NBD Biblion offers media and books to public libraries and school media centres in the Netherlands. We created their Media Information and Production System (MIPS), which catalogues hundreds of new titles each month. Over time, we’ve added many innovations, such as a third-party AI solution to classify and review book contents automatically. We’ve also developed other NBD Biblion applications, the most recent being their new Graphic Workflow system.
NBD Biblion and BSL
Our partnership with NBD Biblion dates back to 2001 and is built on trust and mutual respect. Over the years, we’ve designed, developed, and maintained many systems on their behalf, demonstrating the strength of our relationship. We work closely with NBD Biblion on each project, learning from their team and creating unique solutions. MIPS was our first significant NBD development. More than twenty years on, it’s a crucial resource within their organisation.
MIPS
Twenty years is a long time for an IT system. However, over the intervening years, we’ve added many new features and regularly introduced new technology. In 2024, MIPS is in daily use, and there is no shortage of ideas for the future.
MIPS is more than just a database of media titles, descriptions, and covers. It oversees the entire workflow, tracking the progress of titles from their initial announcement to their availability in the Webshop. It communicates with many other systems within NBD Biblion. Users, and increasingly AI, add new information at each stage, while MIPS checks and monitors the status of each new book until it is ready for sale and distribution.
Cloudsuite and the Graphic Workflow
NBD Biblion recently introduced Infor’s Cloudsuite ERP system, in collaboration with Quartess, their implementation partner. The ERP system integrates and manages many of their business processes—such as finance, supply chain, and inventory management— streamlining their processes, improving data accuracy, and enhancing productivity. While migrating to the new ERP system, NBD decided to integrate Cloudsuite with the software that manages their print production processes. Given our longstanding history with NBD Biblion and our experience with databases and digital content, they approached BSL to design and build a new “Graphic Workflow” system. We’ve been working on this project since spring 2024.
But what does their Graphic Workflow system do?
Books ordered from NBD Biblion differ from those in your typical bookstore. They are designed for long-term library use and immediately ready for lending. Each book has a hardened, plasticised cover and a printed pocket for storing library tickets. It also includes a PIM or SISO label and an RFID label—everything libraries need to identify and track individual books and multimedia titles.
NBD Biblion produces these graphic elements to a high specification using various print services. They print book covers to replace the originals. They print “Flap texts”, book “pockets” and labels. All this material is printed on demand, using data from other NBD Biblion systems (including the ERP system, MIPS and the NBD image database).
The new “Graphic Workflow” software we are developing will use the ERP system to manage these production processes.
BSL development work
We’ve had unrestricted access to their former Graphic Workflow software, which has no direct link with the new ERP platform. We’ve reverse-engineered much of the code because the developers are no longer available. However, we’ve had support from Quartess, the company responsible for the new ERP system, and we are familiar with other NBD Biblion systems that the Graphic Workflow uses.
It has been an intense development period, with a steep learning curve and many challenges. At the risk of using a cliche, BSL thrives on these challenges. We are familiar with the technology used in their old system (Oracle) and used this to help us design and build a new system based on modern technologies (Oracle, Java, APIs). Parts of the new Graphic Workflow are already in daily use, which adds to the challenge. However, it also means we receive almost immediate feedback from end-users, which helps us to make improvements very quickly. As the first full release nears completion, there is increasing excitement in the team, and we’re all looking forward to its introduction.
Current plans
While parts of the new system are in use, we have been working on what we believe is the final sprint before the first full release, adding support for more production tasks. This work is almost ready for the final user tests prior to any rework.
Our next challenge is to migrate the system to Amazon Cloud, which will offer many advantages, including improved performance, a new database system and better remote monitoring. It should also reduce the client’s costs, as they can abandon at least four on-premise servers.
We’ll keep you posted once the Graphic Workflow system is in the Cloud!
Get in touch
It should be apparent from the above that we genuinely enjoy a challenge. Maybe you have ideas for a new application, website, or app. If so, why not get in touch with us and see if we can help?
