Dear reader,
We hope that 2021 was as inspiring for you as it was for us ... please find below some information on milestones we achieved in 2021, many of them in cooperation with our customers – all the best to you for 2022!
Best wishes,
In the area of Title Management, Editorial, and Production (TEP), we significantly enhanced our portfolio in 2021 – a trend to be continued next year.
With the powerful app Scheduling, calculations and recalculations, even of complex projects, are only a matter of a moment. This solution was enhanced in 2021 to include functionality to check data provided by Product Quality Manager.
This year, we also made available Title Collector, a smart and flexible tool for generating queries to select products in your database and provide them in a list, and Collective Revisions & Operations, an app that makes the update and modification processes of master data (‘domains’) a simple task.
A project we are currently working on, to be completed by end of March 2022, is extending the Title Life Cycle Manager app to cover the concept of the 'work' (i.e. not only the 'product' but the intellectual property as the base or starting point for creating various types of products). And, as known from our Classic Line, there will be a STREAM app in its own right called Work Component Manager.
The app Metadata Export Manager is being enhanced to become Metadata Export Manager & Content Delivery, a fully STREAM-enabled solution to power the next generation of ONIX messaging. You will be able to organize all your feeds efficiently, while the app ensures that ONIX messages and asset transfers are always in sync, making this clearly visible to the users. In addition to this, Metadata Export Manager & Content Delivery will provide two levels of asset distribution: assets such as cover images and content-related assets (such as epub & audio files).
Our Contracts, Rights, and Royalties (CRR) STREAM apps are being enhanced in various ways.
To make the signing process smoother, Contract Workflow Manager is being integrated with DocuSign – a project to be completed early next year.
Royalty Accounting Manager will, from 2021, in the field of Royalty Recipients, be able to copy a royalty statement and offer the option of viewing agency account data. For printing statements, the Classic Line PDF generation procedure will be replaced by a highly performative process. It will also be possible to create draft statement print jobs (including printing selected sections of draft statements). And assets in print jobs can be merged into a PDF file. Generating and downloading the royalty document for a transaction will be easy, just as downloading statement assets for royalty accounts.
The Royalty Recipient Manager app will feature the option that authors can get a copy of a royalty statement when an agency statement is created. And you'll be able to create a payable account for settlements with agencies.
Following a meeting with a customer or prospect, it is important to check and manage the notes you took, so you – and others in your organization – know how it went and what the next follow-up steps and to do actions are. To keep track of all important elements and to directly act if required, you can now use the web app Contact Tracker for managing 'intelligent' memos of meetings.
Contact Manager and Contact 360°, other apps that are part of our CRM solution, have been worked on in the field of 'contact details:' the information on individual contact persons can be anonymized, the European VAT ID can be checked, and conversation notes for a contact person can become memos to be handled in Contact Tracker.
We're also happy to inform you that soon, as a combination of STREAM and Classic Line features, the complete workflow of managing key accounts will be supported by Klopotek, with a focus on the subscription business. Main elements of the step-by-step process include determining upselling potentials and designing specific packages/offerings at the Sales Department, making these offers and storing all related data, creating contracts and forwarding the signed documents to the Customer Service Department, prompting for contract renewals or modifications, and closing the subscription cycle once the validity of the contract has ended (see below: nwb Verlag).
STREAM: excellent UX to excel
In the areas of both CRR and TEP (Title Life Cycle Management), Klopotek STREAM offers a robust & reliable platform for supporting your publishing processes with many more features in comparison to our Rich Client Solution – in line with the current market demands for software as a guide through completing essential processes in a transparent and time-saving way. As the feedback from many of our customers confirms: focusing on providing an excellent user experience and supporting individual workflows are the most important features of STREAM. And, as illustrated in the examples above, our apps are continuously being enhanced.
