Raoul Guénette: Onixedit Provides Professional Onix Metadata Systems for Publishers, Resellers and Books Metadata Aggregators

ONIXEDIT provides professional ONIX metadata systems for publishers, resellers and books metadata aggregators.

Tell us about yourself?

I get a degree in computer science in 1986 and developed hundreds of custom systems since then. Today, as a software architect and with the help of my team, I concentrate all my efforts to provide the best ONIX software and services in the world.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Take your time, but do it quick! Time is a precious asset and we should use it efficiently at work as well as with our family.

What problem does your business solve?

We automate metadata workflows in a highly customizable manner based on the ONIX for books standard. With ONIXEDIT Server, you’ll get our most advanced ONIX solution: Automate ingestion of metadata and asset files to ONIX catalogues. Collaborate with colleagues and clients using ONIXEDIT Cloud. Schedule automatic transmission of metadata and asset files to your partners, when and how they want it. Monetize your metadata with Shopify or integrate with your in-house system using our RESTful API.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

In 2008, we were invited to participate in a call for tenders at the BTLF, an organization dedicated to improving the marketing of French-language books in Canada and Quebec. The mandate aimed to implement the ONIX standard, an international standard intended to exchange bibliographic, commercial and marketing information between the various stakeholders in the book chain. After obtaining this contract, and learning to master the ONIX standard, we discovered that it would be very difficult for publishers to adapt to this standard. Hence the idea of creating a software suite intended for all members of the book chain.

What is your magic sauce?

One word: Ingenuity. Over the past 12 years, our small team of experienced developers has mastered the art of solving the most complex problems related to the automation of metadata flows in various forms and to centralize them based on the ONIX standard.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

Consolidate our Software as a Service (SaaS) offer for all our ONIX tools, translate it in different languages (we are currently available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese) in order to develop new international markets.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

Our latest ONIXEDIT Cloud 4 web-based service was probably the most challenging innovation that we made so far. We took 2 years to implement this service and we had to completely replace our database for MongoDB, our web development platform for Angular as well as our RESTful API communication layer in .NET Core. Indeed, it involves a lot of new technologies combined together in order to offer the most advanced, user-friendly and reliable ONIX metadata system in the world.

How do people get involved/buy into your vision?

The ONIX metadata standard is a very particular niche requiring in-depth knowledge of the book industry. Anyone who is faced with automation problems such as importing metadata in different formats, automating the transmission of this metadata to trading partners, validating ONIX flows according to specific business rules or who wants to simply offer a specialized ONIX tool to their own customers, can contact us for a demonstration free of charge and without obligation.