of free and paid-for titles – had relocated its subbing operation to Telford, work began on rolling the system out there, too, with all titles moved to the still-developing system by the end of summer 2009.
Work has since been progressing to introduce the system to the daily titles, which between them produce nearly 20 daily editions.
For the MNA, pagination has been built around Quark Xpress 8 Server, with an InDesign Server variant due for demonstration at Publishing Expo.
It means that virtually all publishing functions can be carried out in a browser, although publishers may wish to retain some desktop clients for initial templating or particular pagination requirements.
It also means, however, that pagination is only part of the system’s output. PCS have already demonstrated real-time simultaneous publishing from Knowledge to web sites, e-reader and iPhone applications to a couple of technical forums.

At the core of Knowledge is the InterSystems’ Caché object oriented database, which is backed by resilient hardware and real-time shadowing.
Caché is better known in the medical and financial world, and it is a mark of the difference the new system offers that Knowledge picked up the prestigious InterSystems Worldwide Innovation Award at Devcon in Phoenix, Arizona, in the summer of 2009.
The system has been engineered from the ground up to be available in a Software-As-As-Service option, which makes Knowledge not only powerful, intelligent, geographically independent and efficient – but more affordable for publishers who may be unwilling to commit to major capital spending in the current economic climate.