This month, Customer Portrait presents Network Services Company, a division of ACP Magazines in Australia.  ACP joined the Advantage community in 2004.

Network Services Company, a division of ACP Magazines, is Australia's leading distributor of quality publications providing both retail and subscriptions services to more than 100 Australian and International publishers including ACP Magazines. Some of ACP Magazines best known titles include the Australian Women's Weekly, Woman's Day, TV Week, Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Madison, Australian House & Garden, Gourmet Traveller, and Wheels. ACP Magazines is the magazine arm of leading Australian media and entertainment company, PBL Media.

Network Services began looking for a Customer Management System in 2003, and went through a thorough evaluation process, including an RFP, several software presentations, and both site and vendor visits. Their key objectives included: to obtain comprehensive marketing information and analysis, to be able to market more effectively to their existing base, to increase renewal rates overall, and to improve data entry accuracy and efficiency. Advantage was the choice to best satisfy these needs. Network Services went live on Advantage in 2004.
"The functionality in Advantage provides an integrated customer management solution," says Tonya James, Subscription Services Manager. "And the analysis reports are great."

Since going live on Advantage, Network Services Subscriptions Services has grown considerably. Today, Network Services is the largest subscriptions services provider in Australia, offering a full-suite of services across the subscriptions lifecycle. They continue to add new titles published by ACP and also increase the business from other publishers. Examples include the launches of Top Gear and Good Food, both joint ventures between ACP Magazines and BBC, as well as the acquisition of eMap and the migration of their 14 titles from a competitor's system. Network Services has also expanded services to a number of other domestic and international publishers, including Puzzler Media, Future Media Australia, and McHugh Media.

Recently, Network Services completed the migration of Australian Geographic to Advantage. This award-winning journal of the Geographic Society showcases the amazing plants and animals of Australia not found anywhere else on earth. Rather than becoming subscribers, readers become members of the society and receive the publication as a benefit of membership. The Australian Geographic Society is committed to supporting scientific research, protecting and fostering a love for our environment and natural heritage, encouraging the spirit of discovery and adventure and spreading knowledge of Australia to Australians and the world. The society also sponsors events such as lecture series and expeditions. The project involved migrating more than 20 years of historical customer management information. It also involved identifying and implementing 16 different service solutions to meet the unique requirements of the publisher.

"We consider the Advantage system and the Advantage support team integral to our ability to expand and develop our service offerings to meet the breadth of service requirements of our publishers", says Tonya. "We have invested in increasing our own knowledge of the Advantage system and developing a strong partnership with Advantage. We believe this is key to our ability to continue to grow and develop as "First Choice" for subscriptions management services."

Ken Darnell, the ACS account manager for Network Services, Karl Davis recently spent a week at their Sydney offices holding training on circulation-related subjects. Ken said that the training went very well and that the Network Services team was enthusiastic and eager to learn. Network Services upgraded a few months ago to Advantage 8R1 and Ken and Karl were also able to help them apply some of the new features and functionality.