All systems go: a mid-year update on BiblioSuite

With the first half of the year already behind us, we’re reflecting on the busy 2024 Virtusales has had so far. From AI innovations and launching BiblioFlow, to expanding our team and sparking discussions at industry events, here are the key updates you need to know as we enter the next stage of the year…

Innovating with AI

With new technology becoming more accessible by the minute, the use and implications of AI have been at the forefront of publishing discussions in 2024. To help publishers ethically harness these technologies and stay competitive, Virtusales has established an AI Lab with a team of developers dedicated to building AI solutions in BiblioSuite and enhancing our own internal operations. Their hard work has yielded significant strides, including an in-house prototype of ChatGPT, which has already proven invaluable in generating test scripts and resolving client support queries more quickly.

We have also released the first AI-driven features to BiblioSuite, which are now available to our client publishers on request. Additionally, we have an exciting list of prototypes in development and plenty of new ideas! Some of the new features already available or coming soon include automated image tagging, ALT text creation, copy editing tools that offer suggestions for grammatical corrections and SEO refinement, automatic generation of summaries meeting specific word counts (with tailored versions for different retailers, markets and formats), translation tools, and other prototypes in the pipeline, such as the BiblioSuite Personal Assistant.

These new features are designed to address specific pain points across the publishing lifecycle and accelerate operations, freeing up your team’s time for big-picture thinking and creativity. From generating keywords and suggesting and editing copy text to facilitating translations, tagging images and reworking copy for different markets and regions, our AI solutions offer assistive workflows that leverage technology to support human expertise.

To find out more about Biblio’s AI enhancements, our approach and next steps, you can read our blog, Innovating Responsibly: AI Prototypes in Publishing and visit our dedicated AI page.

Introducing BiblioFlow

Another new addition to BiblioSuite is BiblioFlow, the next generation in publishing workflow management, prioritizing assets and metadata like never before.?

So what’s new? Specifically designed to enhance user experience, BiblioFlow is the all-in-one solution that will boost your publishing efficiency. It provides unparalleled visibility and access to all of your assets and metadata within one, centralized system. Coupled with powerful workflow and collaboration tools, it leverages digital assets and metadata to simplify everyday tasks. BiblioFlow is fully protected by robust user permissions and roles, ensuring metadata and media files are readily available while adhering to contractual and compliance requirements.?

If your workflows are in need of an efficiency boost, BiblioFlow empowers you to locate files, update metadata, manage asset approvals, generate sales materials, and distribute content both internally and externally with unparalleled simplicity — all within a single, user-friendly interface.?

Find out more about how BiblioFlow could benefit your press here.

“Providing our staff with a single source of truth across our entire catalog, Biblio will bring together our books and journals data, assets and workflows for the first time to fully streamline our processes and maximize efficiencies across the company.”

MF Gydus, Director of Business Systems & Operations, The MIT Press

Rolling out new features

It’s not just us who have been busy! We’ve worked with new and existing customers alike to implement a variety of BiblioSuite solutions; some of this year’s go-lives have included Macmillan , Edinburgh University Press , Manchester University Press , WLU Press , Storytel , Faber and Faber , Page Two , New York University Press , Little Bee Books and Kagge Forlag ( JP/Politikens Forlag ). It’s a pleasure to support your publishing workflows, and we can’t wait to see what you do next…?

Collaborating with the best in the business

Our team has been connecting with professionals at every corner of the publishing globe at a variety of key industry events, including The London Book Fair , the Independent Publishers Guild Spring Conference, future!publish , the IPA Awards, The Nibbies, APE 2024,?The Association Of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) REDUX, the Society for Scholarly Publishing 46th Annual Meeting, and AUPresses 2024 (to name a few)!?

As well as keeping on top of trends and meeting industry-shapers at these events, we’ve had the honor of hosting discussion-sparking sessions; from uncovering new opportunities and inconvenient truths in academic publishing at our LBF Scholarly Forum panel, to sharing industry best practice through our case study with The MIT Press at #SSP2024.?

Earlier this year, we also collaborated with the University of Sussex 's Center of Excellence for AI, which is being set up to drive the progress of AI research and development and to ensure it is done so in a responsible way, by sponsoring their Launch event.

Expanding our team of publishing experts

Finally, our team has grown! We have introduced 16 new team members to Virtusales in 2024 so far, and are excited to benefit from their skills and expertise in the next stage of our journey.?

It’s wonderful to see how much we have achieved in just the first half of 2024, as well as the growth of BiblioSuite to meet the ever-evolving demands of the industry. Thank you to all our customers and collaborators; we can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has in store!