We're saying a fond farewell to 2022 ... and we're looking forward to seeing you again in 2023! Thank you very much for cooperating with us this year. As time is flying by, please allow us to share with you what is most relevant to us for your business – with a preview of what we will be focusing on in 2023.
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Best wishes,
Dear reader,
Klopotek Software: new products / enhancements
Title Management, Editorial, and Production
From early 2023, you'll be able to plan more strategically, both at your Editorial and Production departments – by relying on our cloud-based STREAM app Calculation Manager for pre- and profit & loss as well as production costs and technical calculations.
Assisting your business to operate more sustainably and to navigate growing difficulties in the current economic situation
Using this app, calculations can be done on the 'work' or 'intellectual property' level (and not only on the 'product' level), so planning can be done across all 'manifestations' (of a 'work'); you'll get the full overview of your costs, can split them across several manifestations and find the best result in the current difficult economic situation.
While there is a strong demand in the publishing world to produce even more efficiently, there is also a growing intention to bring these products to market in an environmentally sustainable manner.
For publishers choosing local vendors who offer a more environmentally friendly but, in most cases, cost-intensive product/service, this effort can lead to higher costs that are hard to accept in times of inflation, supply chain problems, and rising costs for material.
Comparing your vendors in your calculation is key to finding the best option regarding prices but also sustainable production.
With STREAM Calculation Manager, you cannot only do parallel calculations across your manifestations, but also do comparisons, changing vendor or production specifications to find the best way to go forward with your product.
A must-read (and work-with): Review Manager
Early next year, we'll also bring to market the STREAM app Reviews & Publicity which will provide significantly more functionality than the Press module of the Classic Line. There'll be three approaches to managing all essential processes regarding sending out review copies: Which copy/title has been sent to whom? Who received which copies/titles (both organizations and individuals), and which reviews have been published for a title?
Want to work on the component level?
Wouldn't it be helpful to be able to manage chapters and articles and/or to handle authors on the article/chapter level? Is it relevant for you to manage specific metadata (including open access information) on this high level of granularity? Could enhancing various manifestations (of products) be beneficial to your business?
Our Work Component Manager, a slick STREAM app for planning & handling standardized components of a work so that they can become several types of products, has been improved in such a way that components can now be created an managed independent from works. This can be helpful for, e.g., managing journal editions, books with different contributors, and creating products consisting of print and other elements, such as audio files. From 2023, components can be parts of a dedicated component library.
Feeds: over 50 standard channels supported
Did you know that our STREAM app Metadata Export & Content Delivery supports more than 50 standard sales channels, e.g., Amazon, the Apple iBook Store, Audible, Bookwire, Centraal Boekhuis (the Netherlands), Ingram, Nielsen, vlb (Germany), and many more.
What is going to happen later in 2023?
Do you plan and manage events your authors participate in? In 2023, we'll launch a smart tool set for handling all related elements internally in your team: our STREAM app Author Event Manager. It will become easy to enter and modify information on authors, the titles they present, and events (readings, participation at discussions at fairs, online/digital), as well as on merchandising activities such as selling books after a public reading.
2023 will also see significant enhancements in the field of journal business, e.g., for handling specific metadata. This will be particularly relevant for university presses and academic publishers.
Our Inventory Manager app will see improvements later next year in the field of stock movements.
In Production, you can look forward to an app in its own right, Production Manager, and a new version of Suppliers Online that will cover the consumption of material in a better way.
What is going to happen later in 2023?
This will be especially relevant for trade publishers cooperating with other publishing houses: Later next year, Contract Manager will be enhanced so you can handle co-publication contracts.
Work Component Contract Manager will provide options for creating and managing (the details of) contracts for components (of 'works' / intellectual property). To help you save time for handling large numbers of elements, there'll be standard contracts for components which can be easily modified if necessary.
Contracts, Rights, and Royalties
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​Did you know that Klopotek covers the entire product life cycle of supporting your business with agencies? From rights sales to royalty recipient management (including heirs), you will get the flexibility you need, for example if only some rights or contracts are linked to an agency, if an author has agreements with two agencies, if authors change the agency they work with, if an account is to be split up (e.g., 10 per cent / 90 per cent), etc. Klopotek's apps are also very powerful in making royalty information clearly visible, in an intuitive way, to both authors and agencies, including statement history details.
In case a mistake has happened in a royalty calculation, and statement, such as linking the wrong ISBN with a contract, consolidating it (such as by changing the payee) often isn't so easy due to the fiscal rules you have to comply with. Using our new STREAM feature Revise Statement, you can now do it for statements that have been sent out and/or archived.
Our app Contract 360°, your perfect choice for getting a complete 360° view of all contract information with a fully configurable, widget-based dashboard, has been enhanced to cover sub-rights.
Contract Workflow Manager – an app to easily create and manage contract documents and to guarantee the transparency and manageability of the signature process – will be enhanced to integrate the leading third-party service Docu-Sign ("#1 in Electronic Signature and Agreement Cloud").
And Rights Sales Manager, your STREAM tool set for handling all related processes with efficiency and flexibility, is now even smarter & stronger.
