New Mobile Applications Let Researchers Study in the Field
SAN CARLOS, Calif. — November 8, 2011 — Taking research into the field has a new, literal meaning with the launch of new mobile applications built on MarkLogic that are helping scientists better understand soil and crops. MarkLogic® Corporation, the company empowering organizations to make high stakes decisions on Big Data in real time, today announced the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) launched Science Pubs, developed for iPad, iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry devices. Science Pubs utilizes MarkLogic to give subscribers and non-subscribers the freedom to dig deep into ASA’s journals, magazines, and eBooks while conducting first-hand research and observations in the field.
The American Society of Agronomy is a prominent international scientific community devoted to agronomy policy and research. ASA members are dedicated to the conservation of natural resources to produce food, feed, and fiber crops, while maintaining and improving the environment. ASA publishes more than a dozen journals, magazines, and other publications to aid researchers. MarkLogic stores the content in those publications and makes it readily available across all applications.
“MarkLogic will save us at least $150,000 per year. That is a lot of money for any publisher, especially a non-profit like the American Society of Agronomy,” said Ian Popkewitz, director, Information Technology & Operations, American Society of Agronomy. “We originally implemented MarkLogic to cut the cost of providing critical publications to our subscribers, but we quickly realized several intangible benefits such as speed, ease of use, and flexibility. The flexibility allowed us to focus on the deployment of Science Pubs. ASA is very pleased to be able to quickly launch these services for subscribers and non-subscribers, and we expect them to generate revenue.”
Information is predicted to grow by 800 percent over the next five years, with 80 percent of it being unstructured data. ASA saw the future when it first utilized MarkLogic to store its vast amount of content which includes articles dating back 100 years and to provide fast, detailed, and reliable search results to subscribers through its various websites. That move alone not only cut costs but also increased efficiency and innovation. Only one person spends part of his job maintaining MarkLogic. That allowed ASA to divert resources to develop Science Pubs.
“MarkLogic is making a huge impact by cutting costs and generating revenue for customers time and again,” said Ron Avnur, CTO, MarkLogic. “The American Society of Agronomy is a classic MarkLogic success story. ASA is cutting costs, reducing overhead and maintenance, and devoting newfound resources to develop new revenue-generating applications on MarkLogic. These kinds of savings make a huge difference for any enterprise struggling to capitalize on the complexity of Big Data.”
Science Pubs applications are free and can be downloaded here.
For more information on how ASA is saving money with MarkLogic, read the case study, Leading Publisher Reaps Major Cost Savings, at www.marklogic.com.
About The American Society of Agronomy
The American Society of Agronomy (ASA), at www.agronomy.org,is a scientific society helping its 8,000+ members advance the disciplines and practices of agronomy by supporting professional growth and science policy initiatives, and by providing quality, research-based publications and a variety of member services.