News

BookEasy Takes Order Management Into the 21st Century

September 12, 1997 -- A consortium of leading book trade companies has developed a new global Internet service that is set to revolutionise the relationship between booksellers, publishers and distributors and have a significant effect on the supply chain.

BookEasy is a self service enquiry and ordering system that offers a new level of customer service and fulfillment. Both domestic and international trade customers will be able to access subscribing publishers and distributors 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, direct from any PC, to answer routine queries on price and availability of titles, to check the status of their orders / dues and to place new orders.

Booksellers will be able to manage their own businesses more efficiently by timing their enquiries to suit their own needs and schedules, while publishers and distributors can use staff efficiently on tasks which will benefit from personal contact

BookEasy was developed by software supplier Vista Computer Services in partnership with Whitaker's service provider, and in co-operation with three leading distributors: Macmillan Distribution, Exel Logistics and Bookpoint. This unique collaborative venture has produced a system designed by and for the domestic and international book trade to move the management of orders forward into the 21stcentury.

Independent booksellers will be able to manage their orders themselves, in their own time, within a user-friendly Internet environment, while ensuring they can keep their customers informed of the exact position on all orders by accessing their status in real time. The benefits for chain booksellers are equally valuable, allowing the different head office and deparental needs to be addressed with access possible from central and branch PCs.

The BookEasy solution will enable domestic and international booksellers to perform on-line searching by title, author, ISBN, publisher series and/or subject codes, to obtain up to the minute information on price and stock availability, and place orders 24 hours a day. They can also check the current status of orders and dues. All web pages will be simple, without vast quantities of graphics, making them quick to load and easy to read.

The central BookEasy web site (www.bookeasy.com), will offer a comprehensive price and availability search function with daily updates. The BookEasy web site provides:

hotlinks to participating distributors, all of which will have a common appearance and operating
environment
links to TeleOrdering and Whitaker bibliographic database
links to other industry sites and services

First time visitors will be required to register by a simple process via the BookEasy Help Desk.

Macmillan Distribution will be first distributor site to go live on 15 September (www.macmillan-mdl.co.uk), offering the full range of BookEasy functions, followed by Bookpoint and Exel Logistics who will both come on line during October.

All initial sites should be operational around the time of the Frankfurt Book Fair, which will see the official launch of BookEasy to the trade. The system will be demonstrated on the VISTA and Whitaker stands. Also the five consortium members will be addressing the international Distributor Forum on Tuesday 14 October.