2005 User Group Meeting Recap

Welcome to the Pubnet Newsletter! It’s been a busy six months. The community has grown substantially, with 55 new vendors and 204 new retailers.

Don’t forget that we are always listening and encourage you to provide your feedback about topics in this newsletter or any Pubnet related topic by sending an e-mail to info@pubnet.org. Registration for this newsletter and other Pubnet enhancements is always available at www.pubnet.org.

Hosted at the Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale, Illinois (just outside Chicago), the third annual Pubnet User Group Meeting brought together publishers, booksellers, POS vendors, and EDI developers in an open forum for a spirited conversation about how to improve electronic ordering from end-to-end.

The event reviewed the signs of progress made and addressed ways to continue moving forward with making the book ordering supply chain even more efficient. Presentations are currently available online for all members to review. Here’s what you’ll find:

"Keynote Presentation – Collaboration in the Midst of Competition"
Michael Tamblyn, CEO, Booknet Canada

"Collaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment and EDI"
Gary Miller, Provident-Integrity Distribution

"Populating the POA - Intelligent Acknowledgments, Retail Expectations"
John Fleming, Director, Product Strategy, Follett Educational Services
Scot Styer, Director of EDI/Data, eCampus.com

"Effectively Using Promotion Codes in PO Documents"
Carrie Barnett, Booklog

"Pubnet Marketing Best Practices"
Janet Feeney, Marketing Manager, Pubnet

"Pubnet Order Wizard Web-based EDI - Trading with the Smallest Partners"
Bruce Miller, US Sales Executive, Pubnet

Next year’s event is set to be the most ambitious User Group Meeting to date. A venue, date and agenda will be released in the first few months of the New Year. For those who want to learn about effectively maximizing efficiency in their supply chain, the Pubnet/ PubEasy User Group Meeting is the must attend event in 2006.

One of the main takeaways from the Pubnet User Group Meeting is the need for a certification process along with a scorecard to evaluate vendor EDI capabilities.

We have begun drafting the certification process, but we need your help! We are looking for volunteers for an EDI Certification Advisory Committee, to help suggest methods and practices that will help us refine and promote EDI standards.

If you would like to be a part of the EDI Certification Advisory Committee, or if you have any questions about our plans to establish a certification program, please send an e-mail to bruce.miller@bowker.com. We look forward to hearing from you and welcome your interest.

We plan to share our preliminary plans with committee members in early January, with a conference call scheduled for mid-January to get feedback and discuss next steps.

As we move from 2005 into 2006, Pubnet is dedicated to making our services even better for our partners. By continuing the dialogue started at this year’s event, we are confident this goal will be achieved.

By January 1, 2007, retailers and suppliers in U.S. and Canada are required to have the ability to read, process and store all ISBNs as 13 digits. This will enable the book industry to resolve a pending shortage of new ISBN assignments and allows ISBNs to become integrated with Global Trade Identifier Numbers (GTINs), including the UCC/EAN-14. Addressing this change, Pubnet is currently certifying POS systems and vendors as ISBN-13 compliant.

Read these 2 new documents now available on the Pubnet website:
- Details on ISBN-13 Certification for POS systems
- Details on ISBN-13 Certification for Vendors

If you have any questions about whether or not your organization is ready for ISBN-13, please contact Pubnet Technical support :
E-mail:  support@pubnet.org
Phone:  1-800-PUBNET-1

We are proud to welcome Penguin (SAN 2825074) as a new “Rapid Response 30” publisher, ensuring that they will send a POA for any order within 30 minutes of receiving it.

David Campbell has joined Pubnet as our new Christian Sales Executive. David is responsible for managing and developing book publisher accounts for new and existing customers in the Christian market, including managing relationships with large retail chains, technology vendors and industry organizations. You can contact David at david.campbell@pubnet.org, telephone 866-414-3043.

