Congratulations To You
After publishing Integrated Solutions magazine for 10 years, it’s clear that our readers are our most important resource.
Ten years is a long time. In the technology space, it feels like a couple of lifetimes. The magazine industry is similar, with hundreds of titles shuttering each year. Combine technology with magazine publishing, and you’ll find that 10 years in operation is a pretty significant achievement. Well, with this May 2007 issue, Integrated Solutions is celebrating this 10-year milestone.
I’ve been lucky enough to have been affiliated with the magazine from the start, and I’ve certainly seen plenty of changes in the past decade. Most significantly, Integrated Solutions started as a bimonthly publication with a circulation of around 25,000. The magazine is now delivered monthly to more than 50,000 subscribers. Additionally, the editorial focus of the magazine has seen some shifts over the course of 10 years. Always, however, the editorial targeted technologies and applications that were most relevant to the readers of the magazine.
What hasn’t changed over the past decade is the foundation on which the magazine was built. The mission of Integrated Solutions has always been to educate and inform readers about technologies and applications that drive business performance. These technologies may have changed during the past 10 years, but we’d like to believe that the value of the content has not. It’s always been our goal to provide actionable information that our readers can use themselves and share with colleagues.
READERS DRIVE MAGAZINE DIRECTION
It’s impossible to predict the technologies we’ll be writing about in five years, let alone a decade from today. However, it’s not hard to identify the common characteristic that drives technology adoption and coverage within the pages of Integrated Solutions – efficiency. We’ve written about all components of ECM (enterprise content management) systems that make organizations more efficient by converting paper-based information to digital data. Similarly, we’ve extensively covered the technologies that have led to more efficient supply chains. In fact, our heritage is based in the traditional data collection space (i.e. bar code technologies), which is one of the most transformational technologies of all time.
What technologies drive today’s biggest efficiencies? Wireless and mobile solutions within the enterprise are certainly strong candidates. More specifically, enterprises spent much of the last decade driving efficiencies into their inside-the-four-walls operations. It’s not hard to see that this same focus and expectation is now being aimed at field personnel. Field operations that were once cost centers can be transformed into revenue streams through the proper application of the right technologies. This means that enterprises need to convert paper to digital information (i.e. ECM solutions). It means collecting data at the point of work or service (i.e. bar code and RFID [radio frequency identification]). It means knowing how to locate and optimize your physical and human assets. And, it means communicating data in real time, leveraging a host of wireless services and applications.
It’s tempting to make some bold prediction about the course of technology in the next 10 years. But, what’s the sense? The same group of people who drove coverage in the first 10 years – our readers – will drive our coverage of technology solutions in the next decade. If we consistently listen to you, we’ll certainly celebrate another 10 years.