News
Media Release 22 February 2008 (pdf)
Ehaus delivers ground-breaking online bookshop
Bibliogrpahic Data Services (BDS) invests in Ehaus
Ehaus announces buyout from parent company
Foyles going from strength to strength in its centenary year
Ehaus Delivers Ground Breaking Online Bookshop
Ehaus, supplier of web services to the book trade, has recently delivered and launched the redesigned OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] online bookshop (www.oecdbookshop.org / www.ocdelibrairie.org). This new site is a bi-lingual online bookshop that breaks new ground in the way that it meets the needs of OECD's demanding customers and distributes a publisher's intellectual property.
Background
Most online bookshops are nothing more than a way to order a printed book
online. Whilst there are many benefits to the client in terms of discoverability
and ease of ordering, the client still has to wait a few days (at best)
before they can read the book. For professionals and researchers this
is not fast enough - especially if the publication has been cited in
today's media reports. OECD's publications are routinely front-page items
for the world's 'broadsheet media' like the Financial Times & FT.com,
CNN, The New York Times, Canada's Globe & Mail and Australia's Herald
and their readers and viewers won't tolerate waiting several days for
the book to arrive in the post.
To solve this problem, OECD specified
a ground-breaking idea to Ehaus: build an online bookshop with a virtual
bookshelf for every client where instant and permanent e-book access
to all purchased publications is available. In this way clients worldwide
can get instant access to the full text as soon as they've purchased
the book. With the advent of Internet search engines and newer services
like Google Print, a publisher's web site becomes more important than
ever. When working with partner web sites, publishers can offer special
terms to their visitors. But to exploit these discovery tools publishers
need a web site that delivers in terms of performance and functionality.
The OECD online bookshop proposition
In addition to the core shopping basket and virtual bookshelf services,
the OECD online bookshop is rich in new features, and responsive to the
wide-ranging demands of the OECD's diverse customer base.
The site offers
customers the full range of OECD publications: printed books and e-books,
loose-leaf reference works and CD-Roms. The full text of every book
is searchable, and many titles are available for free browsing online. Readers
can also purchase access to OECD's online statistical databases.
OECD also works with a worldwide network of distributors, many of whom
find it too slow to order offline - so an Online Trade Counter is now in
development. The needs of corporate customers will be met by a special
Corporate Accounts Service.
To help meet their complete range of customer
support needs, the bookshop offers to librarians and readers downloadable
'DIY' catalogues (linked to the search engine) and a range of different
browse and search options to help visitors find the titles they need quickly
and easily.
The Ehaus solution
Ehaus developed a bespoke solution for OECD, which it believes to be the
first of its kind. The e-commerce engine enables complex trade and affiliate
discounts, multiple currencies, integrated credit card processing, and
the secure transmission of book orders, as well as the secure delivery
of e-books. The back-office is seamlessly integrated with OECD's offline
order processing system (provided by Turpin Distribution Ltd) allowing
printed books to be despatched from the UK and US warehouses on a same/next-day
basis. This also allows for consolidated inventory and reporting management.
Future plans include a seamless integration with a print-on-demand vendor
to make backlist titles available.
The site is hosted in Docklands, London,
but maintained using tailored Ehaus content management systems by OECD
staff in Paris who have full control over the rapidly changing content.
James Henson, Ehaus Director, commented:
"OECD take a very forward-thinking
stance when it comes to the distribution of their information and the sale
of their products. This presented Ehaus with a number of challenges, beyond
the relatively simple business of building a bi-lingual bibliographic database.
The project was a highly collaborative one, and the site is a testament
both to OECD's vision and to Ehaus's ability to deliver innovative and
robust solutions on large scale projects."
Toby Green, Head of Dissemination and Marketing, OECD Publishing, commented:
"The internet is a crucial publishing and sales platform for the OECD, because
our customers are based all over the world and are used to sourcing information
online. The online bookshop is often the first place that consultants,
researchers and librarians will go to get OECD publications. It needs to meet
high expectations, in terms of its level of detail and functionality, its efficiency,
and ease of use. The new site succeeds in meeting these high expectations, and
Ehaus have been instrumental in helping us deliver this vision. This new online
bookshop is proving good for sales too. Compared to our previous online bookshop,
sales are already 20% better month-on-month and rising."
Company Details - Ehaus
Ehaus has been developing software and designing web sites for almost
10 years. Formerly a part of Book Data, and then Nielsen BookData,
Ehaus became independent in April 2004, and has since built on its reputation
as a company of integrity and innovation. Specialists in solutions
for the book trade, Ehaus has a client list which includes Foyles, The
Book Place, Time Warner Books, Berlitz, and Oxfam. For more information
please visit http://www.ehaus.co.uk/ or
contact James Henson on +44 (0)20 8962 9999.
Organisation details - OECD
The OECD groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic
government and the market economy. With active relationships with some
70 other countries, NGOs and civil society, it has a global reach.
Best known for its publications and its statistics, its work covers
economic and social issues from macroeconomics, to trade, education,
development and science and innovation. It is well known for its individual
country surveys and reviews and it produces internationally agreed
instruments, decisions and recommendations on a range of areas that
help improve international co-operation and trade.
