HarperCollins has implemented an online catalog solution using OpenText Web solutions to modernize their book cataloging process, enabling them to provide up-to-date content to booksellers and enhance user experience. This transition not only eliminates outdated paper catalogs but also allows for real-time updates and personalized catalog creation, fostering a more dynamic business-to-business interaction. Overall, the new system has improved efficiency, reduced environmental impact, and delivered better sales opportunities through enhanced multimedia content.

1. 1 | Customer Success
HarperCollins Embraces Open Text Web Content Management
International publisher delivers targeted digital catalogs with rich media on demand
Headquartered in New York and a subsidiary of News and attaching sticky notes to highlight an important reference.
Corporation, HarperCollins is the first publisher to create a They wanted to be able to access all the available rich media
global online warehouse that consists of over 15,000 titles related to each book and author, such as a promotional
and digital assets to protect the accuracy of its catalogs, offer video or an interview with the author. The addition of rich
“We understood how easy it was to use the a more effective user experience, and generate additional media to normally static book details is an enormous benefit
tool, and the users loved it, so it was perfect.” business opportunities. and creates an enhanced profile of the book by integrating
data from multiple sources. This enables booksellers to
Out-of-date catalogs and easily differentiate one book from another, and the content
out-of-date user experience mash-up creates much more value.
For almost 200 years, HarperCollins has been printing catalogs
for all the various titles that are released during each publishing
Innovative business-to-business solution
season, and there have always been issues concerning HarperCollins wanted to offer their booksellers and clients
HarperCollins Publishers is one of the world’s leading and out-of-date information. The catalog deadlines were always an online catalog in an extranet environment that is focused
most technically innovative publishers with strengths in dictated by the “to the printer” date, so there was a lot of on their specific needs and offers an exciting user experience.
literary and commercial fiction, business and children’s pressure to get the information in order—sometimes before For this business-to-business (B2B) solution, they chose to
books, cookbooks, and mystery, romance, reference, it was available. Often, there would be a price change or a work with Enthink, an Open Text partner. Enthink is a Web
religious, and spiritual books. With readers all over the release date moved back after the print date, but once the development firm that works only with Content Management
world and annual revenue of more than $1B, HarperCollins catalogs were published, there could be no updates until Systems (CMS)—specifically, Open Text Web Solutions.
needed to offer their booksellers and clients accurate, preparations for the next catalog began. Enthink is the only Open Text partner in North America that
customized online catalogs that could be easily updated has that level of focus, and they have successfully completed
for a more personalized and dynamic user experience. With some of these catalogs being quite thick, there was
over one hundred implementations.
also a concern about the amount of paper being used. What
was the cost to the organization? What was the impact on “One of the things that was really exciting for us about working
the environment? with HarperCollins was that it’s a very forward-thinking
company that really pushes innovation,” says Michael Martyn,
The other major business challenge was the limitation of the
president of Enthink.
paper catalogs. HarperCollins’ booksellers and clients
deserved a more dynamic user experience: one that went
beyond making notes in the margins of several huge catalogs

2. 2 | Customer Success
“HarperCollins is a unique company, with a history of wanting Another key was regarding resources: since it was a manual
to revolutionize the way that they provide information and process, if somebody was out of the office or one person
do business with booksellers, and they wanted to come up Customer was on vacation, a paper change may be on someone’s
with a more innovative way to be able to do that. Enthink’s desk, and it might sit there for two weeks while they’re
focus is on packaging an organization’s information in a away—it really impacted the schedule.” All of these issues
Industry
more consumable way, so it was a great partnership.” are addressed with Open Text Web Solutions: there is an
electronic audit trail that tracks the date, author, and any
Improve efficiencies Business Solution notes regarding each change, and there is an effective
“Sometimes, information can be out of date as soon as it’s workflow in place that keeps the process moving and alerts
published. The day after a catalog is printed, something can the appropriate managers of any delays.
change—the pricing, book details, additional titles, whatever Business Challenges “I think one of the other key elements was that HarperCollins
the case may be, and that new catalog is instantly out of really wasn’t leveraging existing systems,” explains Martyn.
date,” says Annmarie Joyce, Senior Director of Information “This is one of the biggest issues we see in most content
Technology at HarperCollins. “With our new online catalog, management deployments across all industries: there are
information can be immediately updated at any time, ensuring all of these systems with information from various sources,
all of HarperCollins’ catalogs are always accurate…and we within various silos inside an organization. So often no one
update the information once. We’re not updating it somewhere Business Benefits is able to leverage this information. They get stuck working
else as well—there’s one repository for that, and all of those under the paradigm of ‘I must pull out A, B, and C from my
updates happen automatically, even if those changes are current systems and put it into this new system that I’ve
independent to the individual catalogs themselves.” bought to be able to display it on the Web.’ That was
“There were some other key things we were trying to move something we wanted to avoid. The new system is a good
away from,” says Joyce. “One of them was that much of the example of how using dynamic content and leveraging
editorial input was done through notes on paper, so you existing corporate information is such a powerful way to
would lose the audit trail of why items were changed. There build out a content management system.
was also the risk of losing or misplacing information as it’s In addition, Open Text Web Solutions enables HarperCollins’
going back and forth throughout the entire process. sales representatives to create a more personalized experience
for their customers and also allows the customers to create
a unique experience on their own through the site itself and
through the cataloging process.

