Pearson extends IBS Bookmaster software into Europe
Customer Story
As part of a key business relationship that extends back to 1991, global publishing leader, Pearson, has agreed to expand its implementation of IBS Bookmaster software into Europe.
Anne Naramore, VP International Technology Strategy for Pearson would much rather have an ERP system like IBS Bookmaster that focuses on the end-to-end needs of the publishing industry rather than best of breed.
Pearson is an international media company with world-leading businesses in education, business information and consumer publishing. Pearson employs more than 29,000 people in 60 countries worldwide making it the largest global publisher. The company’s brands include the Financial Times, Longman, Prentice Hall, Penguin and Dorling Kindersley, among others.
Close relationship with IBS
Since the first implementation of IBS Bookmaster in Australia in 1991, Pearson and IBS have enjoyed a close relationship. Currently, Pearson has implemented IBS Bookmaster in distribution operations in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa, and more recently in Korea and Taiwan with Japan scheduled for go-live in 2009.
Anne Naramore, VP Business Solutions, comments, “We have had a very productive working relationship with IBS and we have found IBS Bookmaster to be a compatible fit with our organization’s requirements. This level of satisfaction with IBS has led to our decision to extend the application into Europe.”
Complete supply chain software
IBS Bookmaster software provides Pearson with a complete solution for all aspects of the publishing supply chain. This includes a new eCommerce system, which enables EDI trading with all customers and suppliers and drives greater efficiency, speed and accuracy throughout the business. IBS Bookmaster is an international supply chain software system and provides the local legal and statutory requirements that each country requires. The system is available in many languages and is designed to provide a complete solution for each country’s specific needs as well as delivering a fully integrated multi-national system.
IBS Bookmaster will also provide Pearson in Europe with an advanced inventory management and control system. It has highly advanced functionality for increasing the automation of inventory management and providing optimization, demand and forecast planning as well as full warehouse management capabilities.
Advanced integration
Naramore says, “IBS Bookmaster provides us with an advanced integrated system operating from a central database. This means we can support many more areas of the business from a single point of entry, which increases both the speed and accuracy of our operations. Further advancements, such as e-commerce and inventory management, will give us greater visibility into the supply chain. This will allow us to offer more self service functions to customers, enabling them to find information on their accounts, order status and back order information, again increasing efficiency and saving us time and money. We also wanted to improve the data analysis and reporting capabilities as well as adding more advanced forecasting and budgeting tools.”
Another key benefit of extending IBS Bookmaster into Europe was to avoid the cost of supporting several different systems in several different countries. As aging systems come to the end of their life, Pearson wanted to minimize costs and resources by establishing a framework for implementing a consistent solution that can immediately integrate into a global infrastructure. This also ensures that the company can increase the level of standardization across processes, brand management and geographical territories. To help reduce overall running costs, the solution will be managed centrally from the UK.
“IBS Bookmaster provides Pearson with a truly capable and global system that is already tried, tested and proven within many of our international operations. It is much easier for us to roll out a common system to new regions, allowing us to support and maintain the system from a central location. IBS Bookmaster already provides a close fit to our business requirements and will require little or no modification before the European implementations,” adds Naramore.
Benefits from common processes
Mike Irving, VP Publishing, IBS concludes, “By establishing common business processes across Europe, Pearson will increase efficiency and visibility in their operations and will be able to provide even better customer service. IBS Bookmaster software is an excellent fit for Pearson and we believe that our extensive understanding of publishing and book distribution will help them get the most out of this new implementation. We are very excited about extending our relationship with Pearson, one of the world’s leading publishers, because it will help us continue to develop IBS Bookmaster software to meet and exceed the current and future requirements of the global publishing industry.”
Name: Pearson Region: 60 countries worldwide Operation: Production and distribution Products: Books, CDs, educational material, websites and literacy packages Employees: 29,000 Revenue: USD 8,394 million (2007) Website: Pearson
Issues
Extend IBS Bookmaster into Europe
Need for integrated system
Need for an international solution
Avoid costs of supporting several systems
Requirement for advanced inventory control and management
Need for eCommerce solution.
Solution
Europe-wide publishing software solution with modules for:
