Western Business Media publishes magazines in the B2B industrial arena, and links with them a number of industry events, webinars and seminars, whilst maintaining newsworthy web sites.
Danny Kosifou, COO at Western, said that they knew before they had completed the buyout of the company, that they needed to look and invest early into a series of software products that would streamline their workflow and aid productivity for the staff covering all of the titles. The existing systems were ad-hoc, had been added to over many years and extremely bespoke, meaning that should the one person who understood them not be available, it could not be changed: “We needed to make plans for software that would be able to adapt in the ever-changing publishing industry. We needed to make sure we could continue to serve print, but at the same time ensure we could build our digital products at the same time”.
He added: “We looked at many pieces of software all which would need work to make them talk to each other and meet our requirements. Having a true “Single Customer View” (SCV) was paramount and top of our wish list. We found quite a few solutions that claimed to be able to offer this - all with a hefty price tag that we did not want to afford. Perception’s offering was different. It was clear that it had been designed with an SCV that would work for our company, and also provide an end-to-end solution. It ticked the boxes that we wanted in a complete piece of software, and Perception were responsive to customer feedback on changes and enhancements that would make a publisher’s life easier. It is always a better solution when you replace four of five pieces of software with a single one.”
“We have no limitations with the software,” said Danny, “with all of the data being stored in a central database and available to be cross-referenced, we will, in-time, be able to learn so much more about our readers and their habits, and turn this into additional revenue for us and our advertisers”.
“Western Business Media has clearly shown their commitment to the project and the belief we have in the direction of publishing,” commented Andy Kirk or Perception. “They have a good number of respected products within their portfolio, and look to add value, monetise and learn from their data for future expansion.”
Perception SaS provides cloud based software, and subscription bureau services to publishers and event organisers.
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