Moody Publishers, the publishing arm of Moody Bible Institute, has implemented the Klopotek Product Planning & Management (PPM) module from Global Turnkey Systems (GTS) to improve process flow for acquisitions, production, royalties and rights management operations. Having reviewed leading title management software packages, Moody concluded that Klopotek’s PPM module offered the best support for the entire publishing process. GTS, a Klopotek company, offers PPM as an integrated module to its UNISON publishing business platform, which Moody has been using to power its fulfillment operations for many years. The combined software package gives Moody an end-to-end solution to manage their highly trusted, faith-based publications throughout the publishing lifecycle, while eliminating redundant effort and systems.

Greg Thornton, Vice President and Publisher for Moody Publishers, has long seen the need for a common platform to support the development and management of the publishing process and increase visibility of the publishing process throughout the organization.

“Our strategic growth initiative to reach a wider audience outside our traditional markets with the Gospel message, compelled us to find better ways to manage the publishing process,” says Mr. Thornton. “A key principle of growth is that quality data equals stronger sales. We realized that if we are going to grow, the entire organization needs to take ownership of the sales effort. PPM provides a framework to manage title information – monitoring success or the lack of it – in ways that were not possible for us before. Integration with UNISON gives us real-time analysis of title feasibility as well as P&L analysis throughout the product lifecycle.”

“Having a sharper, more granular view of our title data,” continues Mr. Thornton, “gives us the ability to connect the right content with the appropriate readership – opening doors to new readers in new markets. The implementation of PPM with UNISON will radically change the way we do business, helping us fulfill our mission to reach a wider audience with the vital message we have been entrusted to share. The efficiencies gained through improved processes will translate into greater resources for the Moody Bible Institute and the training of future leaders who carry that message into every corner of the world.”

While speaking to employees at Moody’s ‘Go-Live’ get-together, Greg Thornton stated that “Phase 1 is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, there is so much functionality below the surface of this software that you have not seen yet, that will be available to us as we continue the roll out of PPM.”

Steve Lyon, Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher for Moody Publishers, was impressed with the Klopotek team. “The partnership with the Klopotek-GTS team was excellent. The implementation process was very impressive,” he goes on to say. “From project management to communication of actions and results, the team from Klopotek worked with our core team to stay on track and keep the entire organization energized about PPM. The whole process was well designed and straightforward.”

As evidence of the success of the process, Mr. Lyon led the editorial team into their first training session with eager anticipation. “I have to admit,” says Steve, “I was not sure how well our Editors would accept a new system – any system. But the excellence of the process had us at a point where we all embraced PPM and were quite pleased with our first experiences using it.”

Ed Santiago, Director of Finance for Moody Publishers explains, “At Moody, we place a high value on trust. Our name is a trusted name in the marketplace. We have been entrusted with vital message and content that is relevant today. We feel we have a duty to manage it to its full potential.” Mr. Santiago goes on to say, “Our editors, production team and management need the best tools available to deliver that potential. From developing on-time, fiscally responsible publications through accurate royalty reporting, the Moody organization sets the highest standards for processing and accuracy. Klopotek’s PPM module, integrated with our UNISON solution from GTS, offers the best possible combination of features to achieve these standards from people that we trust to deliver the support we need.”

Duane Koenig, Director of Operations for Moody Publishers, goes on to elaborate, “PPM surpassed all other systems we considered in meeting and exceeding our requirements. One of the biggest factors that set PPM apart was that it interfaced to our current distribution system – UNISON. The effort and risk that is involved in integrating multiple systems from different vendors was completely removed. The decision to implement PPM was a natural continuation of the good relationship we have had with GTS for the past fourteen years.”

Title management was another primary reason Moody chose PPM. With a publishing program that spans over 100 years including an extensive back list (including an archive of physical books spanning those 100 years), Moody needed a better way to handle the breadth of this valuable information. Judy Tollberg, Director of Production, says, “What was once a time-consuming manual operation is now a push-button operation. We had redundant systems which caused more effort and inaccuracy. Now we have a central data repository: enter information once - disseminate to the world. A single source of title and marketing information can now be fed to internal and partner Web sites, in order to create formatted marketing materials and support catalogs and ONIX feeds. The results are high quality XML documents that are universally accepted by our partners in the distribution network”. Ms. Tollberg goes on to say, “Now we finally have a retrievable place to store all that archival information, some of which only existed on the books themselves or in the memories of our dedicated editors.”