Seán O’Neill has joined Pubnet as our new Canadian Sales Executive. Seán is responsible for managing and developing book publisher accounts for new and existing customers in the Canadian market, including managing relationships with large retail chains, technology vendors and industry organizations. You can contact Seán at sean.oneill@bowker.com, telephone 905-877-9075.

1) New Icons on the Vendor List
at http://www.pubnet.org/about/publist.html

The icon indicates publishers/distributors who actively update their data in Pubnet Order Wizard (POW) -- our web-based EDI solution -- allowing users to search their catalog directly.

The icon indicates Rapid Response® suppliers who dedicate themselves to acknowledging POs within 15 minutes of receipt.
LEARN MORE ABOUT RAPID RESPONSE

The icon indicates Rapid Response® suppliers who dedicate themselves to acknowledging POs within 30 minutes of receipt.
LEARN MORE ABOUT RAPID RESPONSE

The icon indicates special discounts available for orders placed via Pubnet.
If you are interested in joining any of these programs, contact sales@pubnet.org.

2) Downloadable Vendor List
For a complete list of Vendors and Retailers trading on Pubnet, including SAN numbers, you can download the most up-to-date Pubnet Vendor/ Retailer List at http://www.pubnet.org/about/Pubnet_List.pdf

If you need to report changes to the listed information, send an e-mail to janet.feeney@bowker.com.

3) New information about Document Cycle Tracking Service (DCTS)
You can download a PowerPoint presentation pdf about our DCTS service, a web-based order tracking and shipping management system at http://www.pubnet.org/scs/DCTS_2005.pdf

Welcome New Pubnet Members!
Between April 1 and November 1, 2005, the Pubnet community grew by leaps and bounds. Welcome aboard to all!

IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!
Before you can trade with these new vendors (or with any vendor for the first time), please be sure to visit their web sites and contact them about sending orders via Pubnet. Vendors must have your SAN matched up to your account number to begin processing EDI orders.

Please change the following SANs in your POS or Textbook management system:

• Simon & Schuster's SAN is now 2566044
• Southern Illinois University Press' SAN is now 2033623

Publisher Order Wizard (POW) is a module that provides publishers who have not implemented EDI technology with an affordable, web-based alternative to send/ receive EDI documents.POW is perfect if you want to trade with large retail chains that often require EDI in order to receive preferred trading terms.Publisher POW enables you to:

• Receive 850 PO requests
• Reply to POs with standard 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgements (POAs)
• Send Advanced EDI Document sets including 810 Invoices and 856 Advanced Ship Notices (ASNs)
• Print packing slips and shipping labels

Learn more about POW at the Pubnet web site http://www.pubnet.org/scs/pow.html

We want to make sure we have the most up-to-date information about your company on our Web site. Take a moment to visit http://www.pubnet.org/about/publist.html and confirm that we have the most recent listing of your imprints and distributed presses.

Then contact sales@pubnet.org if:

1. Any information needs to be corrected

2. You offer additional discounts for EDI ordering

3. You want us to link to a Pubnet page on your web site that helps retailers begin the setup process

Find out about this fall’s hottest trade titles with Bookwire Presents. These featured titles include reviews and bibliographic information about assorted subjects that are just right for any bookstore shelf.

• Visit Bookwire Presents

Billing/Mailing Address:
Bowker/Pubnet Customer
Service Department
630 Central Ave.
New Providence, NJ  07974  US

Pubnet users:
Bruce Miller
Phone:  888-269-5372 x2053 or 908-219-0053
E-mail:  bruce.miller@pubnet.org

Canadian Pubnet users:
Seán O'Neill
Phone:  866-748-4001 x2053 or 416.840.4473
E-mail:  sean.oneill@bowker.com

Christian Pubnet users:
David Campbell
Phone:  866-414-3043 or 615-907-9778
E-mail:  david.campbell@pubnet.org

Visit Pubnet's web site:  www.pubnet.org