One of the areas that has experienced, and is experiencing a radical change as a result of the technological advances that have occurred in recent decades is certainly the publishing industry and the professionals roles that are part of its supply chain, such as, editors, translators and graphics.

These figures, established over time thanks to consolidated processes mainly based on old analogic technologies, have been completely revolutionized by the introduction of a whole new world of digital tools. PCs, scanners, printers, and tablets supported by a myriad of programs and formats, not to mention Internet and new way to use related content, have led in recent decades a rapid evolution of the publishing production methods.

This requires new levels of expertise crossing traditional specialization barriers. An editor need to know the tools to use to produce a book on paper or an e-book, a translator must struggle with machine translation and cat tools, a designer may need to manage the same content for print and for the Web, with obvious differences.

Two published works, edited by Edigeo on behalf of Editrice Bibliografica, describe this great transformation. The first volume, Manuale di redazione, was published in 1998, and constitutes a strong reference on the traditional editing techniques.

Faced with the changes that have occurred in recent years, it has set the need to propose a new instrument of knowledge that would address the many and varied topics, from the use of the Internet in writing to the digital document management, from image processing to development of digital products.

This new Manuale del redattore 2.0, also edited by Edigeo (with my contribution for some chapters), stands alongside to offer a roadmap in a world characterized by an extraordinary wealth of innovative solutions that change the way of work in the publishing sector. Its goal is to provide a useful insight of a changing world rather than answers that the rapid evolution of technology would make soon obsolete.

The extraordinary spread of smartphones and tablets is accompanied by an exponential growth of apps for these devices. There is no company that sooner or later do not take into account the idea of providing its customers with a new method for using services, information, entertainment, and more.

The phases of design, development, testing and commercialization of an app involve various professionals: web designers, interface designers, programmers, marketing experts, and so on. All this has costs, which can vary significantly depending on the choices of development and the type of app to accomplish.

Regardless of company size, the critical decision to be made concerns the approach to the development and update of the app.

Outsourcing? In-house?

Both approaches offer advantages and can produce good results, however the strategic advantage of each one is linked to the specific characteristics of a company and to the objectives of each project.

The app development with an internal team offers more control over projects, improved collaboration and greater responsiveness in addressing the problems that arise.

Choosing an external supplier instead offers clear advantages in terms of costs, resources, workloads, workflow management, allowing to focus on commercial and promotional aspects. The disadvantage is inevitably less control on the project and the risk of incurring the time of the external supplier at the level of updates, new releases, bug fixing, etc.

The answer to this dilemma is difficult, very often the decision depends on the type and number of apps that a company wants to deliver, the funds available and the skills that can be available.

Or…

There is a third alternative: achieving the right mix of internal expertise and outsourcing. Inside you use the minimum amount of resources required to define and monitor projects that are outsourced, progressively acquiring the know-how to assure the quality and support in case of problems with the supplier deliveries, updates and bug fixing. Outside you can choose the most appropriate supplier for the projects, using criteria such as costs, development platforms, experience, etc.

To do this, you need a role of coordination well acquainted with the entire life cycle of the app, from design to marketing on the online stores.