Aries Systems Corporation

The coronavirus pandemic has created unprecedented challenges to our professional and personal lives. With the impact of the pandemic overflowing into the new year, we are  doing our best to conform to this new normal.

When the whole world was shutting down in March of 2020, Aries Systems transitioned to a 100% work-from-home order practically overnight. Our offices have since reopened at limited capacity with the introduction of an app that allows Aries team members to reserve time in the office to ensure that everyone adheres to the social distancing and safety policies we’ve put in place. We are extremely proud of our team’s dedication to successfully maintaining routine operations in a virtual work environment.

In an effort to keep our Aries colleagues connected during these isolating times, we implemented virtual all-company trivia games and weekly “coffee break” meetings for teams to take a break from their busy day and catch up on anything but work-related topics. We transitioned this year’s annual company holiday party into a virtual all-staff meeting where we made a point to highlight all of the success realized in 2020 and recognize employees for their hard work and dedication. As an organization, we collectively decided to make a donation to Feeding America on behalf of our employees in lieu of any in-office celebrations.

In addition to all of the internal changes that took place, Aries transitioned our biannual user group meetings into two knowledge-packed webinar series. Engaging with our user community through virtual events was a shift for Aries and many others. We were thrilled to see that our EMUG 2020 webinar series this past summer nearly tripled our standard reach in comparison to our average in-person attendance, and we are eager to kick-off the EEMUG 2021 series within the next few weeks! To assist our user community during these difficult times, we were pleased to offer these sessions free of charge.

The Aries Client Services team continues to strive for exceptional, personalized support for all our customers. Thousands of journals worldwide depend on Aries Systems’ workflow solutions and during this time of uncertainty, we are dedicated to doing everything we can to support our customers and community. There are a number of measures we have taken to provide the highest level of support to our customers as you navigate the impacts of COVID-19 on your business. Some of these measures include scripting letter and instructional changes, COVID-19 specific Article type designations and flags, and offering a free Editorial Manager site to MIT Press to help accelerate the peer review of COVID-19-related research and prevent the dissemination of false or misleading scientific news. We have developed a set of tips for Editorial Manager® and ProduXion Manager® users to help optimize their workflows under the current climate.

As a part of our continued commitment, we proactively reached out to select customers to explore how we can better serve and support them and their staff during the pandemic. We invited customers to provide us with the insights required to discover ways in which Aries can partner closer with them to solve their needs and any new workflow challenges that have arisen in the past year. Additionally, we held a facilitated discussion on the impact of COVID-19 on the publishing community and brainstormed how Aries can better help our customers during these times at the December 2020 Aries Industry Advisory Board (AIAB) meeting; which includes representatives from key industry leaders. We were pleased with the positive feedback received from customers and board members through these open forums, and will continue to honor our commitment to unwavering support to the publishing community into 2021. And to thank our customers for their patience and support over the past year, Aries has made a donation to Doctors Without Borders on their behalf.

These are challenging times, but we feel confident that as a company and community, we can get through this together. If your journal requires any assistance, please contact your Aries Account Coordinator – we are here to help!