4 new features to Forge a stronger content strategy

Content is king. To reach new audiences and produce repeatable monetisation, it needs to be timely, smart and relevant. This is a fact.

Sports organisations of all kinds operate today in a highly competitive environment, dominated by hyper-innovation - and it all starts with owning a next-gen publishing platform. But what do the major players in the sports tech ecosystem look for when searching for a publishing platform? Here at Deltatre, we know the answer. Experience has taught us that leading technology in sport needs to be powerful, user-friendly and, most importantly, specifically designed to enhance storytelling. These are the principles on which we built Forge and Deltatre is proud to present its second update of 2019.

Here are four key updates.

#1. Simplified typing

Not only does Forge allows editors to work on their pieces in a quick and effective way but, with the latest release, it also simplifies typing and speeds up editorial activity. Complex texts can now be easily added to the copy by accessing lists of available presets from the general toolbar.

Think about competitions, trademarks, special characters, even emojis - all of this is now just one click away. Administrators are now able to easily configure the relevant sections of presets, making life easier for editors who need to work around the clock under the huge amounts of pressure that only occur during live events. In fact, we stated it above: content - to really stand out - needs to be timely, smart and relevant.

#2. Enhanced linking

The latest update also allows editors on the back office to define attributes on links included in their copy. This provides a richer and more immersive experience to fans who are browsing the website. No more interruptions or “go back” clicks, the UI will provide editors with the ability to decide whether a link should open in a separate tab or window, or display additional text to help the user to better under understand the context of the linked content.

#3. A cloud-agnostic platform

The migration to .NET Core for two additional core components is now complete. This means that Applications Services and Distribution API can now be executed on Linux using containers - resulting in Forge becoming essentially a cloud-agnostic platform. This particular aspect allows operators to run, operate, monitor and scale the platform on different cloud providers or on premises in a consistent way.

Also, starting from this release, the GuiShell SDK supports a native integration with .NET Core applications.

Check here the 6 ways Forge can help enhancing fan engagement

#4. Improved back-office experience

Among the ‘front-facing’ features, an easier-to-use back-office is also at the core of this update. A new feature allows editors and operators to find the content they are working on in an easier manner through additional filtering options - such as the filtering of editorial items by date ranges on extended fields (i.e. past hour, past 24 hours, or a custom range).

Among the other improvements, Forge now enables extensions to the back-office UI for third-party integrators. This aspect is crucial to a smoother and more effective editorial activity, due to a bespoke look and feel that Forge provides for editors when the information - along with editing controls - is shown. Not only does this apply to the desktop experience, but it also improves the experience on mobile. And we all know how crucial it is for editors to be in control even when on the move.

Finally, something on publication workflows. This release of Forge adds new metrics that will allow operators and system admins to analyse the full workflow, from idea inception through to the creation of content and - ultimately - publication. The analysis can be easily done from the back-office, using the so-called “correlation token”, a unique identifier that remains consistent across the different stages leading to publication.