From Sales Representation to Fulfillment Systems
The true versatility of Publishing Technology
As part of the recently announced news concerning the global expansion of the agreement between BioOne and Publishers Communication Group (PCG), a division of Publishing Technology, the Publishing Technology group will not only provide exclusive worldwide marketing, sales representation and library customer service for the non-profit web-based, collaborative of high impact bioscience publications, but has also implemented hosted fulfillment and subscription modules from the author2reader™ platform to manage back office needs of the organization.
Prior to the implementation of the hosted author2reader system, subscriber information was managed on two different systems, making updating and maintaining consistency a challenge.
The new author2reader system provides one authoritative resource for customer, product, and subscription information. The flexible nature of author2reader has allowed the system to be configured to meet PCG’s specific business requirements for its BioOne program.
Jeff Downing, Global Marketing and Sales Director for BioOne, commented, “The new system allows PCG’s BioOne team to work more effectively and efficiently, while providing excellent levels of customer service.” The hosted solution allowed for a quick implementation and smooth transition. Mr. Downing elaborated, “The system is so easy to use that minimal training of PCG staff was required, and to accommodate busy schedules, training was available in person as well as remotely. We were also able to cutover from our previous system with no down time. The old system was shut off at the end of the business day and the new system was up and running without issue the next morning. We couldn’t have asked for more from the implementation team.”
This project is a prime example of how versatile and extensive Publishing Technology’s offerings truly are. George Lossius, CEO of Publishing Technology explained, “The divisions of Publishing Technology worked hand and hand in this project to ensure a well tailored solution to meet the unique needs of the PCG BioOne program. This project has once again validated our reasoning for merging the two organizations – VISTA and Ingenta – to form Publishing Technology.”
To learn more about our range of solutions, please visit www.publishingtechnology.com or email info@publishingtechnology.com.
###
For more information, please contact:
Morayéa Pindziak
Publishing Technology plc
Tel: +1 732 563 9292 x269
Email: morayea.pindziak@publishingtechnology.com
Emily Taylor
Publishing Technology plc
Tel: +44 (0)1865 397873
Email: emily.taylor@publishingtechnology.com
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Editorial Manager Webinar Nov 3rd, 2008
Klopotek is hosting a webinar for their new and very affordable Editorial Manager software. Read the press release below;
Calling all editors!
What could you do with a tool that:
* helped you plan and calculate your publishing projects?
* accurately provided forecasts?
* allows for project collaboration with others or works standalone?
For $1 a day, you can get these and other benefits from "Editorial Planner"
Developed by Klopotek whose software supports more publishers, with more users in more locations, than any other software company.
To find out more about Editorial Planner and obtain a trial version, sign up for a Webinar on the following dates.
Webinar Dates: Nov 3rd, 11am, November 5th 1pm EST
Contact: g.logan@klopotek.com
Calling all editors!
What could you do with a tool that:
* helped you plan and calculate your publishing projects?
* accurately provided forecasts?
* allows for project collaboration with others or works standalone?
For $1 a day, you can get these and other benefits from "Editorial Planner"
Developed by Klopotek whose software supports more publishers, with more users in more locations, than any other software company.
To find out more about Editorial Planner and obtain a trial version, sign up for a Webinar on the following dates.
Webinar Dates: Nov 3rd, 11am, November 5th 1pm EST
Contact: g.logan@klopotek.com
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Dashbook v2 Released
Version 2 of Dashbook, an affordable solution for very small publishers has been released.
Version 2 enhancements include;
- Network Level supports multiple users.
- Enterprise Level supports one or more users on Microsoft SQL Server.
- Sales channels for different royalty percents based on order or buyer.
- PayPal integration to pay authors directly.
- Royalty payment thresholds avoid small payments.
- Hold payments on royalties to postpone payments.
- Contact communication history to record your emails, phone calls, etc.
- Product inactive switch removes old products from sale choices.
