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.

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.

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;

1. Speakers - for whom the host is expected to pay airfare, hotel, meals and transportation and
2. Attendees - which are usually gained via a direct mail and internet advertising campaign and
3. A location - which can be a hotel conference room or a university lecture hall
4. Handouts for the attendees

Revenue from a conference usually includes;

Registration fees

1. Sponsorship Fees
2. Exhibit Income
3. Book sales
4. 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.