Harcourt Education Australia goes live with IBS Bookmaster

News & Events 2006-10-12

Harcourt Education Australia, a division of the Reed Elsevier Group, went live with IBS Bookmaster in the beginning of September this year.

Harcourt is a major publisher of educational books focusing on classroom resources for teachers and students across every state in Australia.

“Being part of the Reed Elsevier Group, it made sense for us to implement IBS Bookmaster as other business units such as Elsevier, LexisNexis and Reed New Zealand are all successfully utilizing the system.” stated David O’Brien, Managing Director of Harcourt Education Australia and Reed New Zealand, “Having the same system across the group helps us achieve consistency and allows us to cross pollinate experiences.”

Harcourt have gone live with the base IBS Bookmaster package and are looking to implement Editorial and Book Production, Royalties and Business Intelligence by the end of this year.

“The early efficiencies gained have been that we have reduced our number of IT personnel,” said David, “the biggest efficiencies and benefits of implementing IBS Bookmaster will be a result of implementing the Editorial and Book Production, Royalties and Business Intelligence modules as we have not had any of these solutions in the past.”

Harcourt Australia started implementation of IBS Bookmaster in late June and went live at the beginning of September.

“The implementation of IBS Bookmaster went very well,” commented David, “that doesn’t mean there weren’t any problems and a lot of work required, but we implemented the system in just over 2 months and were able to get stock out on the very first day - which is more unusual than not.”

Harcourt Australia had the advantage of cross-utilizing staff from Reed New Zealand, who went live with IBS Bookmaster in May of this year. Harcourt staff that helped during the Reed New Zealand project came back with knowledge of the system which allowed for a more seamless approach to the implementation.

“Although it will take us 12-18 months to realize the full benefits of IBS Bookmaster, we are very pleased with the system,” said David.

IBS Bookmaster has been developed specifically for publishers and book distributors in co-operation with the world’s leading publishers.

For more information, please contact:

David O’Brien, Managing Director, Harcourt Education Australia and Reed New Zealand Tel: + 61 3 9245 7111 david.O'brien@harcourteducation.com.au

Steve Hall, International Sales Manager, IBS Australia Tel: +61 2 9761 9222 Steve.hall@ibsaustralia.com

Edith Crnkovich, Marketing Manager, IBS Australia Tel: +61 2 9761 9222 edith.crnkovich@ibsaustralia.com

IBS is a world-leading provider of automated solutions for publishers and book distributors with editorial and production, royalties, subscriptions, e-commerce, warehouse management, financials and business intelligence key components. IBS delivers measurable value through its industry-specific software, services and hardware offerings. Cambridge University Press, Gyldendal/NBC, HarperCollins, Harvard University Press, LexisNexis, McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education and Penguin Books are among IBS’ 5,000 customers in 40 countries.

IBS corporate headquarters: +46-8-627 2300 info@ibsbookmaster.com