July 20, 2005 -- WoodWing Software’s industry-leading Smart Connection Enterprise (SCE) editorial solution is now available in a Japanese-language version, which opens the power and versatility of the product to a whole new range of customers throughout the world.

The company also announced that Koyosha — a leading technology distributor — will be handling the distribution of all WoodWing products in Japan. In addition to Smart Connection Enterprise, there are Japanese-language versions of WoodWing’s Smart Connection Pro, Smart Styles, Smart Catalog and Smart Layout.

WoodWing continues to make its popular Smart Connection Enterprise editorial solution available to more and more customers around the globe. In addition to Japanese, Smart Connection Enterprise is available in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish versions.

“We were responding to the needs of our customers,” said Erik Schut, President of WoodWing. “We heard from people in Japan and elsewhere around the world that they would love to have a Japanese-language version of Smart Connection Enterprise, so we wanted to fill that need. And we’re thrilled that Koyosha will be handling our products in Japan. They have an outstanding reputation, and we’re very excited to add them to our worldwide network of partners.”

Smart Connection Enterprise is the industry’s most powerful editorial plug-in for Adobe InCopy and InDesign. Japanese-language newspapers and magazines will now be able to take full advantage of its many powerful features.

“There are a growing number of InDesign and InCopy users in Japan,” said Brian Kruger, CEO of WoodWing USA. “They’ve been asking for us to make this happen, and the release of this new version of Smart Connection Enterprise now guarantees that they’ll be able to take full advantage of its open-source database functionality and all its other powerful features.”

Kruger said the new release will have huge benefits for companies both in Japan and around the world. “There are a lot of companies that have offices in Japan and other countries, including the United States,” he said. “This new version of Smart Connection Enterprise allows them to seamlessly produce their publications in Japanese and other languages, as well, without losing anything in productivity and efficiency.”

With customers in over 50 countries on six continents, WoodWing has a truly global reach. “We have an international presence, and that’s going to grow even more now,” Schut said. “We’re thrilled that companies in Japanese-language markets are going to be able to take advantage of this product, and we’re confident that Koyosha will provide excellent service to our customers there.”

Koyosha officials say they're excited about the partnership with WoodWing.

"More and more companies in Japan are switching to the InDesign platform, and they're going to be very impressed — as we were — once they see WoodWing's products," said Takaya Nagashima, Marketing Mananger at Koyosha. "Our customers are going to be very pleased when they see the power and versatility of Smart Connection Enterprise and all the other products. We're very happy to have the opportunity to work with WoodWing."

Smart Connection Enterprise is a highly scalable editorial workflow solution. It serves complex workflows and environments, where searching files and/or the content of a story or specific keywords or metadata is required. It comes standard with support for every common SQL database including MySQL, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, and now Sybase, as well. The server runs on many different operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris. Smart Connection Enterprise relies on a three-tier architecture to ensure scalability and flexibility, with all business logic centralized on the application server.

About WoodWing Software
Since 1997, WoodWing Software engineers have worked with the Adobe InDesign engineering team to develop plug-ins and solutions for Adobe InDesign and InCopy. Through a combination of publishing industry experience and a deep knowledge of the Adobe InDesign/InCopy architecture, WoodWing Software offers solutions, productivity tools and plug-ins that make publishing with these programs faster, easier and much more effective.

Its products include Smart Catalog, Smart Layout, Smart Styles and the acclaimed Smart Connection family of editorial solutions. WoodWing is based in Zaandam, The Netherlands, with U.S. operations headquartered in Detroit.

About Koyosha
Founded in 1932 as a printing company, Koyosha has grown to be one of Japan’s leading technology distributors. The company was among the first in Japan to digitize printing materials, and now provides a variety of services for its customers. The company’s Koyosha Graphics Division offers a host of software and hardware solutions to the photography, design and publishing industries.