Houghton Mifflin Enhances its Author Care Capabilities by
Deploying REAL Software Systems'
Alliant Royalties Software Solution
Houghton Mifflin, one of the leading educational and trade publishers in the
United States, with over $1 billion in sales, sought to replace their legacy
system with a best-in-breed royalty agreement management system to more
flexibly manage changes in their business development process. Houghton Mifflin
worked with REAL Software Systems (RSS) to enhance their author care
capabilities by deploying the Alliant Royalties solution.
Alliant Royalties has enabled Houghton Mifflin to automate and centralize their
royalty management process. Alliant Royalties has a powerful calculation engine
at its core which is used by a highly flexible and scaleable business-rules
configuration environment. This architecture enables Alliant Royalties to
store, process and track a vast number of unique contractual terms. For
Houghton Mifflin, this means that all of their author contracts are managed
within Alliant Royalties, regardless of their complexity and volume.
Furthermore, Alliant Royalties facilitates dynamic incorporation of new
business rules into their production system.
"We continue to be impressed by the flexibility of the product and the
responsiveness of the [RSS] organization." states Michael Lindgren, Vice
President of Finance and Operations at Houghton Mifflin.
Specifically, Houghton Mifflin has recognized that Alliant Royalties has
improved their ability to:
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Efficiently manage new royalty agreements, calculations, statements, and
reports, removing the manual effort of their previous royalty management
process;
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Attain visibility into all aspects of the royalty process (e.g., changes, error
corrections, queries, etc.) through an easy to use Windows© environment;
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Ensure the accuracy and auditability of royalty processing; and
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Facilitate the consolidation of royalty information from multiple lines of
business across the enterprise into the Alliant Royalties knowledge center.
The ability to negotiate a wide variety of deals combined with the ability to
offer accurate, timely, and relevant statements has yielded reputation
superiority for Houghton Mifflin in the highly competitive publishing sector.
Enhanced automation and centralization of the royalty calculation process has
also enabled Operations and Finance staff to focus on analysis and advisory
roles, thereby optimizing their contribution to corporate efficiency. Finally,
Alliant Royalties' exceptional reporting and auditability has provided
Houghton Mifflin with access to the information they need to deliver timely and
accurate responses to management and author inquiries.
Alliant Royalties is optimized for businesses with large contract volumes, high
contract complexity, and abundant contract uniqueness. Using native data
integration tools, it can be easily integrated with existing distribution,
sales, financial, decision support and order processing systems.
About Houghton Mifflin
Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Company is one of the leading educational
publishers in the United States, with over $1 billion in sales. Houghton
Mifflin Company publishes textbooks, instructional technology, assessments and
other educational materials for elementary and secondary schools and colleges.
Houghton Mifflin Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works
and award-winning fiction and non-fiction for adults and young readers.
Houghton Mifflin offers computer-administered testing programs and services for
the professional and certification markets. With its origins dating back to
1832, Houghton Mifflin Company today combines its tradition of excellence with
a commitment to innovation. The Company's website can be found at
www.hmco.com.
About REAL Software Systems
REAL Software Systems provides software solutions for the management of royalty,
rights, and revenue sharing agreements. RSS products
are deployed across diverse industries including Publishing, Entertainment,
Merchandising, Technology & Industrial Products and Life Sciences markets.
Our customers include intellectual property-centric companies such as Houghton
Mifflin Company, Readers Digest, The Thomson Corporation, BBC Worldwide, MGM
Studios, Electronic Arts, Getty Images, and Vivendi Games. RSS is a privately
held company and has operations in Los Angeles, Boston, and London. For more
information please visit www.realsoftwaresystems.com.
© 2007 REAL Software Systems, LLC. REAL Software Systems, Alliant Royalties,
Alliant Participations are trademarks of REAL Software Systems, LLC. All other
trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners.
For more information contact:
Mitzi Chollampel
Marketing Manager
REAL Software Systems, LLC
+1-818-313-8097
mchollampel@realsoftwaresystems.com
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