Client References

What our clients say about us

The benefits of adopting an integrated system from a sales analysis perspective:

“My original intention was to replace our existing book publishing software and then, as a separate exercise, look at mainstream accounting systems, but when I came across AVATAR I realized I could kill two birds with one stone. Whilst AVATAR’s accounting modules were clearly very robust and flexible – and one of the key features we required was the ability to generate sales analysis ‘every which way we could’ – we actually made the decision mainly on the basis of what the book publishing side of the product offered.”

Kevin Bassinder, Finance Director, Pen and Sword Books Limited

The benefits of being easily able to generate information on a product's lifetime profitability:

“AVATAR collates all the information that you input and then enables you to manipulate it in a variety of different ways with regard to sales & sales statistics. For a recent board meeting I extracted all our sales information from 2001 onwards, by product, by region, in units, values, margins, all in less than a day. It was so easy. I’ve worked with quite a few packages and I’ve never had anything that would generate information as quickly and in the level of detail that AVATAR offers. It provides brilliant business intelligence.”

Dominic Allan, Financial Controller, Summertown Publishing

The benefits of being able to review activity and produce accurate forecasts on demand:

“There are considerable business benefits in our using AVATAR as it manages all our financial accounting, including the specific reports we need. We require full monthly management accounts and AVATAR gives us this all-important control. For example, with AVATAR we are able to review marketing budgets at the level of each book and music product month by month and monitor expenditure very accurately, which is crucially important for us. Similarly, in association with our colleagues in the US, we can forecast how monthly performances are likely to impact our end of year. AVATAR enables us to create that picture – that’s the bottom line.”

Bill Owen, Director of Finance, Kingsway Communications

The benefits to a small publisher of being able to minimise the amount of time spent on non income-producing activities:

  “We are confident that investing in AVATAR will enable us to manage our business much more efficiently in the future.  Even though we are still a small organisation, we feel that we have made a wise decision to invest in an integrated back office system, particularly given the recent changes in the economic climate.  We need to maximise our selling opportunities and with AVATAR we can minimise the amount of time we spend on non income-producing activities.  We will be able to increase our turnover without increasing our overheads – in other words grow as a business without needing more staff.”

Joanne Potter, Marketing Manager, Merlin Unwin Books

The benefits of being able to deal with the best real-time information, using a truly flexible management tool:

 “We didn’t have a system that could accommodate sales data and royalty information and meet our accounting and business management needs. We were wasting time, duplicating effort and struggling to extract meaningful and usable management information.......the Avatar system really does what it says on the tin – largely because it has been developed by chartered accountants specifically to cope with the vagaries of the publishing business, in all its lunatic glory. In the present crisis, we can’t solve problems at a stroke, but we can ensure that we’re dealing with the best real-time information, using a truly flexible management tool.”

Anne Beech, Managing Director, Pluto Press