- Copy products, royalty agreements, orders and contacts to reduce typing.
- Extended product descriptors add more like subtitle and media type.
- Editable invoice quantities allow consignment sales of partial stock.
- Import book data from the internet based on multiple ISBNs.
- Fractions on product weight because small numbers add up.
- Social security number / tax ID numbers added to all contact types.
Great Commissions Publications Selects Media Services Solution
Great Commission Publications selected Media Services Group's Élan Book to replace their current Order Power fulfillment system. The agreement will provide Great Commission Publications with Élan Book, Financials, and E-Commerce Web Services. The new software system will be hosted through The Media Services Group’s high-security ASP (Application Service Provider) facilities and accessed by GCP over the internet.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Argosy Books Selects Vista's Fulfillment Application
Argosy Books, Ireland’s only independent wholesaler, has selected VISTA’s fulfillment application in a hosted (AHS) environment to enhance the management of inventory and support electronic (EDI) ordering. To complement the system, Argosy will also implement VISTA’s e-commerce module to support their online warehouse.
Read the Vista Publishing Software Press Release
Read the Vista Publishing Software Press Release
World Bank Goes Live with Klopotek Rights & Royalties Software
The World Bank Office of the Publisher went live with Klopotek’s Contracts, Rights & Royalties software in March 2008 following the successful implementation of the Editorial & Production software in February.
The Office of the Publisher, is the publishing arm of the World Bank. It handles all official publications bearing the World Bank’s ISBN and manages the World Bank’s intellectual property.
Read the Klopotek Book Publishing Software Press Release
The Office of the Publisher, is the publishing arm of the World Bank. It handles all official publications bearing the World Bank’s ISBN and manages the World Bank’s intellectual property.
Read the Klopotek Book Publishing Software Press Release
Friday, June 6, 2008
Software Price Lists
Not all book publishing software vendors have a printed price sheet.
Anko and That's Rights post their prices on their website.
Acumen has a printed price list that they send to qualified prospects.
Anko and That's Rights post their prices on their website.
Acumen has a printed price list that they send to qualified prospects.
National Book Network Switches to IBS Bookmaster
The Self Awareness ( www.shelf-awareness.com ) ; daily enlightenment for the book trade, website reported that NBN is implementing IBS Bookmaster.
"Tom Luckinich has joined Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group and National Book Network as director of IT operations, where he will manage the MIS department and support daily operations as the company prepares to switch to IBS/BookMaster. He has held IT management positions for 20 years at several companies, including Westinghouse Electric."
Read the source documment or go to Shelf-Awareness.com and search the archive for IBS Bookmaster.
"Tom Luckinich has joined Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group and National Book Network as director of IT operations, where he will manage the MIS department and support daily operations as the company prepares to switch to IBS/BookMaster. He has held IT management positions for 20 years at several companies, including Westinghouse Electric."
Read the source documment or go to Shelf-Awareness.com and search the archive for IBS Bookmaster.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Klopotek's Information ViewPoint
Two weeks ago we saw Klopotek’s Information ViewPoint product and were amazed. Its modern, easy to use and customizable for the user. In our view, its a clear competitive advantage vs. products offered by other vendors.
What is Information Viewpoint? In a nutshell it’s a web based customizable view of information that users want to see. Users select the fields that they want to see and position them by dragging them on the screen. It has a modern clean look, similar to that of Microsoft Outlook.
An example of a report created using ViewPoint is a Title Revenue Analysis. It shows sales by year with a drill down to sales by month and sales by Order type. You can access it online via the web and control access by user or user group.
Information Viewpoint integrate with most Klopotek modules including; Product Planning and Production, Contracts Rights & Royalties, Book Sales & Distribution, Journal Sales & Distribution, Customer Care Management and Advertising Sales and Management.
For screen shots have a look at the ViewPoint brochure.
