Case Studies: Il Sole 24 ORE

The Il Sole 24 ORE Group is a multimedia publishing group, operating in the sectors of news, information and specialist publishing for professionals and businesspeople. The flagship publication is the daily newspaper Il Sole 24 ORE, which has more than 1.2 million readers and has distinguished itself for its authority and integrity, as well as for the accuracy of the information it provides.

However, the Group also includes the press agency 24 ORE Radiocor, the web portal www.ilsole24ore.com, the radio broadcaster Radio 24, and specialized professional publishing activities that include books, magazines, online databases and services, training programs, and management software, as well as advertising and the real-time provision of news and information.

The Il Sole 24 ORE Group is an authoritative point of reference for the worlds of finance, economics and government, and it provides an integrated publishing system by taking advantage of the strengths of the various media available.

The Group's integrated offering of publications revolves around the recognition of the Il Sole 24 ORE brand, which enables the public to connect the Group's products and services to the authority and reliability that the brand represents.

The Group has been listed on the Milano Borsa, the Stock Exchange of Milan, since 2007. The newspaper, founded in 1965, has headquarters in Milan and Rome and offices throughout Italy.

As one of the most important and renowned Italian daily business newspapers, Il Sole 24 ORE needed an advanced email list communication solution to serve its audience and manage the constant growth of its email lists.

In 2001, Il Sole 24 ORE leadership determined that it required a solution that could reach subscribers with newsletters, publicity and announcements from all of its different departments, encompassing highly tailored editorial, marketing and customer service communications.

Il Sole 24 ORE researched and evaluated solutions, ultimately deciding that a combination of L-Soft's LISTSERV^® email list management software, LISTSERV^® Maestro email marketing software, and HDMail high deliverability mail server was what it needed to optimally reach its opt-in recipients and make the process a smooth and efficient one for its employees responsible for the mailings.

Il Sole 24 ORE operates approximately 50 lists, some with approximately 1,000 subscribers and others with more than 10,000. The primary purpose of these one-way announcement and newsletter lists is to manage and distribute mailings, providing specialized and up-to-the-minute economic, financial and legal news content as well as customer service and promotional mailings.

The newspaper has enjoyed the efficiency and ease of use as well as the sophistication of function of LISTSERV, LISTSERV Maestro and HDMail, realizing significant benefits as a result of its careful analysis and decision to choose L-Soft's solutions.

"L-Soft has proven, time after time, to be a reliable provider because of the stability of its product and the excellence of its customer service. LISTSERV allows Il Sole 24 ORE to give our subscribers specialized information in a dynamic way yet makes the process of creating new mailing lists very simple," said Pasquale Bonito, Software Architect with Il Sole 24 ORE in Rome. "LISTSERV software also guarantees high performance, even as our lists and subscribers are constantly growing."

Mr. Bonito described how the media organization's integration of L-Soft solutions has allowed the organization to automate its registration and list management processes, enforce a strong anti-spam policy, and enable its editorial, marketing and customer service departments to be completely autonomous in sending mailings to their subscribers. By actively using the database integration, personalization and mail-merge functionality, Il Sole 24 ORE keeps its customers up-to-date with dynamic mailings, enjoying what Mr. Bonito describes as a "mature" integration of its versatile and high-performance email communications platform, while keeping the hardware configuration and complex management stable.

Mr. Bonito adds: "Particularly outstanding is L-Soft's capacity to improve its products over time, enriching its offerings with LISTSERV, LISTSERV Maestro and HDMail solutions, which are always interesting and have new functionalities aligned with the needs and demands of businesses today. L-Soft is a point-of-reference when looking for new and proven solutions."

Case study written in June 2008 with the assistance of Pasquale Bonito, Software Architect, Il Sole 24 ORE.

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