Gregory Miller, Business Systems Manager at Moody and project manager for the PPM implementation, developed and worked with software for major commercial applications before joining Moody Publishers. Mr. Miller asserts, “PPM is one of the best designed commercial software products I have seen. Our various publishing programs can be handled naturally in the product without ‘tinkering’ or customization.”

Karen Tiesling, Vice President of Product Marketing at GTS, Inc. remarked, “When we at GTS first saw the PPM offering from Klopotek, we immediately knew the benefit that we could offer to our existing customers with an integrated PPM-Unison product. This has proven to be better than our expectations. The level of integration achieved provides transparency of information from editorial to market so critical for web marketing today. All data in one system that can be pulled together for one complete product view including related and upcoming titles.”

Al Alteslane, COO of Klopotek North America and President of GTS states, "Moody Publishers represents the highest standards in publishing integrity. We have been honored to serve Moody with publishing solutions for over fourteen years. Their selection of PPM to complete the publishing lifecycle is a testimony of the strength of the solution and the partnership we have with Moody Publishers."

Mr. Thornton agrees, “We look forward to many more years of successful partnership with GTS and the Klopotek companies.”

About Moody Publishers
Moody Bible Institute was founded by evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody in 1886. Its purpose is to equip and motivate people to advance the cause of Christ through ministries that educate, edify and evangelize. Moody is best known for its education branch, which includes an undergraduate school, graduate school, aviation school and distance learning, as well as Moody Publishers and Moody Radio ministries. 

Moody Publishers is the publishing ministry of Moody Bible Institute. The vision of Moody Publishers is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and a biblical worldview in such creative and powerful ways that individuals worldwide will live in increasing measure as His fully devoted followers. Our mission is to educate and edify the Christian and to evangelize the non-Christian by ethically publishing conservative, evangelical Christian literature and other media for all ages around the world; and to help provide resources for Moody Bible Institute in its training of future Christian leaders. Moody Publishers - The Name You Can Trust.

Additional information can be found at www.moodypublishers.com.

About Global Turnkey Systems
Global Turnkey Systems, Inc. (GTS), a Klopotek company, was established in 1969 and has grown to become a leader in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and systems for the publishing industry, specifically for publishers of subscriptions, books, and e-information products. Some of Global's multi-national customers are Thomson Corporation, Wolters Kluwer, Springer, and Scholastic, Inc. The GTS team is comprised of publishing professionals who understand the needs of publishers and information providers. GTS works exclusively with the publishing community, allowing it to devote 100% of research and development to the changing requirements in the industry.

GTS offers leading edge publishing-specific products to the publishing marketplace. UNISON has integrated modules including: order processing, invoicing, accounts receivable, inventory control, sales analysis, royalties, mail list management, contact management, special promotions, EDI, warehouse management, job costing, accounts payable, purchasing and general ledger. UNISON also offers subscription fulfillment and circulation management. Integrated with UNISON are modules from the Klopotek product line including product development, production planning & management, contracts, rights and royalties.

Additionally, GTS's Professional Services team assists throughout the implementation, offering superior project planning, business requirements analysis, conversion assistance, testing, training, and technical support. For more information, please contact Eric Reiss at E.Reiss@GTSystems.com or call 800-524-2132 x678.

Global can be found on the Web at www.GTSystems.com.

About Klopotek
Klopotek is the leading supplier of international standard software and consulting services for publishers. Hundreds of publishers of every type from trade and specialist literature, school book and education publishers to scientific publishing houses, use Klopotek software to manage their publishing businesses. Klopotek’s customers deliver all types and formats of publications from the classical book to loose leaf editions, periodicals, magazines and advertisements to electronic products such as CD-ROMS, DVDs, videos and online content. Currently, Klopotek software supports more publishers with more users, in more locations developing and distributing more products around the world than any other software company.

Additional information is available at www.klopotek.com