> CRM Software News:

Maximizer CRM

Boosts Circulation and Profitability at Sport360 Newspaper

Today, Select’s press room was informed the leading sports newspaper from the United Arab Emirates, Sport360, has implemented the customer relationship management (CRM) solution from Maximizer. Below you find the press release describing the implementation containing several quotes from John Rose, circulations director at Sport360.

BRACKNELL, UK – 29 November, 2011 – Maximizer Software, provider of affordable, simple and accessible CRM software, today announced that leading United Arab Emirates sports newspaper, Sport360, has gone live with Maximizer CRM.

Review Maximizer CRM and other CRM solutions? Request a free CRM information pack now!

Founded in 2010, Sport360 is a sports newspaper and associated website published in the United Arab Emirates. The newspaper has grown quickly since its launch, rising to a total circulation of 35,000 free and paid-for copies, thanks to its high-quality international news coverage of sports such as tennis, football, cricket, horseracing, motor racing and many more. The Sport360 team is continuing its huge effort to sign up readers as paid-for subscribers, having brought 8,000 on board in just one year.

Summing up Maximizer’s impact, John Jose, director at Sport360, commented that the software had already greatly reduced the newspaper’s administrative workload, increased the visibility and availability of accurate information and enabled the team to focus on growing the business and expanding the customer base.

Sport360 sells copies via news-stands and shops and supplies in bulk directly to hotels, hospitals and airlines. Deliveries are handled by a specialist third party distributor but the newspaper retains responsibility for providing daily reports and information which detail how many copies are to be printed, and where they should be delivered on any one day.

Delivering the right number of copies to the right locations 312 days per year is a major logistical challenge. Using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to manage this process became increasingly difficult and time consuming as Sport360’s circulation grew. For accurate live reporting, information had to be centralised in one system rather than in data silos spread across the business. Sport360 realised the best way to store delivery and subscription information and access live reporting functionality would be with a CRM system.

John Jose, circulations director at Sport360 comments: “I asked some publishing industry contacts which CRM solution they would endorse and almost all of them recommended Maximizer CRM. This was an important factor in our decision, because as fellow publishers, they understood exactly how we wanted CRM software to perform.” Following on from this strong positive feedback from local users and its own detailed research, Sport360 contacted Maximizer Certified Business Partner, GNet Computer Systems. After a detailed consultation, GNet started to implement Maximizer CRM.

Directly after go-live there was a marked improvement in the circulation team’s working day. The Maximizer CRM implementation revolutionised Sport360’s processes, with reports specifying daily print runs and delivery schedules – which used to take two hours to create – available instantly. All subscriber records are held in one place, together with production and deliveries information, so instructions for the printers and distributors can now be printed off or emailed in seconds. For example, the CRM system allows Sport360 to specify certain delivery days for specific customers ahead of time. If a customer wants the newspaper only on Tuesday and Thursday, details are automatically omitted from Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s reports.

Sport360 now has complete customer information including start and end dates for each of its subscribers. So when subscription renewal time comes the team has the correct information to contact the client, helping to increase repeat business. Live reports can be produced at the touch of a button, providing an up to date, clear picture of income against costs. Reports can be easily configured to show other relevant data, such as cancelled subscriptions, total live subscriptions, total subscriptions revenue per day and daily revenue per subscription. “The reporting functionality is a fantastic benefit. We can even see whether an individual subscription came in under a certain promotion or special offer price,” adds John Jose. “We are still experimenting with what it can do but it has been tremendously useful so far. To be able to view total revenue per issue or total profit per day is extremely helpful for planning and budgeting.”

Maximizer is also used to generate monthly invoices for its bulk customers. Based on the information held in Maximizer, it is an easy process to create a unique invoice for each customer showing copy rate and number of copies received. This efficiency of information access and process provides huge savings in time and effort over the previous system.

“Probably the biggest challenge we face is converting the free copies we distribute into paid subscriptions,” John Jose continues. “So we’re looking at specific ways in which Maximizer CRM can help us to reach our goals on this front. Clearly, having all our customer contact information in one accessible place is a positive start. Thanks to Maximizer CRM we now have a much better overall view of our customers which improves retention rates and also helps with new sales.”

Maximizer Campaign Manager is used to email targeted subscription offers and notify customers approaching the end of their terms that it’s time to renew. “We are recent converts to Maximizer CRM but already we wonder how we ever managed without it. We’re just starting to use Maximizer’s email functionality which is a perfect tool for anyone in the publishing industry,” says John Jose. “And automatic subscription renewal reminders take a great weight off our team, because a major strength of Maximizer CRM is that it will never let a subscription lapse without alerting us and the customer. In short, there’s no room for human error or forgetfulness which can otherwise lead to lost sales.”

In phase 2 Sport360 plans to use the software to manage and maintain information on the newspaper’s advertising partners – and it is also considering making Maximizer CRM available to its accounts team because of the neat way in which Maximizer CRM handles invoicing.

Mike Richardson, managing director EMEA at Maximizer Software commented: “This deployment at Sport360 shows the tremendous versatility of Maximizer CRM. It illustrates the positive impact of CRM on the newspaper’s growth and profitability and serves as a role model for other organisations in the publishing industry.”

Review Maximizer CRM and other CRM applications? Request a free CRM information pack now!