News from our CEO 
Scott Seebass

We are spending this summer at Xinet putting the finishing touches on our next major release: WebNative Suite 16. The first fully functional BETA was released to integrators on April 16th and is currently in the final stages of the release cycle: testing, documentation, integration and education. We often get questions about why these later stages of the release process take so long.

The largest and most time consuming part of a release is testing. Every new feature, of which there are over 150, is tested for functionality. If a feature is minor, it is integrated into an existing test to ensure continued functionality. If a feature is large (such as the integrated GUI in the new version 16) it requires an entirely new testing plan. Bugs identified and fixed in each previous release are also checked to ensure they are truly corrected. This can require testing on multiple platforms, or on multiple browsers. After handling new feature testing and bug fixes, we begin our test routines, which can take from a few hours to several days to run. In these tests, we verify that each feature works as expected and is consistent across platforms. The WebNative Suite contains several hundred different programs and plugins, and almost all of them interoperate with other programs. The testing process helps ensure they work properly.

While testing is in process, we update our documentation with new feature functionality, as well as the workflows and processes made available with these features. Materials for our series of training classes are also updated to reflect new functionality. Since we are already conducting trainings with customers on the new software, areas of improvement in usability are discovered throughout this process.

During the integration process, we like to provide ample time within the product BETA cycle for members of our Developer Program to test their software against the new platform and make necessary adjustments. This helps to ensure that our published APIs are as backward compatible as possible.

The final part of the BETA period is education. Our integrators need to know what has changed, what new features we have, why they are useful and how to use them. Once the release is out, we follow this up with similar education for customers.

At Xinet, we know that our software is very central to most of our customers' operations and that upgrading to a major release is a big change that requires planning and time commitment to install. We try very hard to make this process as easy and painless as possible. We also try to ensure that each major release has enough new features to make the process worthwhile. The Xinet release model is set up to introduce useful, feature-rich releases that will benefit our customers. We look forward to presenting WebNative Suite 16 to you soon.

Xinet Community News                

Xinet and our integrators have been busy these past few months. Here’s a peek at what we’ve been doing.
                                                
In Barcelona, Spain, our integrator System Bages exhibited at the new digital graphic technology tradeshow Graphispag this past February. Depicting the new business possibilities that digital printing offers, the show appealed to diverse industries from graphic design, publishing and photo labs to advertising and banking. The crowd was excited to see what WebNative can do and were eager to explore the options it provided their customers in asset storage, archiving, file transfer systems and streamlined workflows.
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Over in New York this June at Henry Stewart DAM, Xinet worked with our integrator IO Integration and demonstrated some new video features, a tool that is growing increasingly popular. With speakers from Boeing, National Geographic, Arnold Worldwide and The Marketing Store, this show also spanned diverse industries.
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In July, we headed to Henry Stewart DAM London with integrator Data Revolution. ROI was the buzzword here—how can businesses do more with less? The answer has quickly become digital asset management, now a mainstream business requirement.
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If any Londoners missed us there, Abbeycomp IT Solutions has recently opened up its new demo suite in Central London. They currently average ten free demonstrations of Xinet WebNative Suite a month to new audiences. Attendees also come away with their own skinned and branded asset management access site.
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O2i, one of our French integrators, organized a demonstration of our new features for current clients in May that was so popular it exceeded attendance expectations. June found them at the Graphitec graphic arts and printing show, France's largest and longest running show of its kind.
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With three shows this past May, Vatotec AG, based in Switzerland, demonstrated in Zurich, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf. Using real case studies, they showed the underlying technique of installing the WebNative system to an audience of primarily marketing and communications professionals.
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We'd love to see you at a future event. If you are interested in speaking at a Henry Stewart DAM show, please contact our Public Relations Manager, Julie Huang.

ec2i is a catalog production and data management company based in the UK, renowned for its high quality color retouching. After trying multiple digital asset management products, ec2i found WebNative Suite to be the solution that combined the best of their previous systems. Now, ec2i is able to provide clients with a highly visual asset management system, that is also straightforward and accessible, with which clients can access their files 24/7, from anywhere. Steve Fitzgerald, technical director at ec2i explains “We needed a robust and reliable solution that could scale to our constantly growing requirements and that’s what Xinet provides.”

*Read the full ec2i case study.

Effective color management is an important component of Athleta's catalog production and WebNative proved the right DAM solution to manage color and their assets. "Our file search is fantastic; I love having the ability to copy and paste a file name into my browser without having to search through a lot of files like I would have if I were just looking through the file system,” said Bret Linford, prepress manager at Athleta.

*Read the full Athleta case study.

When Courier brought prepress services in-house they decided to install the WebNative solution in order to better track and manage their vast quantity of assets. They are now benefiting from a more efficient system that saves time and eliminates errors.  Mitchell Turner, manager of production publishing systems, also appreciates WebNative’s transparency. “It mirrors our existing server in real time—the files are ingested into the system, they’re copied onto the server and everyone can see them immediately. That’s just awesome.”

*Read the full Courier case study.

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