Order to Cash
Key Account Manager, a STREAM app that has been completed this year, covers the complete workflow of managing your key accounts. In 2023, additional office management processes will be added to the processes that are supported.
Features for the entire STREAM world
Alerts & Messages can now be created for all types of individual entities but also as 'wild cards', so they will be displayed upon opening a selected app. These two features can be beneficial for harmonizing your workflows in various ways: use them to share important information the quick way while knowing that it will be read and send specific messages to colleagues in case an important task has to be forwarded because of illness or other reasons.
Across all STREAM apps you have licensed, you can – from 2023 – make use of an approval functionality that can be configured for various entities according to your individual needs & requirements.
Klopotek Services: your hosting options
We are becoming a full-service provider for publishers, offering a wide variety of solutions to suit their needs. This year, significant steps forward were made in the field of hosting: The number of publishers opting for classic hosting (the Klopotek Private Cloud) or entering the Klopotek Public Cloud is growing rapidly.
Currently, over 20 customers are pursuing the public cloud approach. And many long-standing Klopotek customers have arrived in the private cloud, are on their way to it or are very seriously considering the switch.
The benefits of moving to the Klopotek Private or Public Cloud
Brill Publishers (Case Study here) and Deutscher Apotheker Verlag moved to the Klopotek Private Cloud.
DuMont, Otto Schmidt, MG Medien, transcript, Studienverlag, Schwabe, and WPG (Weekblad Pers Group) opted for additional services from us and/or selected the Klopotek Public Cloud, with Scribd and Zibby being new customers (WELCOME!).
As part of a technology transition from the Classic Line to Klopotek STREAM, the University of Wales Press (Case Study here), Bristol University Press and the Royal Society of Chemistry moved to our Public Cloud service or are in the process of doing so.
On-site installation options of moving to our STREAM technology have been selected by ASCE (the American Society of Civil Engineers), Toronto University Press, and UMPH (the United Methodist Publishing House).
HarperCollins are in a process of going live with more and more CRR STREAM apps (Contracts, Rights, and Royalties) in a worldwide roll-out. Taylor & Francis Group went live with STREAM for TEP (Title Management, Editorial, and Production). In addition to Scheduling, Moody Publishers introduced the Title Life Cycle Manager tool set of apps.
News from Klopotek: committed to sustainability
While there is a growing pressure on the publishing world to bring products to market more efficiently (inflation, supply chain problems, growing costs), there is also a high demand to produce in a more environmentally sustainable manner. The latter can result in growing costs, as you will, in many cases, not choose the vendor offering the cheapest price but the (local) vendor offering the more environmentally friendly product/service.
Apps assisting you to act in a more sustainable way
As already explained above, using Calculation Manager (both in Editorial & Production), your calculations can be done on the 'work' or 'intellectual property' level (and not just on the 'product' level), so planning can be done across all 'manifestations' (of a 'work'), and the costs can, for example, be split across several manifestations. It is also possible to compare the offerings of several vendors while modifying the product specifications, so the best solution will be found to move forward to producing your titles.
And there are many more examples, such as:
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Only reprint when it becomes necessary: Benefit from a full overview of your stock inventory or a detailed view at title level to reduce costs, making use of personalized alerts and watch lists: it becomes easy to decide when additional stock or products need to be produced – forecasts are based on real sales data.
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Use a digital platform instead of creating & sending physical material (such as statements): An app that offers your employees as well as authors and agencies easy-to-access, intuitive information on royalties, advances, and subsidiary rights (including a statements history). In addition, you can create and make available e-statements (electronic royalty statements).
​Scheduling & Notification Dashboard
Rely on powerful planning tools and options to react quickly and flexibly if problems occur, so your projects will not spiral out in costs: Calculations and recalculations, even of complex projects, are only a matter of a moment; get individual, holistic views on the schedules and tasks ‘I am responsible for’ or ‘I am involved in’.
What we are doing as a company
Examples of implemented actions are a CO2-neutral website, sustainable data centers for hosting our solutions, offering the option to staff to work remotely / from home (also) to reduce emissions, less printed flyers by using QR codes, etc.
There are several projects we support, e.g. by sponsoring "Save the Moors" (NABU's efforts in restoring drained peatlands) and "Giving street kids a future!": We are happy to support the NGO Assoguipros (run by Cherif Ibrahima) in the Republic of Guinea in building a Multifunctional Reception Center aimed at the education of primary and secondary classes.
Most relevant for our industry, Klopotek is contributing to establishing a Code of Conduct for publishing in Germany.
And finally...
We celebrated our 30th anniversary in October. Thank you for cooperating with us – your business is always appreciated and never taken for granted. We look forward to many more years of supporting you & our industry with innovative software and services.
And finally ...
We celebrated our 30th anniversary in October. Thank you for cooperating with us – your business is always appreciated and never taken for granted. We look forward to many more years of supporting you & our industry with innovative software and services.
Celebrating 2 years of 'voices of publishing'
... And our podcast Klopotek Publishing Radio is celebrating having uploaded 24 episodes ... they are all relevant, so tune in:
Happy holidays from all of us at Klopotek ...
