The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) bought the package to roll out its flagship 80pp magazine E&T, produced 18 times a year with a worldwide circulation of 150,000.

The software, launched at Drupa in 2008, manages all aspects of production, from preflighting ad files and managing editorial proofing to creating press-ready PDFs and exporting to CMS.

Gary Kirk, Agfa Graphics software solutions specialist, said: "It's an amalgam of things. IET were looking at content management, editorial processes and document sharing.

"But this entailed three to four different ventures. They wanted to integrate it and bring it all together under one umbrella. When they saw our package, they canned their other plans."

The tech, costing from around £30,000, was targeted at publishers, but large printers could possibly use it as an add-on service, Kirk added.

IET production manager Michelle Williams said: "We wanted to manage production from cradle to grave and to manage the editorial and production process via one central flatplan-based interface."