Can you tell which segments of your publishing program is making money right now? And how many titles of that segment are contributing to that? Do you know the exact impact of each single element of the product configuration such as the extent of the manuscript or the number of illustrations on the cost structure and the profitability? Would reducing the manuscript while lowering the sales price improve the profitability? Intuition of editors cannot be replaced by software but can be supported by fact-driven information about current trends – to complement intuition with information to improve future planning.
The calculation and acquisition module helps your employees to make better decisions by leveraging all relevant planning data across departments. Your organization will be empowered to calculate all types of publications in detail and in advance. It provides a framework for strategic planning by considering all usage types of manuscript and products comprising costs and profits of any sort. Instead of creating multiple calculations for hardcover, paperback, audio book, all options are integrated into one calculation per manuscript and can be used in parallel.
The calculation consists of three steps:
- Right Purchase – Preliminary Calculation
- Product Configuration – Preliminary Calculation and Vendor Comparison
- Post calculation: Target-/Actual Comparison
Right Purchase – Preliminary Calculation: Reduce your flop-rate
The source of the Right Purchase – pre-calculation is the „manuscript” – meaning the literary property of the author or the actual content of the manuscript. This manuscript can be used in different ways: it can be published as a hardcover at first, followed by a discounted paperback with a higher print run and finally as an audio book or eBook. The calculation module enables you to analyze across usage types and per individual type. knkPublishing’s calculation module provides accurate revenue and profit information by integrating all types of revenue – from direct sales, eBooks sales to revenue from selling movie rights and merchandising products.
The calculation of costs is not restricted to production and royalties: title-related costs of all divisions and departments such as marketing and sales costs will be incorporated in the calculation. Average return rates and discounts will be included as well as complimentary (gratis) copies. Additionally, other details such as the color intensity of the print or the total sum of the planned marketing- / sales costs can be varied here. The system immediately re-calculates the new cost structure and updates the projected profitability for the total right.
Product Configuration – Preliminary Calculation and Vendor Comparison
By automating administrative tasks users can focus on analyzing the effect of important parameters of the product-configuration such as the effect of return rates, discounts, number of pages etc. Since each product type consists of predefined modules and product templates, you only need to import and customize elements and specifications once. After importing vendor price lists, costs and prices are allocated to the product templates empowering all responsible staff to use the templates over and over again. Our concept is to give responsible users immediate and easy access to all related information in order to help making the right decisions. Intuition of editors cannot be replaced by software but will be supported by fact-driven information about current trends – to complement intuition with information to improve future planning.
The system allows you to directly compare prices of different vendors. This enables you to realize cost savings and leads to a more effective cooperation between all vendors and suppliers. Services of your vendors (e.g. print offices) can be combined to a complete package with a price lump sum (e.g. an all inclusive price for the book print). The completeness of the supplier prices can be monitored via a reporting system. Different conditions such as volume discounts can be entered and will be incorporated into the calculation as well. These individual condition agreements can be explained in specific comment fields to provide full transparency to all involved users. Concluding the planning, the actual purchase orders such as the print order can directly be created from the price preliminary calculation. These purchase orders can be invoiced when receiving the invoice of the supplier – which avoids the need of duplicate data entry.
Post Analysis: Target-/Actual Comparison
Thanks to the Target-/ Actual Comparison you can evaluate the effect of all decisions on actual profits and loss. By comparing your budgeted values with actual figures integrated from other modules, the results of the comparison give a solid and significant foundation for future publisher’s decisions supporting the learning curve of all employees. You compare the calculated and the actual production costs; you learn about the royalty already been paid out; you can compare the calculated revenue with the actual sales per product type; you identify unearned advances of slow-running products; you gather insights into unprofitable products or customers only to mention some possibilities. These analysis can easily be defined in the system; once defined, the data will be available in real-time accessible to everyone concerned.
By integrating into Dynamics NAV’s industry leading reporting functionality, the level of analysis is nearly unlimited.
This transparency enables you to make better decisions and strengthens your position in negotiations with contributors and vendors. By varying parameters such as the royalty advance or the number of pages, the system updates the calculation in real-time showing profit margins and break-even points.