3. 3 | Customer Success
Online and offline convergence “I think this not only provides a better buying experience for “So for example, if I wanted to create a series of all the
the customer, it also helps to maximize the sales experience Christmas titles or romance books and create a catalog for
“In addition to delivering the best up-to-date information with
so the salespeople can spend their time with a customer that, I can easily do it,” says Joyce. “If I wanted to customize
several enhancements, the solution also enables us to make
talking about great new titles that are coming out rather than something for a particular client, I can do that as well. It’s very
sure that we have a convergence of the online and offline
worrying about the administrative details of documenting flexible as to how you want to build out the environment.
experience,” says Joyce. HarperCollins has increased
and spending valuable time typing into an Excel spreadsheet One of the system’s best features is its flexibility.”
customer interactivity, which was paramount to the project,
the books the client wants to order. So it’s really about trying
but the solution is also able to help customers create
to automate and make that process as effective as possible,” Leveraging what already exists
customized catalogs. Joyce adds, “We can put together
a Christmas catalog or a mystery catalog or very different
says Joyce. and minimizing migration
types of things for different types of customers and stores Joyce recommends leveraging what you already have and
Increased interactivity using what already exists within your organization. Creating
and create whatever we need. This adds to a better experience.”
Searches are performed across multiple catalogs through new systems only complicates things and upsets users.
With such a dramatic change to the way they handle catalogs,
a single interface, with areas to make notes. “I could look
the publishing company wanted to make sure their booksellers “Since the information already exists somewhere, there really
at one catalog at a time, or I might hop back and forth, or
and other clients felt comfortable using the new system. The is no migration. All we’re doing is exposing it inside a different
I might have an author that was in the hardcover catalog
online solution looks almost exactly like the old paper catalogs infrastructure and allowing an editorial interface to enhance
for children’s books but also in the paperback catalog for
and allows them to do everything they could do before, but that information through something that’s very, very simple,”
children’s books,” states Joyce. Searches are also performed
with the added features, the entire process is much better says Martyn. “With an historic system that houses all the
on audio or video content related to the titles.
and much faster, facilitating better buying decisions. Among information, you may have the ability to go in to update and
other things, they can manage personalized lists of titles they Customers can also browse through Advance Reader Editions maintain, but it may be difficult or you may not be allowed
may want to purchase or recommend as a buyer for their (ARE), which are pre-published versions of the books. “They because of data integrity.”
bookstore or chain of bookstores; they can see previous can see the layout, look at illustrations, and read excerpts
One of the values of this dynamic solution is eliminating
catalogs to compare the notes they may have made regarding inside the book while they are making title choices,” says
content migration, information porting, and managing a
certain titles; read reviews; watch an interview in which the Joyce. “That was one of the key interactive features that we
system in multiple places with multiple buckets of content.
author talks about his or her inspiration for the book; and listen wanted to make sure that we had live at the launch.”
Once the shell and infrastructure of workflow processes are
to the quality of a book on tape. After they made their lists, created, the title selection tool allows the user to customize
they would feed the information to a bookseller system through Catalog creation which titles will show up in which catalogs—and these can
Excel downloads and order sheets, but with Open Text Web To create a catalog, customers simply select the titles they be edited and moved in minutes.
Solutions, they can create their own personalized catalog of want (even all of the titles), and click on a red dot to create a
purchases or recommendations. catalog. The information is imported into the CMS, and all
the catalogs’ titles are there inside the template structure
using the preexisting workflows and authoring processes
that are already built into the system. If there are enhancements
to be made to the catalog, which is normally the case, those
enhancements are started right away.

4. 4 | Customer Success
Users love the easy-to-use tool Conclusion
“Any time you go through any change process in an organization, HarperCollins is the first publisher to introduce the online
there’s always a bit of hesitancy,” says Joyce. “Everybody application of their B2B catalog in North America and to
went through training, and we spent a few hours explaining completely eliminate print catalogs. With Open Text Web
how the tool works and how you would make enhancements Solutions, their online catalogs look almost identical to the
to each title. The entire group, who has worked with printed paper catalogs, have much more enhanced information, and
catalogs and maintained them with red pens, said, ‘Wow, I nearly eliminate their environmental impact by dramatically
cannot believe how easy this is.’ That’s a testament to what reducing their paper count. Open Text Web Solutions helps
a great step forward the system is.” to provide a more user-friendly environment, delivers a
Joyce tells of a real-life example of how easy the Open Text multimedia-enhanced experience, offers personalized catalogs
system is to use: “Before our first launch, just before our tailored to particular types of stores or resellers, and reduces
sales conference, HarperCollins went through a little bit of the time spent making edits, changing the layout, and going
a restructuring, including some of its imprints. Given the back to the design team and inside authors from months to days.
nature of how this was built and the architecture, we were Open Text Web Solutions helps speed up the process to go
able to react right away and change all the titles that were to market and offer more updated, enhanced information,
in one of the imprints that was reorganized. Within a week which helps the customer make better buying decisions and
or two before the sales conference, we were able to update provides a better end-user experience.
the entire catalog and react to that business climate change.
After that we understood how easy it was to use the tool,
and the users loved it, so it was perfect.”
www.opentext.com
Visit online.opentext.com for more information about Open Text solutions. Open Text is a publicly traded company on both NASDAQ (OTEX) and the TSX (OTC). Copyright © 2009 by Open Text Corporation. Open Text and The Content Experts are
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