Module Descriptions

Access Management and Billing
AMB provides the ability to set up, maintain, and bill for access to content. This module allows you to create access agreements under which content parameters and participants are established. Authentication routines enable you to evaluate whether access is allowed and under what conditions. All aspects of expires, renewals, and invoicing are handled. You can also set up a participant to view only a portion of the data available---so-called "personalized content."

Accounts Receivable
For subscription products and inventoried products, Accounts Receivable tracks all invoice activity, all payments and their applications to invoices, refunds, and disputed invoices. Its ability includes handling consumer type accounts as well as large, multi-volume accounts such as bookstores. Payments – whether by check, credit card, direct debit, gift certificate, etc. -- can be entered in many ways including uploads from a lock-box. Also has complete multiple currency capabilities.

Advanced Integrated Mailing
The AIM module contains a suite of applications. These products are made available to you as integrated Advantage applications through partnerships with Firstlogic and Group 1. Applications include: Address Correction & Encoding (ACE), which provides instant online address standardization as well as batch address hygiene, and complete presort capabilities.

Advertising Order and Billing
Allows multiple rate card entry, entry of insertion orders, and calculation of discounts based on contracts and volumes. It also manages billing, tracks sales reps, can short-rate or rebate automatically, tracks production information and its status, and comes equipped with many analysis reports.

Book Club
The Book Club module enables you to define product series – also known as continuity series - into which you can enroll your customers. Once customers have become members of a product series, you can automatically select qualified customers, determine which product or products they should receive, and generate product orders for fulfillment. You can also adjust product offerings and timing of order generation based on responses.

Bulk Distribution Newsstand
Easily allows subscription standing orders for outlets that vary quantities on an issue by issue basis. Allows returns and sends monthly consolidated invoices.

Campaign with Master Data Entry
Powerful promo analysis for both subscription and inventoried products. Can tie promos to campaigns or not. Promo finder feature. Ability to drive data entry based on promo code. Can use promos to drive upsells. Ability to set up promo with their own special pricing and discounting tables. Ability to use promo codes for automatically adding items to an order.
Premium sets, ability for pub-specific promotions, and the flexibility to use campaigns and promotions or just promotions.

Circulation Management with Subscription Fulfillment
This flagship module efficiently manages all subscription related requirements including multiple publications, unlimited rates, distribution, paid, comp, or controlled type subscriptions, renewals, suspensions, bills, editions, premiums, and extensive analysis reporting. Includes multi-currency, multiple addresses, with a single customer record for all purchases, payments and other transactions.

Conference and Event Management
CEM handles the registration, invoicing, and informational tracking for conferences and/or events that you operate for your customers. You can link presenters with sessions associated with a conference; session attendees can also earn continuing education credits. This module supports pre-conference sessions and guest sessions, while flexible pricing allows you to charge different amounts for the first attendee, second attendee, etc. and also enables you to offer variable early, on-time, and late registration fees.

Commissions
Calculate sales rep commissions with this Advantage module. COM offers great flexibility in defining which commission rate applies to sales made through the Product Order and Circulation modules.

Contact Management (CRM)
CRM provides a way to conduct and monitor sales efforts and related customer relationship programs. It will allow you to identify the people with whom you are in contact, link them into a corporate structure, and track profile information. You can also communicate quickly with individuals or groups through e-mail, fax, or customized letters, as well as look at sales and activity history. Major benefits of CRM include having all your information on one system, and easy access to current sales information.

Credit Card Authorization and Billing
CAB allows you to interface with credit card authorization facilities and append authorization numbers to orders. Authorization may be done online at the time of order or in batch mode.

Customer Service
This module helps you provide the best possible service to your customer with on-line access to all customer information from any area you wish in summary or detail form. Answering questions, resolving problems, responding to customers and writing letters is quick and efficient.

Database Recovery
The Database Recovery module gives you the ability to run most update processes anytime with users on the system, and to run multiple processes concurrently. DBR also offers the ability to roll back and automatically restart many processes when an error occurs, instead of terminating.

Duplicate Consolidation
Allows table driven, duplicate identification criteria to be run against the database to recognize possible duplicates. Another process merges history of duplicates to create a single surviving account record with all prior transactions from both duplicates.

E-Commerce
This module allows your customers to perform online, real-time entry of orders, and provides access to subscription, order and payment data with the same capabilities available to Web users as your customer service reps have. Extensive self-service for your web customers.

Product Order and Inventory
This major module manages fulfillment of books and other products, and has the ability to set up and manage sophisticated pricing and discounting structures. Manages simple orders from individuals and complex orders from bookstores. Can be tied to a purchase order. Can set up pro-forma orders. Tracks detailed warehouse information – quantities, committed, reserved, etc. for multiple warehouses. Keeps track of unit costs based on FIFO, LIFO or Average costing. Users can get an online real inventory count at any point in time, and have the ability to set up inventory packages including products and/or subscriptions.

Promotion/List Management
This module provides powerful tools to select and produce mailing lists from subscription records, a prospect file, or other lists you may want to maintain.

Reader Connection
Often known as “reader service” or “bingo card”, RDC allows publishers to handle reader inquiry information, pass it on to advertisers, and run analysis reports that effectively assess the value of advertising expense. It will minimize the time between when a reader submits information and when the advertiser receives it, and saves publishers from having to outsource this activity. Reader Connection is fully integrated with the Advertising module and all other Advantage modules.

Reprint Management
This module is specifically designed to sell and create orders for articles within a journal. Allows additional charges for quantities, special handling, shipment method and customization.

Royalty
The Royalty module allows the creation of author contracts with rules based on type of sale, quantity breaks, and author advances. Integrated with product order, it calculates royalty liability and creates royalty statements.

Sales Analysis
This robust sales tool allows multiple views in to past sales purchases, sorted by accounting period and summarized/totaled in numerous ways. Multiple summary types are available and more can be created for sales analysis at a glance. Offers Recency, Frequency, Monetary scoring and tracking.

Sales Tax Integration
If you require sophisticated sales tax calculation and reporting, Advantage can be interfaced with the sales tax solutions from Taxware International. The integration option does not include Taxware software which must be purchased from the manufacturer.

Standing Order
Standing order allows customers to belong to a pre-defined product series to which items are being continuously added. Whenever a new product is added to the series, the customer will receive it. This module will automatically create orders, based on user-requested frequencies, and update the analysis database.

Telesales
Telesales is integrated with renewals, billing, and Promotion/List Management, allowing scripting of telesales messages, call outcome reporting and analysis, and complete integration with Advantage. It also keeps track of which call list a customer is on.

User-Defined Reports/Forms Writer
This powerful tool spans all modules of Advantage and enables you to write your own reports from the database. You can request the output in a spreadsheet interface file format and save your report for repeat use.

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