Like many companies that specialize in providing back-office technical infrastructure, Quality Solutions Inc. is a bit of a "stealth company," said Nick Allen, QSI's v-p of marketing. The company provides software and consulting services to publishers for "tracking materials and content from the manuscript to the completed book," said Allen. "What we do is ugly and basic, but absolutely indispensable to a publishing company."
Founded in 1988 by CEO Fran Toolan, Quality Solutions (www.qsolution.com) specializes in software systems that can track data on contracts, sub-rights, titles, publicity and marketing and help manage the integration of a firm's editorial workflow with order fulfillment and accounting. QSI software can also compile information on the types of books produced and compare vendor pricing.
Toolan told PW that QSI's software allows publishers "to become more efficient in all the processes that bring a product to the market." Allen estimates that publishers can cut their costs by 40% using the right system to manage purchasing.
Based in Wilmington, Mass., with a satellite office on Long Island, QSI has about 20 employees. Toolan described QSI as a "nuts and bolts" company with a "thorough understanding of the publishing process. We build multiyear relationships with our customers." Despite a down economy, Toolan said, the market for QSI's services is "very strong. We are somewhat counter-cyclical to the economy. In weak economic times, publishers are extremely interested in squeezing out every ounce of productivity. After years of focus on improving productivity in order management and warehouse operations, more publishers are looking to the front office for profit points."
QSI offers a modular software package called the Publishers Solution Series, which allows customers to use QSI's services in a comprehensive manner or to choose an individual module targeted to a specific need. QSI's Title Management Module, the company's core software product, can assist in organizing lists and creating catalogues and can manage production and publication schedules. Allen noted that S&S uses TMM in conjunction with its Digital Asset Bank to create a "digital repository of support information" on books that is accurate and easily accessible to employees throughout the publishing house. "Title management and tracking is our specialty. We can provide a rich marketing record for each title on a publisher's list," Allen said.
QSI's software allows publishers to centralize information on editorial and production and other data that is often stored in multiple databases. QSI also offers Eloquence, a conversion service that Toolan said can reformat bibliographic title metadata and transmit it to online retailers, wholesalers, distributors and data aggregators in the ONIX standard and other formats.
In the coming year, Toolan said, QSI will expand into previously unserved departments, and will make QSI's Title Management and Eloquence metadata services available to smaller publishers.
"Profit margins are thin," said Toolan. "We know that our products can help publishers streamline their processes, create more products and make those products more visible with the same resources."