A lot of companies focus on adding new features, but they overlook the need to make the information easily accessible to the end-user. From our point of view Klopotek’s management has focused their R&D on information accessibility. We saw this first with Production Cockpit, then Authors Online, Business Objects Universe for Production and now ViewPoint. Its a focus that is really setting their solution apart from the competition.
What is Information Viewpoint? In a nutshell it’s a web based customizable view of information that users want to see. Users select the fields that they want to see and position them by dragging them on the screen. It has a modern clean look, similar to that of Microsoft Outlook.
An example of a report created using ViewPoint is a Title Revenue Analysis. It shows sales by year with a drill down to sales by month and sales by Order type. You can access it online via the web and control access by user or user group.
Information Viewpoint integrate with most Klopotek modules including; Product Planning and Production, Contracts Rights & Royalties, Book Sales & Distribution, Journal Sales & Distribution, Customer Care Management and Advertising Sales and Management.
For screen shots have a look at the ViewPoint brochure.
A lot of companies focus on adding new features, but they overlook the need to make the information easily accessible to the end-user. From our point of view Klopotek’s management has focused their R&D on information accessibility. We saw this first with Production Cockpit, then Authors Online, Business Objects Universe for Production and now ViewPoint. Its a focus that is really setting their solution apart from the competition.
Quality Solutions Now Firebrand Technologies
Its been a long time coming, but Quality Solutions is now FireBrand Technologies.
New technology, new software, web based applications, and an updated website for the 21st century.
The first release, Title Management 7.0 will allow a publisher to link together information from all the different aspects (texts, chapters, videos, etc.) of a title or titles to one property.
An article in the the April 21st issue of Publishers Weekly reports that purpose is to help the publisher manage all of their digital workflows.
The new website is: http://www.firebrandtech.com
New technology, new software, web based applications, and an updated website for the 21st century.
The first release, Title Management 7.0 will allow a publisher to link together information from all the different aspects (texts, chapters, videos, etc.) of a title or titles to one property.
An article in the the April 21st issue of Publishers Weekly reports that purpose is to help the publisher manage all of their digital workflows.
The new website is: http://www.firebrandtech.com
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Acumen Webinar
Today we had the opportunity to view an Acumen webinar of their new features.
Acumen's webinar was different from that of knkPublishing in that they used a fictional business to demonstrate their new functionality.
Thus use of an imaginary business case really made the webinar come alive for attendees and lead to a lively question and answer session at the end of the demo.
Acumen's webinar was different from that of knkPublishing in that they used a fictional business to demonstrate their new functionality.
Thus use of an imaginary business case really made the webinar come alive for attendees and lead to a lively question and answer session at the end of the demo.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
knkPublishing Webinar
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to view the knkPublishing webinar for book publishers.
It was a good introduction to the software but it could have been much better as there was little exchange between the presenters and the webinar viewers.
From my perspective;
1. I would have liked to seen current knkPublishing users commenting on how the knkPublishing software has helped their business. There are some really large publishers using knkPublishing, and their participation would have brought a level of shock and awe to the webinar for they have some pretty dramatic stories to tell.
2. There was too much emphasis on the accounting functionality of the core Microsoft Dynamics NAV product, and not enough on each of the publishing specific modules. Sure its great that you can instantly save reports to word or excel or reformat reports, but it would have been more informative if they walked you through a case of a publisher actually using the software to manage the production schedule for a title instead of just showing your screen after screen with a multitude of fields.
It was a good introduction to the software but it could have been much better as there was little exchange between the presenters and the webinar viewers.
From my perspective;
1. I would have liked to seen current knkPublishing users commenting on how the knkPublishing software has helped their business. There are some really large publishers using knkPublishing, and their participation would have brought a level of shock and awe to the webinar for they have some pretty dramatic stories to tell.
