Transforming Supply Chain Communication

The BISG 2023 Annual Meeting took place on April 28th at the Harvard Club of New York. Nearly 200 people from across the publishing industry gathered to discuss ways to improve communication across the supply chain.

Registrants can access recordings of the meeting. (You must have a BISG account -- whether as a member or non-member -- and log in.) For those who did not register, please see the information on the panels and presentations below. Stay tuned for information about public access to these resources. For now, we're pleased to provide immediate access to the recording of the presentation of the BISG Industry Awards.

Forecasting and Supply Chain Efficiency: A Framework for Making Better Decisions

Forecasting market demand for books is a key challenge for publishers looking to lower costs and/or improve availability of books in the marketplace. Over the past year, BISG has worked to develop a forecasting model that helps publishers and their printers determine the quantity and timing of book printings. The model considers overall marketplace demand, the time required to supply printed books, as well as inventory management and returns. Project participants will review this effort, discuss the process of forecasting, and offer key insights that will guide the industry going forward.

Panelists:

Moderator: Ken Brooks, BISG Supply Chain Committee Chair and EVP of Supply Chain at Amplify Education

Changes Needed in the Data Ecosystem

Supply chain efficiency is imperiled by many gaps in the book industry data that passes from publishers to manufacturers, distributors, retailers and libraries. Outgoing information isn’t updated or tied to results, and there is no single source of truth. Nor are there standards for workflow or rights. In cases where there is a standard – such as ONIX for metadata - different versions are created for different recipients. Trying to get everyone on one system hasn’t worked, so what’s the solution? This panel will explore potential changes in the data ecosystem, from creating a role for metadata distributors of record to using more API-driven data across the supply chain.

Panelists:

  • Dan Lubart, Founder and President of Iobyte Solutions
  • Kris Kliemann, Chair, BISG Rights Committee, and President, Kliemann and Company

Moderator: Claire Holloway, Metadata Committee Chair and Manager of Publisher Relations, OCLC

Changes Needed in the Tech Stack

Publishers’ tools for providing, managing and retrieving supply chain data were created in the 1970s and 1980s. While they have been adapted many times over the last 35 years, it’s less clear that these tools still serve their purpose. Most communication runs in a single direction; retailers’ point of sales systems don’t aggregate data in a consistent way; sales reporting is done using spreadsheets that struggle to keep up with the business models used to sell physical and digital books; and rights communications vary across markets and partners. This panel will explore alternatives for improving timeliness, completeness, and transparency of communication across the supply chain, including two-way communication about publishers’ sales and inventory data models, and minimum standards for communicating about rights and royalties (including the elusive promise of no more faxes and PDFs!).

Panelists:

Moderator: Krista Coulson, Chair of the BISG Workflow Committee and Senior Manager, Digital Publishing and Metadata, University of Chicago Press

How Do We Get There? Other Markets, Other Models

Transforming communications across the supply chain can feel like a daunting task. The good news is that other markets can help us find a way. In Canada, the U.K., Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, and elsewhere, the supply chains put more information in everyone’s hands. How have they achieved things that we’re still struggling to do in the U.S.? What incremental changes have been most helpful to their efforts over the long term? This panel aims to offer a road map for IT investments within companies and across the book publishing industry.

Panelists:

  • Fraser Tanner, Managing Director, Batch Ltd and CEO, Batch for Books Inc
  • Lauren Stewart, Director, Customer Relations, Conferences & Operations at BookNet Canada

Moderator: Brian O'Leary, Executive Director, BISG

Sponsored Luncheon Presentation (Available publicly)

Presentation Slides

Presenter: Adrian Blackman, Executive Vice President, Woodland Group

BISG Annual Meeting

Presentation of the Budget for Approval and Vote on New Board Members: by Kathleen Reid, BISG Board Chair

BISG Industry Awards (Available publicly)

Closing Keynote: “Thriving On Chaos (Just With Less Chaos)”

Presenter:

  • Kevin Spall, Senior Vice President, Global Manufacturing & Procurement at Scholastic

  Thank you to our Sponsors  

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