Publishing Technology plc, the largest provider of software and services to the Publishing industry, is very pleased to announce the first live installation of the new advance Contract, Rights & Royalties (CR&R) solution. Sterling Publishing, a committed Publishing Technology customer for over twenty years and one of the world’s leading publishers of non-fiction books, is a publishing subsidiary of Barnes and Noble Booksellers, acquired in 2003.

Previously operating on the VISTA-branded Royalties system from Publishing Technology, Sterling provides its parent company with publishing and distribution rights to thousands of titles. Sterling has an active list of owned and distributed titles and annually publishes and distributes new titles. The CR&R system today handles numerous contracts and authors and contributors in support of those products.

The new advance CR&R solution provides for the management and payment of royalties and subsidiary rights and includes electronic interfaces to support the import of title, author/payee, and sales data. The CR&R system, from advance, manages a number of critical functions including royalty contracts, author and contributor data, royalty products and sales, royalty payment calculations, and statement production. And as the system is hosted by Publishing Technology, it allows Sterling and Barnes & Noble staff to concentrate on their core businesses, while Publishing Technology provides and maintains the hardware and software environment. Publishing Technology will continue to support Sterling’s VISTA Fulfilment and Warehouse Management systems.

Neil Glasser, CPA / CFE, Sterling Publishing, observed: “It’s was a pleasure working with Publishing Technology on the implementation of advance. Simply put, these guys “get it”. They understand publishing and they understand systems, which creates a seamless and efficient process. We have many titles with complex author, rights and royalties arrangements. Now we have one single system which works across the board. The advance interface is very intuitive and a significant step forward from our previous systems. It was a challenge integrating Barnes and Noble into the project, particularly dealing with the legacy system providers, but Publishing Technology made it easy. Best of all, they delivered on time and within budget.”

Jay Teitelbaum, COO, Publishing Technology North America, comments: “Sterling presented an excellent opportunity for us to demonstrate the efficiency and flexibility of the advance system when replacing and integrating with legacy systems, across a complex user-base. As the first of our go-lives for advance in North America, it’s hugely rewarding the project has been such a success.”

The advance platform has recently been accredited with Supply Chain Excellence by BIC (Book Industry Communication), the independent organization for promoting standards for electronic commerce and efficiency within the supply chain.

Publishing Technology operates across the trade and academic markets, in books and journals, print and on-line. Working with more than 500 publishers, to date, the company has operated primarily from the UK and the US, but has recently also expanded into Japan, Brazil and Germany.