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News
Bookpoint Joins BookEasy E-Commerce Service
London, England, September, 1998 -- The recent launch of
the Bookpoint site on BookEasyTM means the fast-growing book trade global
Internet service can now offer booksellers real-time, round the clock access to over 500
leading UK trade and academic publishers and imprints. The service is also gaining
momentum by adding a growing network of publishers in the USA.
Titles from Hodder & Stoughton General Publishers
(including Coronet, Sceptre and New English Library), Headline Book Publishing, Hodder
Children's Books, Hodder & Stoughton Religious Publishing (including the New
International Version of The Bible), Hodder & Stoughton Educational and Arnold, as
well as some 90 other imprints, are now available from Bookpoint on BookEasy. BookEasy, a
subsidiary of VISTA Computer Services, is fast becoming the standard method of electronic
commerce for the bookselling and publishing industry, speeding the supply chain by opening
customer service desks around the clock.
"Electronic commerce is the most efficient and cost
effective way of doing business with our customers," says Myron Hrycyk, Group IT
Director of Bookpoint's parent company, Hodder Headline. "The investment required for
full EDI makes it difficult for many independent booksellers, but by using the Internet,
BookEasy allows them to enjoy many of the advantages."
Peter Clifton, Chief Executive Officer of BookEasy,
welcomed the arrival of Bookpoint to the service: "Bookpoint's mix of publishers adds
strength and depth for booksellers, making a wide range of titles, including audio books,
accessible over the Internet on BookEasy."
Bookpoint joins Macmillan Distribution, Exel Logistics and
Marston Book Services who are already live on BookEasy. They will shortly be joined by
TBS, the UK's largest distributor, offering titles from the Random House Group, Little
Brown, Virago, Fourth Estate and around 40 other publishers, plus some 70 distributed by
their sister company Grantham Book Services. HarperCollins UK and Wiley Europe are also
scheduled to go live shortly. Among them, these affiliated distributors represent more
than 500 leading UK publishers and imprints.
In the US, affiliated publishers and distributors scheduled
to go live include; Von Holtzbrinck Publishing Services (parent company of Henry Holt,
Farrar Straus & Giroux, St Martin's Press and Tor among others), Broadman &
Holman, the trade publishing subsidiary of Lifeway Christian Resources of the Southern
Baptist Convention, and National Book Network, the second largest book distributor in the
US.
What affiliated distributors say about BookEasy:
- "We see BookEasy as a natural extension of our
E-commerce strategy into Web-based trading. Our philosophy is that the customer chooses
and the Internet is much less complex than traditional EDI and much easier for small
booksellers to participate in." Tom Armstrong, Group IT Director,
HarperCollins.
- "We believe that BookEasy will provide an effective
method for many of our trade customers to communicate more effectively with us and through
self-service offer a new level of customer service for all." Marilyn Johnson,
Group IT Director, TBS.
- "BookEasy is part of our quest for quality. Most of
the information booksellers are after is there when you want it, and local rate calls mean
information is not only easy but cheap to get. Information available on BookEasy is as up
to date as talking to a member of staff." David Smith, Managing Director,
Macmillan Distribution Ltd.
- "No matter what language you speak, no matter what
time it is. BookEasy is opening up electronic commerce to anyone in the book trade."
Micheline Jebb, Customer Service Director, Marston Book Services."
- "By registering with BookEasy, booksellers can
provide better service, increase their speed of response, answer their own customers'
queries in real-time and increase turnover." Myron Hrycyk, Group IT Director,
Hodder Headline.
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