DJOEF Publishing has become more efficient with Schilling Product Management

About DJOEF

DJOEF Publishing wanted to optimise their publishing processes and ensure that they use their resources in the best possible way. DJOEF has been using the Schilling Publishing system for several years to enhance their business, and they still see new opportunities in the system, for example with their latest module, Schilling Product Management.

Our goal is to save time and money

"We wanted to optimise our daily work and get a better overview of our projects. Previously, we spent a lot of time on administration because the data concerning the publishing process had to be entered in several places in the Schilling system. It was important to us to become more efficient so that we could do our job better and faster. We therefore chose Schilling Product Management because we recognised that it would be an investment that would pay off in the long run because the solution would mean fewer manual procedures and greater efficiency in our work."

A solution that benefits everybody

"All our departments use Product Management in their daily work – from the editors, the sales, marketing, production and finance departments to management. The system holds information for everybody – it’s like a dome where everybody uses the system as a central focal point. All users are therefore involved in the process so that everyone can take advantage of the data in the system. We make sure that we store as much information as possible in the system so that we can share knowledge across our organisation, since we can retrieve our data and use it for many different tasks and in many different contexts."

A good management and information tool

"When the editors and project managers get an idea for a new book, they will create a new project in Product Management. They enter project information regarding the topic, target group and the authors they will be working with. Then they make up a production schedule that shows when we expect the manuscript and when the book can be published. Simultaneously, it is easy to give the author an overview of when the book has been sent to print, the expected publication date, and what fees he/she has earned. Thus, we always have a tool available that can give us a quick overview of the status of the project."

User-friendliness makes us more efficient

"It is easy to provide good customer service with Product Management, because we can give our customers information about the books quickly and process their orders. The solution is very user-friendly, particularly because we can change the setup ourselves with Schilling Dialog Design. For example, we have gathered most of the information in the first tab folder so that it is easily accessible, and we only have to look for the information in one place.
 
The marketing department use the system to gather information about the marketing activities on the individual projects, like for example that the book has been available on-line or it has been advertised in a magazine. In this way, we can always go back and see how the book was marketed. The activities are copied to new editions which is an advantage if for example there is something that the production department should remember. Our information is always stored and accessible in the system, which means that we can eliminate a lot of paper work and save time.

While the marketing department use the solution as information for authors and to plan and register activities, and while the production department update information about production plans, the finance department can use it to follow up on on-going projects and inventory value..

Our management also benefit from Product Management. They print project lists for their management meetings and keep an eye on whether we are on target with our on-going projects. It is easy to maintain the overview. We can keep track on the development of on-going projects all the time and react quickly to any deviations from the budgets."

An investment in the future

"In the future we believe we will optimise even more, since the module can be used for knowledge-sharing across the entire organisation. We work continuously on making the best use of the many options in Product Management, so that we can enhance our publishing processes in as many ways as possible. 

Product Management has given us an obvious ’return on investment’ mainly because we have saved a lot of time in many areas. We only need to create data once instead of doing it several times, and while previously it might take two minutes to create a product in the system, we can now do it in two seconds. Administration creates no value, and the administrative procedures should therefore be reduced too. What adds value for us is that with Product Management we can now focus on our business and its continued growth."

Good cooperation with Schilling

"We have had a very good dialog with Schilling’s staff who have given us a good introduction to the system. They are good at transferring ideas to the system and they listen to our suggestions. All in all, Product Management is an efficient module with many excellent possibilities for further development that would be of benefit to both Schilling and all their customers."