Module by module, we are constantly expanding the system
Kwintessens is a medium-sized educational publisher, specialized in philosophy and socio-emotional learning methods for primary education. In line with the growth and professionalization that the publisher has experienced in recent years, administrative support has also been addressed. Martijn Wabeke tells InCT why Kwintessens chose Socho and is very satisfied with it.
Kwintessens Publishers and Edukans, which helps children in developing countries to get an education, are both part of UniEnZV. That's why they used the same administrative software. But the back office of a charity foundation is quite different from that of a publishing company. That is why, in 2018, it was decided that Kwintessens would use its own system. After a round of information, three parties remained, one of which stood head and shoulders above the other when it came to providing services to publishers: Socho.
Martijn Wabeke, responsible for marketing/sales and digitization at Kwintessens, has not regretted this choice for a moment since then. “Even during the exploratory discussions, it turned out that the people of Socho know very well what a publisher like Kwintessens needs. As a result, communication went very smoothly right away. And that's actually still the case.” In that first series of conversations, it was identified which services Kwintessens at least wanted to include in one integrated system. That turned out to be CRM, financial administration and order processing. Subscription management and customer management were soon added. “From our old systems, I didn't expect all these things to be easily managed in one application. But that turned out to be possible in Zeno. In consultation with Socho, we chose which Zeno modules we wanted to use and how we would use them step by step.”
Business benefits
“It's not just about spending a lot of time double-administering the same data, if you keep data about the same products in different places, you always run the risk that they will diverge, which means you'll spend extra time figuring out where the right numbers are. That is now a thing of the past. You can also better link the costs and revenues of a product, so you can see much earlier how profitable a project is.”
So everything runs smoothly? Almost yes, says Wabeke. “When transitioning from our old system to Zeno, we had to convert the data in two steps, and during the upgrade from Zeno to Zeno N, there was a glitch. But in both cases, the problem was resolved quickly and properly, and communication was fast and clear, so we never doubted that it would work out.”
Add Modules
“Since we were convinced that the basics worked flawlessly, we've been adding additional modules step by step. For example, we also kept track of the planning and realization of the book production in a separate system. Only when the production of a book was completed was the data entered into the administrative system. So you miss real-time insight into the costs and progress in your central administration. Now, a book is introduced as soon as it has been decided that it should be published. The royalty administration has also been integrated, which saves a lot of research. And we can easily print out a fund list.”
Kwintessens also offers training courses on digital methods. There was a lot of interest in this, so such training courses are now given a number of times a year. Zeno's conference module appeared to support all the administration around such training courses. Martijn Wabeke: “Within two weeks, we had it up and running and all 2021 training courses are already in place. Beforehand, we didn't think we could need a conference module at all, but that's how we're constantly expanding the system: module by module.”
Another module that was used last year helps to keep customer data up to date. “Every year, we check whether our customer data is still correct. We did this with a form that we sent to all customers by post. We were always satisfied when we got 70 to 75% filled in. Then someone had to check all that data in the system and enter the changes where necessary and manually scan the returned form.
Now we send a digital form and get a PDF back — which is directly visible with customer data. After a visual check of the PDF, we process any changes. This time, within a few days, we had a 90% response and finally everyone responded. You can imagine what an efficiency improvement that is.” Next year, we will see if we can perhaps make this process even more efficient.
Webshop connected
The webshop (Magento) is now also linked to Zeno via an API. In the spring, Kwintessens and Socho will see if the web cms (TYPO3) can also be linked via the API, so that access to the Kwintessens method sites can also be arranged directly from Zeno.
The next step that Kwintessens wants to take is to link the e-fulfillment, which is provided by an external party. Martijn Wabeke: “Now, a number of times a day, we export the order data to a file that that party then reads into their own system. We prefer to do that in real time, and we would like the information from their systems to be visible to us immediately. This concerns the status of order processing and track and trace during shipping. We want to show that data to our customers in the webshop. The major online stores have made this more or less a standard service, so customers are increasingly expecting that: they want to see exactly how their order is doing.
This is how we keep innovating: we start from our activities and then see if the software can properly support us in this.
Not only is it easy to have everything in one system. It also provides business benefits. - Martijn Wabeke
