Ad-Booking

ABS Ad-Booking has been designed specifically for advertising departments to manage and improve advertising sales. The Ad-Booking design team has placed a great deal of emphasis on making the software as intuitive and user-friendly as possible. The interface is well presented and simple navigation throughout the system gives easy access to information whenever it is needed. Consistent use of function keys, colour coding, pull-down menus, and clutter-free windows all enable the Sales team to concentrate on the task of booking ads without the stress of a complicated interface. Throughout Ad-Booking there are opportunities for the publisher to tailor the software for their own specific needs, from changing the size of the on-screen font for user comfort, to creating fields which dynamically pre-fill during the booking procedure, so speeding up the process. The navigation system uses a classic tree structure whereby users can view and select items from hierarchical lists which include sections, classifications, publications, styles and information types. As users become more adept short codes enable rapid selection of the same information. Adverts being booked can be viewed in full WYSIWYG throughout the booking process. A Quark XPress-based server controls H&J, meaning that each publication within Ad-Booking will use a Quark XPress template file that has been configured with the preferences for that individual publication. Should a logo be required, the sales person can access the graphics library system. Additionally, Account holders can be assigned a folder containing their own corporate artwork, which appears automatically during the booking process. If an invoice issue arises related to a particular account, a query can be raised against the invoice and routed through to the most relevant person required to deal with the issue. As this facility is web-based, these queries can be accessed by non Ad-Booking users on the network. Email integration allows an advert proof to be sent directly to your customer via email. By integrating directly with an in-house Exchange Server, and providing the customer is email-enabled, a PDF proof can be automatically sent out to the customer for approval. Ad-Booking includes the comprehensive Corporate Database, which provides a single repository for storing customer information. It utilises the Postcode Address File (PAF) to ensure that all address information is correctly formatted and includes sophisticated search and match capabilities to assist with the correct identification of a customer (including casuals). ABS itself is an integrated suite of applications, which enables dynamically updated corporate data to be shared between departments. Other modules include Ad-Ledger, Ad-CCM and Ad-CRM. The system uses a Sybase database with clients running under Microsoft Windows and the hardware required conforms to industry standard client-server architecture. ClassLinker (semi-automated classified page make-up) and Pulse (display advertisement production and tracking) can both communicate directly with the ABS database. The main Ad-Booking window contains all the elements your sales team require, including the advert preview. With its comprehensive Maintenance suite Ad-Booking can be modified quickly and easily to suit your needs, including the ability to create your own custom fields. During the H & J process a Logo Gallery is presented to the user for selection of a suitable graphic. The Logo gallery automatically defaults to the designated graphics folder for the particular account being booked to. If the account is not assigned with its own set of graphics the generic Logo Gallery is presented. The selected logo/s is injected into the advert text in the selected position and the advert is displayed in the preview window upon H&J.