Project Success Tips

At Book Expo America 2009 we talk to publishers and vendors about successful and unsuccessful implementation experiences. These conversations basically confirmed a few rules for successful projects;

Rule 1. Appoint a project manager.

Rule 2. Appoint an experienced project manager, someone who knows your company and its people. Not a greenhorn that was hired just a week or two ago.

Rule 3. Keep it simple. Ideally, you don't want to customize the software.

Rule 4. Keep it simple. Don't want attempt to integrate a best of breed application that the vendor has no experience with. It will cost you money and time, and may not work.

Rule 5. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. Hold weekly status meetings and make sure that the top people - the publisher, the CFO and the vendor's project manager attend.

Rule 6. Don't be afraid to shake the tree. If you have a problem take it to the top.

Rule 7. Keep a single list of outstanding issues. Circulate it. Make sure that its updated. Such a list helps to focus attention on the issues that it presents.

Rule 8. Go for a rapid implementation. The faster that you implement the software the less it will cost you in terms of money and staff time. Moreover, you will see benefits from the software sooner.

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.

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.

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.

Software Selection > Programming Language Evaluation

Any software selection process should include a review of the application layer; programming language, that drives the software and the financial strength of its vendor. An application layer supported by a profitable and growing company will facilitate future improvements to the software.

At Kensai we rank the application layer on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest rank.

Example 1.

One publishing software vendor uses Unify Corporation’s Vision product as its application layer.

A visit to the application vendor’s website; http://www.unify.com/, (on Feb 25, 20007) revealed the following;

• For fiscal year 2006 ending April 30, 2006 Unify reported total revenue of $11.2 million, compared to $11.3 million in the prior fiscal year. Net loss for the year was $682K compared to $2.4M in the prior year.
• For the first six months of fiscal year 2007 ending October 31st, total revenues were $3.9 million, a decrease of $0.9 million, or 19 percent from fiscal 2006 six-month revenues of $4.8 million. Year to date net loss from all operations was $941,000 or $0.03 loss per share, compared to a net loss of $107,000 or $0.00 loss per share in the comparable period last year.
• The Vision product does not appear to be the primary focus of their R&D efforts.
• They have offices in the UK, US and Paris.
• They have 60 employees.

Based on the above information we would assign a rank of 1 or 2 to the application layer. Why? The vendor's sales are declining, the company is losing money, the application - Vision - is not the primary product of the vendor and they have only 60 employees.

Example 2.

Another vendor uses Microsoft .NET VB as their programming language.

Based on this information we would assign a rank of 5 to the application layer. Why? Microsoft is the world's largest software company, the .NET initiative is a major focus of Microsoft, and there are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of programmers and businesses that use this programming language.

What Training Tools do the Vendors Offer?

Training is critical to the the success of any book publishing software implementation.

At Kensai when we evaluate software for our clients we rank each training tool on a scale of 0 to 5.

These tools include:

1. Software Documentation
2. Software Tutorials
3. On-Site Training
4. Off-Site Training
5. On-Line Training
6. Flash Tutorials

We also get first hand feedback from the vendor's clients. Is the training effective? Did the employees retain what they learned?

We compile this information to come up with a training score of 0 to 50 for each solution.

Evaluate All of Your Options

Smart publishers evaluate all of the available software options. They don't look at just one or two solutions.

They gather information on all of the available publishing specific software solutions.

They look at best of breed solutions.

And they evaluate hiring programmers to build a custom solution for their needs.

When Random House looked for a rights management solution they talked to all of the vendors. They looked at the PC based Bradbury Phillips Rights 2000 product and they looked at the costs of building their own solution, using SAP. They choose SAP, which their company already used.

Another large publisher followed the same evaluation process and selected the Bradbury Phillips Rights 2000 product.

Both publishers evaluated all of the options available to them and made a decision based on their business requirements.

Evaluate the Vendor's Tech Support

Evaluate the technical support offered by each book publishing software solution you are considering.

1. Tech Support Hours - Does the vendor offer support during your working hours?

2. How many Tech Support Reps per Client?

3. How much does Tech Support Cost?

4. Do they offer training classes?

5. Do they offer on-line training classes? Online training generally costs less than off-premises or on-site training classes.

6. How good is the vendor's documentation?

7. What do current clients say about the vendor's tech support?