Boston Globe Improves Employee Experience with Automation

When newspaper publisher, The Boston Globe, was sold by The New York Times in October 2013, the group had to quickly break away from its previous owners and their IT systems. But The Boston Globe saw this change as an opportunity.

To aid in the IT systems transition, The Boston Globe adopted Mendix’s application platform to rapidly deliver dozens of applications that support unique processes across its newsroom, advertising and finance departments.

Challenge

Example Mendix apps include:

  • Newsroom Corrections – The Globe migrated a legacy Lotus Notes app for entering, tracking and reporting on corrections. What took over a month to code in Lotus took just five days with Mendix.
  • Ad Imaging – This application allows the Globe’s advertising team and self-service customers to add photos to classified ads. Using Mendix, it was built by one developer in 20 days.
  • Freelance Management – This app automates the process of managing the newspaper’s 500-plus freelancers. Despite extensive workflows across multiple departments, it was built by two developers in 30 days, whereas it took the Globe’s previous owner one year to build similar functionality with a larger staff.