Elsevier Australia enhances sales and service for educational institutions with IBS Bookmaster software

Customer Story

As the world’s leading health science publisher and provider of world-class information to educational institutions, Elsevier Australia has recently launched an initiative to increase its focus on the integrated IBS Bookmaster Academic Adoptions software.

Academic Adoptions software allows educational publishers to integrate institution and academic information as well as track sales representative activities and provide a variety of reports for field sales staff, the marketing department, editorial teams and management.

In business for over 100 years, Elsevier Australia (part of the Reed Elsevier Group) has established an international reputation for quality. The company has published some of the best-known and highly recognized health science books under imprints such as Mosby, Saunders, Churchill Livingston and Butterworth Heinemann.

Elsevier Australia’s client list includes hundreds of educational institutions across Universities, TAFEs and Colleges. Within these institutions, thousands of lecturers across Australia and New Zealand look to Elsevier to fulfill their academic textbook requirements.

Accessing one central database

“For several months now, we have been working to enhance the accuracy and currency of our Academic Adoptions Module, and I have already seen many benefits from this effort,” noted Nicole Mottlee, National Sales Manager for Elsevier Australia. “The single most important benefit is that we can now have confidence in one central database to access all of our institutions and key contact information, enrolment numbers, adoption information, and current comping* data. This, in turn, allows us to more accurately forecast sales and provides our sales team with a useful, effective tool to enhance the way we service our educational institutions.” “Prior to this initiative, our Territory Managers often utilized their own database of contacts and sales information to supplement IBS Bookmaster’s Academic Adoptions system. We also maintained a separate database to record textbook adoptions. Centralizing all sales information (such as university campus, lecturers, department subject, textbook adoptions, number of students enrolled and semester) has enabled us to better evaluate our information and maintain complete, up to date records,” said Nicole.

Elsevier’s Territory Managers have home-based offices and are able to access IBS Bookmaster’s Academic Adoptions remotely. “At the end of the day, when a territory manager finishes campus calling, they simply enter all information gathered directly into the Academic Adoptions module. With the whole team utilizing the one Academic database system, there is less room for error. In addition to saving time, we can also more accurately analyze sales, adoption or potential adoptions and enrolment numbers,” said Nicole. “With current information and a centrally held sales history, we can more easily access market intelligence regarding institutions and key contacts, allowing for a smooth transition whenever new Territory Managers come onboard.”

Better tracking and more accurate forecasting

“We can also more easily track every book which is sent out to the institutions and generate reports of titles on backorder by rep or state or individual ISBN. There is also the facility to pull reports on individual departments within universities. Such reports may include a list of lecturers in that department, their subject area of interest, the books that have been sent out to them, which texts they are currently using and if they are also using a competitor’s title. This is an extremely useful tool for a Territory Manager to access when preparing to visit a particular department.” “The academic market is very competitive and there are some fantastic books out there. Our Academic database can assist in more accurately forecasting potential sales of a title or a proposed area of publishing,” Nicole added. “If we wanted to publish a book in a particular subject area, we can produce a report to demonstrate how many lecturers have an interest in that area, and the enrolment numbers in the relevant courses. This type of information is useful for our editorial staff when looking at the viability of publishing in certain areas. It is also a useful database of relevant academics who may potentially contribute to a new book in their particular area of interest. So in this way, Academic Adoptions offers a broader function than just a sales tool.”

“In summary, for Elsevier the biggest benefit in utilizing IBS Bookmaster’s Academic Adoptions, is the ability to have all adoption information in one central repository.  It’s simple to update, with a good selection of relevant reporting templates and easily accessible by all of the sales team. This will greatly assist Elsevier Australia to continue to provide leading health science textbooks to educational institutions throughout Australia and New Zealand.”

* Comping – sending out complimentary copies of a text book

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