OECD Publishing, the OECD's publishing arm, produces around 150 new titles annually
along with 19 periodicals and more than 40 statistical databases.
It also distributes the publications of the Nuclear Energy Agency, International
Energy Agency, OECD Development Centre, Centre for Educational Innovation
and Sahel and West Africa Club.
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Bibliographic Data Services (BDS) Invests in Ehaus
Ehaus Ltd, the UK's leading provider of web services to the book trade, has
secured investment from Bibliographic Data Services Limited, (BDS), the
UK's premier supplier of bibliographic information to libraries.
Having recently completed a management buy-out from Nielsen BookData, Ehaus welcomes
BDS's close involvement. From his headquarters in North Kensington, Matthew
Pollock, Joint Managing Director of Ehaus commented:
"Our relationship with BDS means that Ehaus can broaden its services to clients
while maintaining its strong reputation for innovative software development."
Ehaus focuses on all aspects of design, build and maintenance for web sites
of all sizes. Its client base includes booksellers such as Foyles, Hammicks
Legal, and The Book Pl@ce and publishers such as Time Warner Books, Octopus
Publishing Group, and Berlitz.
BDS, established in 1994, creates information-rich data on books, DVDs and
videos for use in libraries and increasingly for commercial purposes. Its clients
include the British Library and all of the leading UK-based library booksellers.
For BDS the purchase represents a further step in its commitment to developing
high-quality services to libraries. Outside the library arena, it creates
opportunities for the diversified use of its industry-standard data for
which the company is renowned.
"This is a unique opportunity to integrate the resources of two leading service
providers," commented Eric Green, Business Development Director at BDS. "We look
forward to offering our clients unrivalled web services in terms of information,
presentation and maintenance." Ehaus shares its London office with BDS whose
headquarters are in Dumfries, Scotland.
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Ehaus announces management buyout from parent company Nielsen BookData
Francis Bennett, managing director of Nielsen BookData announced today that
the company had sold its web services division, which trades under the name Ehaus,
to its management, Matthew Pollock and James Henson.
The new company will be called Ehaus Ltd. Matthew Pollock and James Henson
are the executive directors of the new company. Announcements about non-executive
directors are expected to follow shortly.
Nielsen BookData conducted a strategic review earlier this year, which
concluded that web services were not core to the company's strategy. After
detailed negotiations, the business was sold to the management of the division.
This decision has been warmly welcomed by both Nielsen BookData and by Ehaus Ltd.
Francis Bennett commented: "the relationship between Nielsen BookData and
Ehaus Ltd will continue to be a close one, as we share so many customers. What
is exciting is that this new arrangement frees Ehaus Ltd to pursue development
and expansion plans that were not possible under its former ownership."
Matthew Pollock said: "I look forward to continuing a close working partnership
with Nielsen BookData and to expanding the market for web services within the
publishing industry. We have a good client list and trading history, which
puts us in a strong position for future growth."
All current web contracts are being assigned to Ehaus Ltd, while all data
contracts will remain with Nielsen BookData. All customers have been informed
of this change in ownership.
ehaus will move to its new premises by the end of May, the new address will be:
ehaus Ltd
10 Adela Street
London W10 5BA
Tel: +44 (0)20 8962 9999
For more information, please contact:
James Henson
Ehaus Ltd.
Tel:
+44 (0)20 8962 9999
Mo Siewcharran
Nielsen BookData
Tel: +44 (0)870 777 8710
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Foyles: going from strength to strength in
its centenary year
Foyles, the unique family-run bookshop that has become a landmark in
the heart of London, is celebrating its centenary in 2003.
During 2002 Foyles began a multi-million pound refurbishment programme.
The first stage of which is now complete and includes the acquisition
of Silver Moon Women's Bookshop and Ray's Jazz Shop both of which have
added to Foyles rich and diverse offering.
At the heart of its refurbishment and relaunch is a new web site serving
its worldwide customer base. The company wanted to offer its customers
an online service that was easy to use to meet a variety of needs including
searching and buying online.
Foyles were far from novices at the Internet game when they asked e-haus
to redevelop their web site. They already had a site from which they
traded, but they wanted more control and flexibility over the content
and to reflect the wide variety of their stockholding. In addition,
they wanted to improve product information accuracy and the best means
of achieving this is by increasing the frequency of up-dating the service.
e-haus (Nielsen BookData's web services division) has delivered a solution
that provides Foyles with daily bibliographic updates and a fully integrated
web site management system, giving Foyles full control over every page
of their site alongside a very strong platform from which it can develop
its other retailing brands, such as Silver Moon.
James Henson, Internet Manager at e-haus, said "There
is something especially rewarding about working with such a familiar
and traditional high-street bookseller. It was our mission to create
a web site that really captures the range and expertise that Foyles stands
for, and I think that's what we've done."
Vivienne Wordley, Foyles Marketing Manager, said "We
wanted to offer our customers an easy-to-use, attractive site that
both complemented our physical bookshop and served all those worldwide
customers who couldn't make it to Charing Cross Road. e-haus delivered
this with a system we now manage in-house, all at a very cost-effective
price!" http://ww.foyles.co.uk/
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