Case study

Developing Duodecim’s business-critical editorial platform

Customer and the collaboration

The Finnish Medical Society Duodecim is Finland’s largest scientific association. Founded in 1881, the society promotes the professional expertise of physicians and produces Finland’s national Current Care Guidelines. Kustannus Oy Duodecim is responsible for the group’s publishing operations.

How the partnership started

Duodecim was looking for a technology partner to develop its editorial system. Timehouse’s extensive experience in publishing solutions and XML-based systems matched the customer’s needs. A development team specialising in editorial and publishing solutions was selected for the project.

Beginnings

Medical content lies at the heart of Duodecim’s business. The content must be accurate, reliable and maintained over the long term.

The Xedit editorial system manages one of the organisation’s most valuable assets: structured medical content. The XML-based system is business-critical, as it provides the content foundation for several digital publishing services, including Terveysportti and Terveyskirjasto.

“Without high-quality content, we would have no services to offer our customers. Our content production systems are critical to our business.”

Saija Virtanen, Development Manager, Kustannus Oy Duodecim

Maintaining and developing the system using internal resources was challenging, as the organisation’s IT team was also responsible for several other systems. In addition, the operating environment, which had evolved gradually over the years, needed both technological modernisation and usability improvements.

Results

Timehouse became Duodecim’s long-term development partner, responsible for continuously developing the Xedit system and ensuring its long-term performance and reliability.

Key outcomes of the partnership include:

Modernising the system with up-to-date technologies while preserving the functionality built up over many years.
Improving usability by redesigning the user interface, menus, views and workflows.
Continuous development through small, user-driven improvements based on feedback from active key users.
Ongoing support alongside development to ensure that editorial work is not interrupted by software-related issues.

Duodecim’s editorial processes play a central role in the development work. The solution incorporates the metadata, customised workflows and editorial processes required by the organisation, making users’ day-to-day work easier and more efficient.

Development needs are prioritised through a network of key users representing different business units. This ensures that development is based on genuine user needs while taking the priorities of different functions into account.

The result is an editorial system fully tailored to the customer’s publishing processes and tightly integrated with backend systems, databases and other business processes.

“Starting new development work is extremely easy because Timehouse already knows the system. We don’t have to explain everything from scratch or go through lengthy procurement processes.”

Saija Virtanen, kehityspäällikkö, Kustannus Oy Duodecim

Timehouse participates in ongoing development meetings every two weeks, enabling continuous improvement instead of relying on large, one-off updates.

“The support service has worked extremely well. If an editor encounters a problem, help is available quickly. Editorial work cannot come to a standstill for a week, and Timehouse resolves these situations very quickly.”

Saija Virtanen, Development Manager, Kustannus Oy Duodecim

Tech and capabilities

XML-based structured content creation
Multichannel publishing
Workflow management
Article validation
Version control and publishing
Word-to-XML conversion
InDesign export
Support for translation processes
Bulk editing

Business continuity

The business-critical publishing system is continuously evolving. Maintenance, support and regular user-driven improvements ensure that the system remains reliable and fit for purpose.

Fast support

Editorial teams receive prompt assistance when problems arise, minimising interruptions to publishing work.

Improved user experience

A modern user interface and continuous usability improvements make editorial work more efficient and seamless.

Long-term partnership

The knowledge accumulated over years of working with the system and understanding the customer’s processes enables new development projects to get up and running quickly.