AMB: A Million Benefits

With the industry balance between print and digital moving inexorably toward digital and away from print, more Advantage clients are making good use of the Access Management and Billing (AMB) module. This module can handle individual and group access to online content which is sold under various models, including time-based subscriptions, downloads, pay-per-view and others. Two of the most recent to implement the module in new ways are the American Medical Association (AMA) and Oxford University Press, Journals Division.

In the 4th quarter of 2007, the AMA began a project to transition their site license sales for online content to the Advantage Access Management and Billing module (AMB). Prior to the start of this project, AMA fulfilled these online journals through traditional Advantage functionality in the Circulation module (CIR). However, they saw the need for a model more representative of these online products. The AMB module was chosen as a natural fit for their growing online customer base and setup and training quickly followed. The conversion was successfully completed in June and the AMA is happy to share their experiences with other Advantage users. Contact your ACS account manager for details and contact information.

Oxford University Press library sales staff now manage their online consortia contracts with the AMB module. The sales agreements take shape on an Oxford engineered Excel spreadsheet and when the contract is agreed, they are entered into Advantage’s AMB module for automated billing, reporting and the management of access to the online content. Oxford University Press completed their AMB implementation project in mid July 2008, in time for the beginning of the 2009 consortia sales season. Andy Wright, OUP’s system analyst said: “Using the Advantage AMB module has helped us manage our consortia sales and renewals much more accurately and easily."

The project included planning, set-up, testing and training. Having the Library Sales staff involved with all aspects of the project meant that they had plenty of hands-on experience with the system and were completely comfortable with it by the time the project went live. Claire Kearney, Oxford’s project manager said: “The staff can now directly create and manage the contracts on the Advantage system. Changes of name, address and contract details are maintained directly by the staff who negotiated them in the first place and that helps ensure the timely and accurate handling of our important consortia business.”

Will your company be the next AMB success story? Contact your ACS Account Manager for more information.