Title:
Vice President of IT, Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC
Year:
2014
Category:
Technology Optimization & Innovation
Result:
Finalist
The Company:
Over the years, the Globe has evolved from a newspaper into a multi-media source of news and information. Boston.com was launched in 1995 and is now is one of the country’s strongest regional websites. RadioBDC, an internet radio station with internet applications hosted by Boston.com, is also owned by Boston Globe Media. Additional investments in what is now known as Fenway Sports Group, and the Boston Metro allowed the Globe to reach new audiences. Globe Direct, a direct mail and insert delivery unit is also part of the Globe media group. In October 2013, Red Sox owner John Henry assumed ownership, marking a new chapter.
The Problem:
The Boston Globe had a major technology problem show up overnight last October, when the New York Times Company sold the newspaper after 20 years of ownership. The IT staff was told they had to be completely disconnected from the Times' systems and running on their own within six to twelve months. That meant breaking apart connections between the two newspapers for networks, advertising, financial systems and more. The first projects were big ones – replacing the Globe's SAP and PeopleSoft business and financial applications with new systems. The Globe also needed to find a way to migrate aging Lotus workflows while at the same time, delivering new applications that moved the business forward.
The implications of the ownership change exacerbated what had been a recurring challenge for the Globe: business demands far exceeded IT supply. IT insisted on driving technology and software decisions, but simply lacked the horsepower to execute. Crisis projects consumed what precious time and resources were available—never the nice-to-have’s. Consequently, the Globe’s various business departments would often resort to finding their own way to solve problems, which created some architectural nightmares for IT. It became clear to the Globe’s IT team that they needed to balance architecture, support and security, with some federation of technology in the business.
The Solution:
Amid the bigger projects, the Globe’s IT team began evaluating vendors to migrate a dozen or so Lotus Notes workflow databases. While they initially evaluated BPM tools, The Globe also evaluated Mendix and quickly realized it met a much larger need – a single platform to address diverse application needs across the entire organization, including building new apps as well as migrating legacy apps.
Mendix would help the Globe close the gap between growing business needs and the limited IT resources available to deliver on them. Intuitive, model-driven development capabilities would drive achieve significant improvements in speed and efficiency over traditional development methods. In the process, business users could not only collaborate on development efforts but take over basic application maintenance, freeing up IT resources for other strategic initiatives. All the while, the Globe’s IT team would maintain centralized control and governance over all applications.
The Results:
One of the ways my staff and I initially used Mendix was to build an application to better manage some 500 freelance photographers who shoot photos for the newspaper. In the past, freelance photographers were given assignments using a laborious manual process that involved spreadsheets and emails. We had planned to wait to build that system later, until we came across Mendix. The freelancer management system took only 30 days to build, compared to the one-year development time for the previous archaic system. Once word got out, other requests for apps came in, with new workflows that were never even thought of before. This drove the use of the platform inside the Globe even further, spreading to several different parts of the organization – from finance to circulation. For instance, we’re discussing with circulation how Mendix could be used to build exactly circulation management system they need. In the past, such systems would have taken years and eaten up countless hours of IT time to write, test, and deploy, and buying a vendor-built system would still need deep customization and plenty of coding. For users, the Mendix-generated apps are solving business problems inside the company, while avoiding long development cycles that typically delay such projects. The app platform provides an organized workflow that brings end users in at the specification and basic configuration steps. Eventually IT is able to turn the projects over to users to independently update.
Metrics:
• Newsroom corrections database – Using Mendix, the Globe migrated an existing Lotus Notes application that allows the newsroom management to enter the correction and track key details with the ability to report and create dashboard like assessments. What took over a month to code in Lotus initially took just five days with Mendix. This first project proved the value of Mendix, opening the door to numerous other projects and requests from the business.
• Imaging application – This robust application used by the Globe’s advertising team and self-service customers to add photos to classified ads replaced a third-party app that was being shut down. Using Mendix, it was built by one FTE in 20 days, about 40 percent faster than traditional development. In addition, as a result of phasing out the third-party tool, the Globe is saving $80 thousand annually in vendor fees and maintenance.
• Freelance management app – The Globe built a new app to automate what had been a manual process: managing the newspaper’s 500+ freelancers. Despite the extensive workflows across multiple departments, the app was built by two FTEs in 30 days, whereas it took the Globe’s previous owners one year to build similar functionality with a larger staff. Moreover, as a result of greater automation, the Globe expects to repurpose the equivalent of two FTEs.
When you add all these benefits up, the Globe was able to generate an ROI from its Mendix investment in about three months.
The Technology:
Mendix is an enterprise app platform a service. The platform’s intuitive, model-driven development capabilities have helped the Globe deliver applications orders of magnitude faster than traditional methods. This technology helped the Globe’s IT department get ahead of rising business demands by accelerating and democratizing application delivery, and empowering business users to collaborate and co-create with IT.
Disruptive Factor:
In the past, application development was the exclusive domain of IT and professional developers but given the rising business demands stemming from the change in ownership and general industry disruption, that model was no longer tenable. The Globe simply didn’t have the option to increase staff. The only way it could close the growing gap between IT and the business was to involve the business in the process and completely transform its app delivery approach, making it radically faster, easier and more collaborative. It’s done this with Mendix, and the IT organization is now being seen as an enabler and change agent, versus being the traditional “blocker” of projects.
Shining Moment:
We are most proud of our efforts to prevail in the market with the help of Mendix. The changes in ownership, plus the digital disruption the entire publishing industry has been struggling with for years, could have been truly devastating to our employees and loyal readers. We are now in a much better position for IT to help move the business forward, so that the Globe and its digital properties can survive and thrive.
