Going with the Flow
It’s more important than ever to get books to the market fast. More days in production can mean fewer days on the market and fewer sales. For many publishers, especially those producing many titles simultaneously, good production scheduling tools are essential in keeping projects easily trackable, on schedule and problem-free.
Here, Book Business takes a look at some of the industry’s leading software providers and the software on the market to help you with the complex task of production scheduling.
AEC Software
Product: FastTrack Schedule 9
Description: Colorful timelines and calendars are designed to illustrate project deadlines, status and goals. Production details are centralized, aiming to control your work and keep projects on schedule. It’s available in Windows and Mac compatible versions.
Book publishers who have the used the product: N/A
URL: www.FastTrackSchedule.com, www.AECSoftware.com
Phone: (800) 450-1985 or (703) 450-1980
Pricing: New license: $349, upgrades starting at $149.
Klopotek North America
Product: Klopotek Production Cockpit
Description: Interactive software designed to tell users which processes are running, allowing them to see when and where they need to intervene.
Book publishers who have used the product: Not available; this is a new product, which debuted in October at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
URL: www.Klopotek.com
Phone: (212) 782-0320
Pricing: The Production Cockpit is an add-on module to the Klopotek Product Planning and Management software suite. Pricing varies on the size of the installation—a smaller company would pay $25,000 for the Production Cockpit Software, but a larger company could
pay up to $100,000.
Quality Solutions, Inc. (QSI)
Product: Enterprise version: Title Management - Project Scheduler.
Description: Project scheduling tool used to develop publishing project plans using configured and custom templates. Offers the ability to define unique schedule types for jackets, manuscripts, chapters, whole books, etc., and to identify key dates (or major milestones) and assign personnel to accomplish tasks with estimated and actual dates. Designed to enable users to generate high-level project plans as standard reports, or develop “to do” or “past due” lists to manage people and tasks closely.
Book publishers who have used the product: Simon & Schuster, Harcourt, Holtzbrinck, Sterling, Barnes & Noble (publishing), Globe Pequot Press, Harvard Business School Press, University of Chicago Press, Yale University Press, Guilford Publishing, Dover, etc.
URL: www.QSolution.com/Schedule_Management.htm
Phone: (800) 779-7345
Pricing: Enterprise Version is based upon the number of user licenses plus installation and implementation costs. A “lite” version of the title project scheduling functionality is available to users of QSI’s TMM-Web (Web-based title management) as a part of its subscription-based HSS: Hosted Shared Solutions (including ONIX implementation). HSS is offered at multiple pricing tiers to be affordable by virtually all publishers. Starting price is $2,000 per named user plus implementation services.
Trilogy Enterprise Systems
Product: Trilogy Publishing Manager
Description: An integrated publishing solution containing more than 12 modules. A new production management module is now available. Book publishers who have used the product: Not available.
URL: www.TrilogyUSA.net
Phone: In the U.S.: (908) 232-1275; in Canada (905) 887-4237; in the UK and other areas: +44 1242 2221332
Pricing: A basic system for about four or five users starts at $30,000. However, prices increase based on modules and user counts.
VISTA International
Product: Production Manager
Description: VISTA’s Production Manager solution is designed to enable publishers to effectively manage the editorial development, prepress and production processes.
Book publishers who have used the product: Pearson, Chronicle Books, HarperCollins UK, Egmont Books
URL: www.VistaComp.com
Phone: (732) 563-9292
Pricing: Prices start at $200 per month per user.