2. There was too much emphasis on the accounting functionality of the core Microsoft Dynamics NAV product, and not enough on each of the publishing specific modules. Sure its great that you can instantly save reports to word or excel or reformat reports, but it would have been more informative if they walked you through a case of a publisher actually using the software to manage the production schedule for a title instead of just showing your screen after screen with a multitude of fields.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Prices are Negotiable
For most vendors, prices are negotiable. Show them that a competitor is offering a lower price and "some" vendors will adjust their prices if it is for a "comparable" system.
How large can these adjustments be?
In the past we have seen vendors adjustment their prices by 10% to 33%.
Which firms are most likely to offer the largest price adjustments? Its new vendors that are entering the market and need references to obtain future sales or vendors that are desperate for a sale.
How large can these adjustments be?
In the past we have seen vendors adjustment their prices by 10% to 33%.
Which firms are most likely to offer the largest price adjustments? Its new vendors that are entering the market and need references to obtain future sales or vendors that are desperate for a sale.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
eBooks 103
Once you are using POD to monetize your back list and are providing digital files to DARs (Digital Asset Resellers) its time to create new products from existing intellectual property, as that is where you will maximize income.
In this area publishers are using many strategies.,
1. Some such as Harlequin are selling eBooks by subscription. Readers get access to books before their published release.
2. O'Reilly is selling whole book PDFs along with short article based PDFs.
3. Random House is experimenting with the sale of individual chapters.
The key for success is to define digital products that will maximize revenue for your products. What works for one publisher may not work for another due to differences in content, the size of their back list and the number of new titles they produce each year.
In this area publishers are using many strategies.,
1. Some such as Harlequin are selling eBooks by subscription. Readers get access to books before their published release.
2. O'Reilly is selling whole book PDFs along with short article based PDFs.
3. Random House is experimenting with the sale of individual chapters.
The key for success is to define digital products that will maximize revenue for your products. What works for one publisher may not work for another due to differences in content, the size of their back list and the number of new titles they produce each year.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
eBooks 102
Following up on my last post where I suggested that publishers signup with DARs, digital asset resellers;
1. Each DAR specializes in a specific area of the market. NetLibrary does best with professional books accessed by university students. Ingenta excels at the marketing of journal articles. Sony eBook is great for works of fiction. So target your efforts at the DARs that excel at handling your type of book.
2. How much can you expect to earn? At the time this article is being written a small publisher with sales of about $5M in New York gets 3% of their sales from digital resellers.
3. To faciliate the tracking of digital sales one should assign a new ISBN to your digital products. Some authorities recommend a seperate ISBN for each digitsal format, but for most publishers a single new ISBN for all digital formats (Sony eBook, Mobipocket, Adobe Digital Book) of the entire book is sufficient for sales analysis purposes.
1. Each DAR specializes in a specific area of the market. NetLibrary does best with professional books accessed by university students. Ingenta excels at the marketing of journal articles. Sony eBook is great for works of fiction. So target your efforts at the DARs that excel at handling your type of book.
2. How much can you expect to earn? At the time this article is being written a small publisher with sales of about $5M in New York gets 3% of their sales from digital resellers.
3. To faciliate the tracking of digital sales one should assign a new ISBN to your digital products. Some authorities recommend a seperate ISBN for each digitsal format, but for most publishers a single new ISBN for all digital formats (Sony eBook, Mobipocket, Adobe Digital Book) of the entire book is sufficient for sales analysis purposes.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
eBooks 101
There is a lot of talk in the industry about digital publishing, and many publishers ask what is the best way to proceed.
First, I would start with Print on Demand for old slow moving back list titles. If you do it through Ingram's Lightning Source they will take orders you send them and pick, pack and ship the books to the customer for you within 24 hours. Once your titles are listed as being available through POD with Lightning Source they are listed as being in stock at Ingram, the largest book wholesaler in the United States.
Second, then I would contact a DAM; Digital Asset Manager, such as LibreDigital or Code Mantra to convert my existing titles to digital books (they will do this for a minimal fee). Once this is done the next step is to sign agreements with digital asset resellers so that they can start selling your titles. Who are these DARs? They include eBrary, NetLibrary, Amazon, Sony eBook, OverDrive, eBook.com and many more.