Living on video
Processes in publishing can be complex – using Klopotek makes everything easy & intuitive. As just explained, a main reason for this is the way our User Interface is designed, so, in this case, seeing it is more than reading about it – many videos, arranged in playlists, are available, with a simple and clear focus on how essential processes in publishing are completed by using STREAM. Check them out here:
New customers and projects with our existing clients
Welcome on board: We are happy to be able to announce that SCRIBD, an innovative reading & audiobooks subscription service, opted for Klopotek Cloud, and transcript Verlag, an academic publisher, selected our on-premise solution (both for the areas of TEP & CRR).
If you're a publisher who works with sensitive data, this is one reason why you should opt for Klopotek as your hosting partner: we can ensure a very high level of security & reliability in our certified data centers. This is why, for example, Deutscher Apotheker Verlag (DAV) recently selected Klopotek as a Hosted Software Solution.
Taylor & Francis Group started the process of switching to Klopotek STREAM for Title Life Cycle Management (switch to CRR already completed), while HarperCollins Publishers started the global move to STREAM for CRR with their SWISS business.
Lübbe went live with STREAM Rights Sales and Benevento with STREAM Rights Acquisition. Deutscher Anwalt Verlag selected the Ticketing app that is part of our CRM solution – about 120 tickets are handled every day.
Our clients Carl Hanser Verlag, Albin Michel, Verlagsgruppe Hüthig Jehle Rehm, Brill (plus move to the Klopotek Private Cloud), and Verlag Otto Schmidt (plus move to the Klopotek Public Cloud) have decided to complete the technology transition to STREAM from our Classic Line.
Dirk Baumann, Commercial Manager, Verlag Dr. Otto Schmidt, said about the transition project from the CRR Classic Line to Klopotek CRR STREAM and moving to the Klopotek Public Cloud: “This project was characterized by a very good flow of information and timely responses. The work done by Klopotek was always helpful and delivered in a pragmatic way. Communicating with Otto Schmidt should not only be described as ‘open’, but also as ‘empathic’, always in line with our specific terms and processes. All aims were achieved.”
Beltz Verlagsgruppe, in cooperation with hgv, upgraded to version 11.0 of our Classic Line.
A variety of services for various types of customers
Did you know that Klopotek Managed Services provides Technical Management including hosting, Technical Application Management, and Functional Application Management on top of our customer-oriented Service Desk and Service Delivery Management? We offer private and public Cloud options and additional services like user management, monitoring, data upload, and tax and royalty administration services.
Projects in cooperation:
apps being developed in partnerships with our customers
With Hanser Verlag, we are working on an app for handling Author Event Management. For Albin Michel, we started developing the apps Rights 360° and Klopotek Analytics for Rights. In the field of subscriptions, we are cooperating with C.H.Beck, and nwb Verlag will be enabled to manage information packages for this type of business (key account management). For Thieme, we are working in the field of works, components, and contract workflow management, while Intermedia is our partner for enhancing advertisement sales and management.
“The ‘one-page management’ of tasks”: introducing the Scheduling & Notification Dashboard apps
As part of switching to Klopotek's STREAM technology platform, all Classic Line schedules at Moody Publishers will be migrated to STREAM, enhanced with additional tasks, dependencies, and to-dos. As Business Systems Manager of Moody Publishers, Gregory Miller is overseeing this project, which includes incorporating schedule data in a number of key reports: "The migration at current count is 500 schedules – for first printings, reprints, and e-books." Read our Case Study.
Last but not least: turn your radio on
Don't forget to listen to our many podcast episodes of Klopotek Publishing Radio – this service promotes various interesting people & topics recently celebrated its first anniversary.
Adding 'audio' to your agenda? Sure, we can help you with that
Are you considering expanding your portfolio and offering (more) audio titles? With our flexible STREAM apps, adding new formats and platforms to your existing business processes is easy, as STREAM allows you to manage your audio and other metadata in a highly customizable way by selecting from various scenarios. Watch the video recording of our presentation at Digital Book World 2021.