PROBLEM: Demand from group management to Thomson Reuters in Scandinavia regarding a group SAP solution that does not support advanced royalty management.

SOLUTION: Hosted Schilling Royalty solution with full integration with SAP.

BENEFIT: Increased profits and flexibility in accordance with analysis, fast implementation, continuous development, 75% faster royalty processing, access to other publishing modules with for example author self-service via a unique publishing portal.

Thomson Reuters supplies information to decision makers in the legal, financial, healthcare, tax and accounting, science, and media markets powered by the world’s most trusted news organisation. Thomson Reuters’ revenue in 2009 was 12.9 billion USD worldwide; the organisation employs 55,000 people in more than 100 countries.

Flexible and reliable solution based on in-depth publishing know-how

- “Our cooperation with Schilling goes back all the way to 1991 when we started using their subscription system,” explains CFO Mikael Hansen from Thomson Reuters in Denmark. “Shortly after we implemented Schilling’s complete publishing solution and have been using it with great benefit ever since. With Schilling, we have always had up-to-date data that meets all the financial requirements with only a very small need for staff and which supports all aspects of our publishing business. We have been particularly happy with the close contact and fast service that Schilling provides. Thanks to their in-depth knowledge about the requirements of publishing companies, problems are always solved quickly. The knowledge of the entire solution that Schilling’s development staff possess ensures excellent connections between the modules, and our service agreement with Schilling means that new features are implemented in our software continuously so that we are always fully upgraded and working with the latest version.”

100% developed to handle royalty from A-Z

- “In 2008 all Thomson Reuters departments were required by headquarters in the US to use SAP instead of existing solutions,” Mikael Hansen says. “Unfortunately, we found that our royalty processes were not supported by the SAP solution because royalty is very complex, and the handling of royalty must be absolutely correct and valid. Schilling Royalty takes care of everything, from different channels, different rates and payment models to co-authors, heirs, and complicated legal matters, etc. SAP could not do the same. This left us with three options: to develop our own royalty solution, to continue with Schilling’s solution with added integration to and from SAP, or to handle all processes in Excel.”

Hosted Schilling solution with full integration to SAP

- “To select the best of the three solutions, we analysed the costs for each one. The result was that Schilling’s solution was the most economical and flexible. In addition, it gave us continuous development of the system. We therefore decided to let Schilling host a solution that we could work with via the internet – and which was fully integrated with SAP so that we fulfilled the requirements from headquarters,” Mikael Hansen explains. “It gave us several useful benefits: for example that Schilling already knows our business, are focused on the publishing industry, and can therefore give us the best solution and professional sparring. Another benefit was fast implementation on time and at an agreed price, so that we could get started with the royalty payments right away. It only took three weeks. With Schilling’s royalty solution we save 75% on costs compared with royalty handling in Excel. The solution from Schilling ensures that we get correct royalty settlements, accounts, and reporting to headquarters. For us, this means increased profitability in our publishing business. Our next wish is to use Schilling’s Publishing Portal as a supplementary module. With the Publishing Portal, authors will have access to easy and fast self-service and to discuss royalty so that we increase the quality of our customer service considerably. Most importantly, we ensure that we will continue to be a profitable publishing house that attracts the best authors,” Mikael Hansen says.

About Schilling

Schilling means Best Practice in Publishing. For the last 15 years we have been a strategic partner for a large section of the publishing industry in Northern Europe.

Our solutions help large publishing companies as well as small publishers run their business efficiently on a daily basis. Schilling delivers success to our customers with solutions, such as Contracts, Rights and Royalty Management, Product and Production Management, including editorial processes. Among our customers are Thomson Reuters, Bonnier Förlag, Cappelen Damm, Gyldendal, Norstedts Förlagsgrupp, Natur och Kultur, Politiken, among others.

The two leading Nordic publishers, WSOY and WSOYpro from Finland, have chosen Schilling Publishing in their pursuit of efficiency and quality. Schilling Publishing is developed by Schilling A/S, the Danish specialist in software solutions to the publishing industry. WSOY and WSOYpro are part of Sanoma Learning & Literature, one of the biggest educational publishing groups in Europe.

With the Schilling Royalty solution the two members of the Sanoma family, WSOY and WSOYpro, will achieve improved control of their royalty processes. The solution from the Danish software partner Schilling A/S will be integrated with Sanoma’s SAP system and will ensure fast and correct royalty settlements for both companies in the future.

“Our goal was to implement a new royalty system that would inject more efficiency and quality into our royalty process. We want to future-proof our business so that it will be able to evolve with new business models without any obstacles. Furthermore, high quality in royalty processes is key to a strong relationship with our authors”, says CFO Salla Terho, WSOYpro.

Schilling was chosen after a thorough process analysis, which identified the needs and potential for value generation of both publishers. The flexibility of the solution and the fact that Schilling Royalty supports the different processes of WSOY and WSOYpro were important reasons for their choice of system.

“Since our very first meeting with Schilling, they have shown great knowledge and insight into our business processes. This is of great value to us, and we expect to optimise a number of processes that will liberate more resources for future growth”, says CFO Jaakko Rajakoski, WSOY. “Schilling’s unique version updates secure continued access to the newest developments, which makes it a future-proof investment”, he continues.

 Schilling A/S in Denmark sees the agreement as an important step towards increased market share in Europe.

 ”We are very proud that such an important player in both Finland and Europe has chosen our system as their future royalty solution. With this agreement Schilling will strengthen our already strong market position in Northern Europe”, Sales Director Lars Sønderby says.

For further information about this press release, please contact:

Anja Beltoft, Marketing Manager, or Sales Director Lars Sønderby, Schilling A/S +45 70 27 99 00 or ab@schilling.dk.

Schilling is a leading European supplier of sophisticated software and expertise to the publishing industry. In partnership with our customers we develop publishing, and supply the industry with ready-made solutions.

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