Software as a Service
April 17, 2009
Software as a service book publishing software solution offers book publishers unique advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
- SAS means that you need to spend less money upfront. You pay a monthly fee per user.
- SAS can significantly reduce your IT expenses by eliminating the need to purchase and manage additional servers.
- With a SAS offering the vendor assumes responsiblity for software updates and data-backups.
Disadvantages
- The long term cost may be higher that purchasing the software, especially for publishers with lots of users.
- If the vendor’s system or your internet connection goes down your system goes down too.
- The vendor has possession of your data and the software. If they or their hosting services goes under you may lose access to your data.
- SAS is not offered by all vendors.
When we evaluate hosted solutions we look for;
a. Mirrored hosting at financially stable multiple Tier 3 hosting centers.
b. References that demonstrate minimal downtime for the hosting service.
c. Option to store accessible copies of the datafiles and program files at the publishers site or at a software escrow service. This protect the publisher in the unlikely event that the vendor goes under.
Warehouse Management Leaders
April 16, 2009
Which book publishing software solutions are strongest in warehouse management?
From our perspective the leader in warehouse management is IBS Bookmaster. If you are running a major distribution or 3rd party fulfillment operation with sales over $10M its IBS Bookmaster. Most of IBS Bookmaster clients run major distribution operations and because of this IBS has more WMS (warehouse management system) implementation experience than its competitors, and its software offers greater functionality in this area.
Last year; in 2008, National Book Network ( www.nbnbooks.com ) implemented IBS Bookmaster. NBN went live with no downtime.
Number two in my list would be Vista, because of their experience with large WMS systems. Vista is not as powerful in WMS as IBS Bookmaster, but they offer more marketing tools for publishers. Vista also offers a powerful hosted WMS solution for smaller publishers.
For a smaller publisher, with sales of $3M to $10M I would say that ACUMEN Book is the leading solution based on functionality and price. ACUMEN offers a choice of optional advanced waremanagement modules; including ASN, along with an option of using a more powerful (and more expensive) 3rd party WMS.
When looking for a WMS the first thing that we tell our clients to ask the vendor is how many WMS have you installed over the past 1, 2 and 3 years. Then we advise our clients to contact those vendors for feedback on their experience. You want a vendor that has a track record of implementing warehouse management systems with minimal or zero downtime.
Leading Book Publishing ERP Software Solutions
January 22, 2009
What are the most popular book publishing software solutions? Read more
Book Publishing Software References
November 15, 2008
Book publishing software consultants at Kensai International place an immense amount of importance on the vendor’s implementation track record. Read more
Mail Order Manager for Publishers
July 20, 2008
Not all book publishers use book publishing software.
A number of publishers use Mail Order Manager from Dydacomp.
Who are these publishers? and why did they choose Mail Order Manager?
1. These publishers are focused on direct mail sales, and feel that they need order management software to manage and grow their business.
“Dydacomp’s Mail Order Manager (M.O.M.)solution, is the leading integrated ecommerce and order management system available for multi-channel businesses, with nearly 10,000 clients since 1986. M.O.M. provides the total order management, order import, and order processing automation solution for your business, whether you take orders online, by phone, over-the-counter or some combination of all three.”.
2. They run a tight ship and feel that they don’t need publishing specific software as their royalty, production management, and job costing requirements are relatively simple.
3. They like the fact that they are dealing with a software solution used by nearly 10,000 companies, not a publishing specific package with a customer base of 50 to 300 publishers.
Waht we really like about MOM is their wide selection of optional modules. These include;
Amazon.com® Order Management Module
- Download Amazon orders directly to M.O.M. without double work.
- Manage and upload product details, images and much more directly from Mail Order Manager
- Synchronize online inventory availability
- Uploads shipping information to update Amazon’s online order status
- Requires M.O.M.’s Import/Export Module (IEM)
Advanced Warehouse Module (AWM)
Designed for larger order processing and fulfillment operations this module enables warehouses and warehouse service areas to be defined based on region (zones). The module also allows one person to centrally manage the activities of multiple packers working at one or several warehouse locations.
Address Correction and Verification Module (ACVM)
Reduce shipping delays, carrier imposed penalty fees and bad will that result from inaccurate address entry. Compare key-entered and imported customer shipping or mailing addresses against actual USPS® data that is updated 6 times each year. This module corrects and validates key entered orders in real time, ensuring accurate shipping addresses before an order is completed.
Tier One Publishing Software Criteria
June 28, 2008
At Kensai we classify software solutions as Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 with Tier 1 being our highest rating. What are the criteria we use to assign a publishing software application to Tier 1? Read more
