AO International

AO International established a UK business (AO UK Ltd) some 18 months ago to help to push through the transition to new technology for clients, and along with the formation of the UK business came a change in the development team for Campaign. It is now outsourced to a team of developers based in Russia with vast experience of working with both Qua... rk and Adobe applications. The rise in the quality of product evolution has helped shape version 3 of Campaign, which includes integration with QuarkXPress 6.5. Further integration to QuarkXPress 7 and Adobe Creative Suite 3 is in the pipeline for the next version. Campaign's new version also includes a new Java-based front end and a new web services architecture, which means that clients can connect to their content, edit and update it from any web browser. "It's about capturing content at source and dynamically getting it to the market, instead of re-keying it," adds Malarkey. While customers might be selling very different products from each other, there are similar back end systems based around product codes, SKUs or other keywords that a database solution like Campaign can smoothly integrate with and pull data and content from. One of those clients is Hoseasons, the holiday firm that offers a wide range of self-catering breaks in different types of accommodation across the UK and Europe, which it sells through a combination of frequent brochure print runs and through its website. Content on the website is automatically fed through AO's Campaign system which also feeds the printed brochure content, created in-house by Hoseasons. The client has used AO's software for around three years and recently upgraded to version 3 of Campaign, says Malarkey. "Hoseasons is using Campaign for all its channels, all its brochures and website content, and it is taking advantage of all the functions within the product suite. It is helping to streamline production, reduce costs and make Hoseasons' data consistent across all channels." Tim Fullam, marketing director of Hoseasons, ...Read More