Ah, the journey from print to digital. Can we get there from here? Yes, we can. Is it a direct route? Nope.

Evolving with business today is harder than ever. There isn’t a speed limit. The autobahn is wide-open. And in-house agencies are faced with a dilemma: How do we stay relevant, continuing to deliver content in the ways that engages our constituents? Oftentimes, we don’t have the technical support necessary. We must rethink the ways we create, and acquire new skills and processes. It’s a journey.

Like many of you, the folks here on my team started this journey years ago. Here is one part of our story, where we paved our own road.

In 2011, we knew we needed to provide our magazine in digital form—and not just PDFs. Thanks to one of our industrious designers, our team went through Adobe DPS (Digital Publishing Suite) training and quickly learned how to make digital publications from our existing print files with no developers needed.

After much back and forth with IS, Adobe, and numerous others, certificates were obtained and our client magazine was in the proper format. Eventually we launched our digital publication via the app store—first for the iPad, then the iPhone, then Android tablets and phones. Now, we’re working on making it available for Windows devices. On this accelerated journey, there has been little time for celebration because it’s on to the next issue, the next device, the next…

We did all of this in the absence of a formal, enterprise-wide digital plan and we’ll continue with what we’ve built until a corporate plan is instituted, complete with developers and device-agnostic content. As we travel this crazy autobahn, we need to fasten our seatbelts but we also need to take time to enjoy the ride—to stop and smell the proverbial (digital) roses while embracing small victories and continuing to look forward.