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.

Vista Acquires Ingenta

Wow, Vista - a leading supplier of ERP systems to large publishers - acquired Ingenta; a distributor of online products, in a reverse merger to form a new company called Publishing Technology Plc.

What does this mean?

1. Vista is now a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange's AIM marketplace. As a publicly traded company it will have access to the capital markets to fund future growth via acquisitions or increased R&D spending.

2. Vista is now a provider of distribution software for both printed and online products.

3. Access to Ingenta's 266+ publisher clients will likely facilitate increased sales of Vista book publishing software in the future.

4. Vista, now a $33M USD publicly traded company (based on Pro-Forma financials) has increased its competitive strength vs. Klopotek (a $23M company) and IBS Bookmaster; its two main competitors.

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?

PMA AnyBook Software Review

At the Publishers Marketing Association web site you will find a review of AnyBook, a most affordable book publishing software solution for small publishers.

Rights Tracking Software

Two well known, and very affordable desktop based solutions for tracking sales of intellectual property; such as translation rights and permissions, are;

Rights 2000 with an up-to-date Explorer window interface. Suitable for publishers, packagers and agents. Holds details of interest and submissions, contracts and sub-rights monies. Extensive reports and analyses include chasing overdue submissions, monies due, overdue royalty statements, due contract dates and reversions, projected income and bookfair reports. Invoices can be generated and a Royalty Ledger is maintained. Exports to Mailmerge, Excel and HTML. Available in MS Access or SQL versions. Available from Bradbury Phillips.

Another solution is That's Rights.That's Rights! is a desktop application that helps you manage and drive your rights activities. Designed primarily for publishers, That's Rights! is for anyone who buys OR sells translation or subsidiary rights around the globe. Available from Thats Right's.