Providing cloud-based business management products is Media Services Group’s forte. Its HTML5-based Élan Book Solutions allows users to access a centralized CRM (customer relationship management) database, which works seamlessly with the company’s e-commerce solution and financial products to create a unified environment.
“Élan provides publishing personnel with a mobile platform through which they can operate their entire publishing enterprise with ease from an iPad or any mobile browser-based device. It offers at-a-glance actionable summary and detailed information about customers, products, reps, and orders. It also has configurable dashboards so that the user can create customized summaries or views of any chosen data set,” says v-p of sales Bryan Pellegrini, adding that publishers Upper Room and Forward Movement have implemented the latest version of Élan.
Clients want a publishing-specific CRM that is integrated with their fulfillment and distribution software, says Pellegrini, so that they can see the complete picture of their customer relationships. “Recent months have seen publishers asking for Web-optimized e-commerce solutions that are tightly integrated to their back-office operations so they only have to maintain one product database, and have all customer, sales, inventory, and order information automatically updated into that one system. Publishers are also looking for a product life-cycle management tool for a central print and digital product database, where projects and up-to-date metadata to their trading partners are available at a click of the button.”
These demands and requirements from the publishing industry are reflected in the newly upgraded Élan. PLM (product life-cycle management) now enables the management and control of the entire publishing process from acquisition to publication. Hay House is currently using the PLM module to better track its projects and acquisitions.
“Our goal is to keep publishers focused on their core business and expertise, and not worrying about complex technology infrastructure. Using the Élan suite of Web-based tools, publishers will have fewer maintenance problems while benefiting from a lower operational cost,” says Pellegrini, whose team will be available at booth 1003 to provide more information on Élan and other solutions from Media Services Group.
