Publishers with $50 million to $1 billion in sales will find that five companies (listed in market share order); Klopotek, Publishing Technology, IBS Bookmaster, Virtusales and SAP dominate the English language market for book publishing software.
- IBS Bookmaster is strongest in warehouse and distribution management,
- Klopotek is strongest in editorial and production management,
- Publishing Technology is focused on on-line marketing and has strong work process controls,
- SAP supports more languages and is the customizable solution,
- Virtusales is known for its ease of use and rapid implementations.
IBS Bookmaster
IBS Bookmaster is part of a $300M USD publicly traded company known for its distribution and warehouse management software.
This solution is built around a highly functional and robust book distribution system that also handles non-book products such as CD’s, videos and promotional material. It caters for the requirements of trade, academic, niche and subscriptions-based publishers and distributors. Bookmaster provides industry-specific features such as returns management, substitute ISBNs, title restrictions, new title release, dealing with buying groups and selling directly to academic institutions, and also includes integrated modules developed specifically for the book industry.
Bookmaster supports the English, Spanish, and Portuguese languages. Support for the French, Japanese and Polish languages are forthcoming.
They serve over 115 publishers worldwide including;
- US: Baker Book House, Barbour Books, Christian Publications, Columbia University Press, Harvard University Press, MIT Press, Springhouse, John Hopkins University Press and Yale University Press
- Australia: Butterworth, Harcourt Brace, HarperCollins, Macmillan Education, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, Simon &Schuster
Advantage: Best in industry warehouse and distribution management and integrated financial reporting.
Opinion: IBS Bookmaster staff is the most experienced publishing software vendor in implementing advanced warehouse management and distribution solutions.
Web: http://www.ibs.net/industries/publishing
Klopotek
The Klopotek group is the premier international IT solutions and consulting services provider to the publishing industry in Europe. Their references include more than 200 educational, academic, scientific and trade publishing houses; 44% of the 50 market leaders in Germany and 25% of the 40 leading international players in publishing work with Klopotek software, including Bertelsmann, Wolters Kluwer, Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck and Springer Science+Business Media GmbH.
Klopotek publishing software has become standard at more than 8,000 work stations in Europe, in English, German and Dutch. Besides its leading market position in Germany, Klopotek is also well-established in the UK, USA and the Benelux countries.
Klopotek targets companies with sales of $30M and more.
Advantage: Klopotek offers publishers the most powerful range of editorial and production management solutions available in the marketplace.
Opinion: We like Klopotek software for its excellent contracts, royalties and production management functionality, its modern information dashboards and its fixed price implementations.
Web Site: www.klopotek.com
Publishing Technology
Publishing Technology is a leading provider of publisher centric ERP solutions and implementation services supporting clients with sales of $20M US to $1Billion US in more than 90 countries. Since 1977 it has dedicated itself to meeting the needs of the publishing industry publishers and distributors — both book and subscription – with world-class business solutions and lifetime business support.
It is one of the few book publishing software companies that cover the entire spectrum of publishing operations – from order entry to royalties to warehouse management to production management. You can grow from a $30M company to a $1B company with the same software.
Their client list includes;
-
- US: Anderson Publishing, Cambridge University Press, Elsevier Science, Farrar Straus & Giroux, HarperCollins US, Henry Holt, St. Martin’s Press, Times Mirror, Holtzbrinck Publishers
- Europe: Blackwell Science, Elsevier Science UK, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, International Thomson Publishers, Penguin Books Ltd, Random House Group Ltd, Virgin Publishers Ltd
Publishing Technology’s Advance software targets publishers with sales of $10M and higher. They have about 120 clients.
Advantage: User customizable solution with strong work process management system.
Opinion: We admire Publishing Technology for their focus on online book marketing. From our point of view no other vendor is as focused on marketing books as they are. Whereas Bookmaster is focused on distribution and Klopotek focused on royalties and production management Publishing Technology is focused on book marketing and selling.
With the growing popularity of making informational products available via digital download this focus is becoming more and more important to publishers.
Web Site: www.publishingtechnology.com
SAP
SAP Title Life Cycle Management Brochure
SAP For Media Reporting and Analysis Brochure
SAP is the world’s leading provider of collaborative e-business solutions. With 36,000 installations serving 10 million users at 13,500 organizations in 120 countries across the globe, SAP ranks as the world’s third-largest independent software provider.
mySAP Media book publishing clients include Random House, Bertelsmann, Simon & Schuster, and Springer-Verlag Gmbh.
SAP is targeted at publishers with sales of $100 million and higher.
Opinion: We like SAP for its ability to integrate all aspects of a world-wide operation. It offers unparalleled customizability along with powerful productivity and management tools for publishers.
That said, SAP does not offer a turnkey solution for book publishers. We would really like to see SAP offer a vertical market book publishing specific solution that can be implemented with a minimum of customization.
Web Site: www.sap.com
Virtusales
Virtrusales is a relatively new vendor, that has managed to secure a reputation as one of the fast growing book publishing software solution vendors. They entered the market with a product focused on bibliographic title and digital asset management. Since then their software has expaned to include all aspects of publishing management; editorial management, royalties, rights and production management.
Developed in the latest Microsoft .Net technology and SQL Server, Biblio3 is an integrated system with one click switching between modules. Browser based it works equally well across both Mac and PC platforms and provides for straightforward remote access.
Their client list includes; Candlewick Press, Dorling Kindersley, Egmont UK, Penguin, Random House UK
Opinion: Virtusales is noted for its ease of use and focus on project management.
Website: www.virtusales.com