First, I would start with Print on Demand for old slow moving back list titles. If you do it through Ingram's Lightning Source they will take orders you send them and pick, pack and ship the books to the customer for you within 24 hours. Once your titles are listed as being available through POD with Lightning Source they are listed as being in stock at Ingram, the largest book wholesaler in the United States.
Second, then I would contact a DAM; Digital Asset Manager, such as LibreDigital or Code Mantra to convert my existing titles to digital books (they will do this for a minimal fee). Once this is done the next step is to sign agreements with digital asset resellers so that they can start selling your titles. Who are these DARs? They include eBrary, NetLibrary, Amazon, Sony eBook, OverDrive, eBook.com and many more.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Llewellyn Selects Elan Rights & Royalties Software
"Llewellyn Worldwide, a leading publisher of New Age books and related products, has signed a contract with The Media Services Group to implement the Élan Rights and Royalties software application. Details of the agreement will see the new system implemented alongside the company’s current Oracle financials and fulfillment software."
Read the Media Services Press Release
Read the Media Services Press Release
Publishers Group UK installs Vista Hosted Solution
"January 30, 2008 —VISTA, market leader in applications to support the publishing supply chain, is proud to announce that Publishers Group UK (PGUK), a market leader in book sales and distribution representing publishers from the UK, Europe and the USA, has selected VISTA’s fulfillment and financial applications in a hosted (AHS) environment. The hosted applications require minimal maintenance from PGUK’s perspective allowing their mainly non-technical staff to focus on their business of marketing, selling and distributing books."
Read the Vista Press Release
Read the Vista Press Release
Monday, February 18, 2008
Software Selection Options
What are your options?
Any company looking for software should look at all of their options;
1. Integrated software
2. Best of breed solutions
3. Custom designed software
and
1. Standalone vs.
2. Hosted solutions
That said, there is no one best solution. You must select the software that best meets the requirements of your organization.
Any company looking for software should look at all of their options;
1. Integrated software
2. Best of breed solutions
3. Custom designed software
and
1. Standalone vs.
2. Hosted solutions
That said, there is no one best solution. You must select the software that best meets the requirements of your organization.
Dyanamics GP (Great Plains) Royalty Module
The Eclipse Rights & Royalty Management System (ERRMS) is the only software solution that is totally integrated with the mid market Microsoft Dynamics™ GP ERP package.
It is designed for Publishing, Music, Entertainment, and Merchandising companies who find it costly or disruptive to manually manage low value transactions, or to deal with intrusive SOX or trademark-initiated audits by “bounty-hunting” external auditors.
For more information visit: Eclipse Business Dynamics
It is designed for Publishing, Music, Entertainment, and Merchandising companies who find it costly or disruptive to manually manage low value transactions, or to deal with intrusive SOX or trademark-initiated audits by “bounty-hunting” external auditors.
For more information visit: Eclipse Business Dynamics
Sunday, February 17, 2008
SAP IPM Implemented in 4 Months
Medium sized publishers rarely look at SAP. They think that its too expensive and/or that it takes too long to implement.
That is not always true. The Nomos Publishing House implemented SAP IPM (Intellectual Property Management) and SAP CRM (Customer Relationship Management) in four months with the assistance if IDS Scheer.
"After the initial identification of the specialist requirements, a small team began work on the project in mid-September 2006. The finished fee settlement for the publisher for the year 2006 was hot off the press at the end of January 2007. This enabled Nomos to start making automatic postings for financial accounting and payment runs to the authors — in record time and the result of an excellent partnership."
Read the press release about this implementation of SAP IPM.
If your publishing company has growing sales of $50M USD and needs a customizable intellectual property management solution I would include SAP IPM among the solutions that I would evaluate.
That is not always true. The Nomos Publishing House implemented SAP IPM (Intellectual Property Management) and SAP CRM (Customer Relationship Management) in four months with the assistance if IDS Scheer.
"After the initial identification of the specialist requirements, a small team began work on the project in mid-September 2006. The finished fee settlement for the publisher for the year 2006 was hot off the press at the end of January 2007. This enabled Nomos to start making automatic postings for financial accounting and payment runs to the authors — in record time and the result of an excellent partnership."
Read the press release about this implementation of SAP IPM.
If your publishing company has growing sales of $50M USD and needs a customizable intellectual property management solution I would include SAP IPM among the solutions that I would evaluate.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
knk Publishing Software Comes to America
knk Business Software (http://www.knk.com/ ) is a European vendor of book publishing software modules certified for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Navision) product line.
Their first implementations in the United States are due to start soon and both sites are expected to go live by the end of the year. One publisher is in the Midwest and this solution is being implement by Solution Dynamics (http://www.solutiondynamics.net ) - a Microsoft Dynamics NAV VAR) and the other is on the East coast. We will let you know who they are as soon as knk Business Software AG releases a press release.
What sets knk Publishing apart from competitive book publishing solutions is that their book publishing software modules are 100% integrated into the Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP product.
Users work from one user interface - the Dynamics NAV user interface. This means that users don't have to switch between programs and the IT staff doesn't have to export information from one system and import into another.
Their first implementations in the United States are due to start soon and both sites are expected to go live by the end of the year. One publisher is in the Midwest and this solution is being implement by Solution Dynamics (http://www.solutiondynamics.net ) - a Microsoft Dynamics NAV VAR) and the other is on the East coast. We will let you know who they are as soon as knk Business Software AG releases a press release.
What sets knk Publishing apart from competitive book publishing solutions is that their book publishing software modules are 100% integrated into the Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP product.
Users work from one user interface - the Dynamics NAV user interface. This means that users don't have to switch between programs and the IT staff doesn't have to export information from one system and import into another.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Seminar Software
Some non-fiction publishers earn revenue by hosting conferences and seminars.
A number of years ago a publisher I know started a conference program. The first conference was hosted at the New School; a college, in New York City and broke even. Over the following years conferences grew to account for about half a million in net income a year for this publisher.
Conferences provide immediate revenue from prepaid registrations and qualified names for a publisher's direct marketing campaigns.
A conference needs;
Registration fees
A number of years ago a publisher I know started a conference program. The first conference was hosted at the New School; a college, in New York City and broke even. Over the following years conferences grew to account for about half a million in net income a year for this publisher.
Conferences provide immediate revenue from prepaid registrations and qualified names for a publisher's direct marketing campaigns.
A conference needs;
- Speakers - for whom the host is expected to pay airfare, hotel, meals and transportation and
- Attendees - which are usually gained via a direct mail and internet advertising campaign and
- A location - which can be a hotel conference room or a university lecture hall
- Handouts for the attendees
Registration fees
- Sponsorship Fees
- Exhibit Income
- Book sales
- Tape sales
If you are planning to begin a semianr program the appropiate software can make your life a lot easier. Conference software will track participants, generate conference badges, take credit card payments, provide a financial summary of conference revenue, and send automatic conference registration and reminder emails.
The following three vendors market seminar management software;
These include;
The Media Services Group
Media Services solution is part of a hosted solution that can also handle royalties, book sales, inventory management subscriptions and production management. A total ERP solution for book and periodical publishers.
SolutionDymanics.net - the Midwest USA VAR for Knk's Microsoft Navision's Publishing Software
KnkPublishing Event's management module is tightly integrated with Microsoft's Dynamics Navision ERP software. For more information on the Knk offering visit http://www.knk.com/
Regonline.com
Regonline is a online hosted solution, that charges a fee based on the number of seminar attendees. For small events the price is $4.75 per attendee.