Spring 2007 Vol. 8, No. 1

Scott Johnson

Interactions . . . with ICC Macmillan Staff BY GINA GORDON Meet . . . Scott Johnson “Empower your employees and watch them perform. Or as some might say, if you put your aces in places, then the business will be successful! This has been one of Scott’s guiding principles and has led to the success of ICC Macmillan,” says ICC Macmillan’s Sr. Vice President of Book Services, Neeraj Malhotra. “Scott is a strong believer in his employees’ strengths and therefore has consistently given people the opportunity to grow with him and has always had loyal employees, be it in India or the U.S.” As General Manager of Business Development and Operations in North America, Scott Johnson’s focus is on sales and relationships with customers. Given the growing volume of work going to India, much of his time is spent working with customers and colleagues to develop successful outsourcing strategies. Since the acquisition of ICC by Macmillan India in early 2006, ICC Macmillan is a much bigger organization with a wider variety of services. Such growth presents a multitude of new challenges. Scott began working for ICC when he was 12 years old, cleaning the office. He graduated with a BA from Cornell University and then resumed working at ICC in 1994, now working with technology rather than brooms and mops. In 1995 he traveled to India to become the composition manager in Quark production. Scott was deeply involved in the day-to-day ins and outs of book typesetting and quickly became an expert in page makeup. He was promoted to production manager, then managing director, and in 1998 he took over as president of ICC and established the U.S. home office in Portland, Oregon. “ICC Macmillan is focused on growing our book production business for U.S. customers, especially in primary/secondary education and reference markets. At the same time, we are working very hard to integrate the ICC and Macmillan India sides of the company so we can take advantage of skills and best practices,” Scott said. In his new role as GM, Scott is leading the way to increase the company’s work with electronic content for new types of media, whether it is e-Learning, mobile content for cell phones, or other online delivery methods. In addition with customers asking for content development and editorial work in India, Scott is helping build teams in India to provide copyediting, copywriting, and abstracting. “We see considerable opportunities through this combination of design/ typesetting skills plus strength in editorial and technology-based services,” he stated. In his free time, Scott likes outdoor activities, such as camping, gardening, skiing, and kitesurfing. He also enjoys playing the guitar and reading. And, fortunately for ICC Macmillan, Scott likes to travel—he frequently visits India! During his trips to India, Scott is able to spend time managing the small nonprofit organization that he founded: Earthrise International. The organization does development work in underprivileged villages in India. When asked what is the most gratifying aspect of working at ICC, Scott said, “The act of creating something with a dynamic and supportive group of people, and the sense of community that we’ve established within ICC and with our customers. Beyond that, the experience of India and its culture has been fascinating and rewarding in countless ways.”

Conversations in XML BY JIM LINK

You’re a textbook or journal publisher, but now you find out you need a website to go along with the printed material. And, while you’re at it, why not get an interactive CD with questions and answers? Perhaps your book would be a good candidate to use as a download to computer or PDA . . . and you need this all now! Now what do you do? You need XML. There are various ways to convert your textbook pages into Extensible Markup Language (XML) through post-production processing, but you now know you won’t have time for that. You need the coded files at the same time the bound book is ready or your printed journal goes online—perhaps even before distribution by mail. You need XML first, also known as end-to-end XML or parallel XML. You know enough about XML to know that getting the files coded can be hard enough, but getting them now was formerly deemed impossible. Let ICC Macmillan come to your aid. ICC Macmillan can work with several different processes and applications to see to it that your textbooks have the XML files you need, when you need them. We have processes for QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, and Abortext Advanced Print Publisher (formerly known as 3B2). Using one of these processes, we can take your author’s files and convert them into XML coded to your DTD. Macmillan Information Processing Services, a sister company to ICC Macmillan, has developed an enhanced XML process for use with InDesign, which we call MacXIN. This process expands on InDesign’s built-in XML capabilities facilitating the use of XML directly on the page, thereby streamlining coding and setup of tables and references, and helping automate page setup. See Figures 1 and 2 for examples of what the process looks like. Once the XML files are ready, they can be used to create the pages for the book you’ve designed using the software platform of your choice. (We can also help with the design!) We’ll make edits during production, and then give you back the XML alongside printer-ready PDFs. Now you’re ready for the next steps: adding website design, quizzes, CDs, or even e-Books—yes, e-Books. Favored economically, e-Books are electronic alternatives to print. Examples currently in favor are Zinio, VitalSource VBK, and NIMAS compliant coding for enhanced accessibility options (for example, digital talking books). Another option for the XML files is use as a database repository. In addition to managing your content, a database can aid in developing curriculum-on-demand. What’s that, you say? Curriculum-on-demand, like print-on-demand, is a method of developing customized courseware by adding the capability of picking chapters or even partial chapters from among several textbooks. With on-demand access, a professor can select components from several of his—or a colleague’s— textbooks to put together classes. Imagine the flexibility this permits!

