Transforming Supply Chain Communications WG

Current Situation

One fundamental and increasingly pressing issue is our supply chain, the network of individuals and companies involved in creating a product and delivering it to the consumer. As vibrant and creative as many people are in our industry, the book publishing supply chain is stuck in the last century.

We need a modern supply chain to seize the opportunities brought forward by new technologies and media. As other industries have embraced standardized digital workflows, the book industry supply chain is still very much a print-focused string of proprietary systems lacking in robust communication among the various segments. The
industry continues to grapple with the same questions it has for years, including:

• How do publishers reach more consumers and sell more books?
• How do libraries serve their patrons better?
• How do K-12 schools and universities provide the best learning materials to their students
• How can manufacturers and distributors provide better service to their customers?
• How can booksellers provide more value to their customers while closing sales faster and more efficiently?
• How do we convert more online searches to sales?

Objectives

Plan, promote, and execute a multi-year effort to influence the book industry about opportunities to significantly upgrade the capabilities, transparency, and resilience of the supply chain.

Stakeholder Impact

Limitations in the supply chain are already costing the industry time, staff expense, operational inefficiencies, and missed revenue opportunities. Looking ahead, the challenges will likely grow more severe. An industry that continues to add hundreds of thousands of new products every year will not be able to operate with a “business as usual” supply chain. We see at least four areas requiring specific consideration:

• Growth in the North American publishing business will increasingly come from the licensing and effective management of rights. While product sales overall will continue to contribute significant revenue, the upside for publishers with significant backlists will migrate increasingly toward rights.
• Managing the costs of creating, distributing, selling, and returning products will require a commitment to efficiency across the supply chain, using information that is currently unavailable or barely available in legacy systems and workflows. This requires a transformation of supply-chain communications in the U.S. market.
• Product selection and development will continue to demand a full understanding of the markets we’re working to serve, making access to and the ability to manage consumer information critical for companies throughout the supply chain. In the existing supply chain, links between external data and actual sales are tenuous and often delayed, with decisions made ahead of or well behind the markets we are working to serve.
• The internet, online e-tailing, mobile devices, and social media have completely changed the supply chain’s relationship with the end consumer. It is no longer only the physical bookstore, advertising, and in-person author appearances that drive consumer buying patterns. There are now multiple direct avenues to consumers, including buying books on social media sites – a brand new addition to the supply chain. The supply chain needs to be faster and more flexible to take advantage of these new and emerging channels.

Deliverables

BISG has integrated this work into its strategic plan. Deliverables in 2025 include:

• Write and publish a call to action / provocation
• Convene a follow-up meeting to develop a reference architecture
• Create draft statements of project benefits
• Socialize plan and create a preliminary cost estimate
• Identify pilot participants
• Plan and launch structured tests

Blockers

Although it would necessarily be implemented in stages, this effort requires the support of the industry across all segments and multiple systems and software solutions. Relatively few organizations have access to staff who can describe how all of their pieces fit together. Reaching critical mass of support and participation by 2026 will be a key benchmark in determining how far the project can go.