XML viewed from InDesign’s story editor

XML exported from InDesign using MacXIN

XSLT . . . What Is It?

BY ROSE RUMMEL-EURY

By now, most of our customers are familiar with XML and know that it is a customizable subset of SGML. But what happens when the publisher needs to work with more than one XML DTD (document type definition)? They ask ICC Macmillan to create the XSLT (XSL transformation). Your company (Company A) just bought a competitor (Company B). All of B’s files were XML-coded using their proprietary DTD. Company A needs to have those files applied to a different environment (multirepurposed) by converting B’s XML DTD to A’s XML DTD. The XSLT is simply a language in which a style sheet is used to transform an XML document from one form to another. ICC Macmillan can create an XSLT to specify how the conversion will take place.

COMMUNICATION CORNER Much business correspondence today involves cross–cultural communication—and often this communication happens in the form of email. Here are some tips on keeping communication channels clear: • Avoid slang and idioms. Although it can be amusing to learn the slang of another culture (prepone the appointment, just chillax, airdash to a meeting) in time-sensitive business situations, it may be best to try to convey the message in language that is transparent and literal. • Avoid using uncommon words. Examples: use bird rather than feathered songster; use drink rather than libation. • Be aware that some words have different meanings in other cultures. Example: a lift in the United Kingdom is an elevators in the United States. • Keep email subject lines descriptive and relevant. • Avoid long paragraphs; separate each topic into a different paragraph. • Avoid humor and sarcasm in email. What is funny in one cultural context may not be funny in another. • Use bullets or numbered lists to separate ideas. At ICC Macmillan, we strive to be the best communicators possible because we believe communication is central to the success of a project. And we also believe our customers should expect superior communication about their projects—whether managed from our stateside or India offices.

Think Global: Think ICC Macmillan BY GINA GORDON

With three office locations in India and an office in Oregon, ICC Macmillan has a significant presence in the book production market. As of 2006, ICC Macmillan is now one of the largest publishing production vendors on the globe! Each office has its own area of expertise and each client’s projects are produced according to the ability of each office. It is always our goal to assign book teams to individual publishers. In this way, our production teams become familiar with the processes and procedures for each client. Ultimately, the goal is to produce the highest quality product at an affordable price with great attention to customer service and client satisfaction. As of early 2007, our book-division employee headcount is as follows: Oregon: 18 (plus a large database of freelance resources) New Delhi: 500 Chennai: 400 Bangalore: 250

ICC Macmillan New Delhi

ICC Macmillan Oregon • Sales and marketing (with additional salespeople in the United Kingdom, in Canada, and on the East Coast) • Project management • Editorial services • Billing • Freelance service management

ICC Macmillan New Delhi

ICC Macmillan New Delhi • Production team for K—12 and Higher Education. All complex titles are handled from this location. • Quark, InDesign, FrameMaker, 3B2, LaTeX • XML, CD-ROM production, conversion • Art production • Project management • Estimating and castoffs

ICC Macmillan Chennai

ICC Macmillan Chennai • Production team for K—12 and Higher Education. Simple to medium complexity titles handled at this location. • Quark, InDesign, FrameMaker, 3B2, LaTeX, Word. • Art production • Keyboarding • XML, CD-ROM production, conversion • Conversion for hardcopy and Web-delivery (e-Book and Web-ready PDFs) • Project management • Copyediting • Indexing

ICC Macmillan Bangalore

ICC Macmillan Bangalore • Production team for STM work and multi-volume major reference works. • Quark, InDesign, FrameMaker, 3B2 • XML, CD-ROM production, conversion • Art production • Project management If you have questions about our office locations and their corresponding specialities, please contact sales@iccorp.com.