McClatchy newspaper in Tacoma, Washington, achieves significant cost savings while improving efficiency in delivering newspapers to retail locations.
Bellevue, WA –March 16, 2004- Syncronex, Inc., an enterprise software company that provides field service automation software to the publishing industry, has announced that The News Tribune (Tacoma News, Inc., Tacoma, WA), part of The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) family of newspapers, has implemented its Single Copy Edition software to automate retail distribution.
The News Tribune selected Syncronex to provide a solution that allows delivery personnel to view and update point of sale information on a PDA (Personal Data Assistant). The current process required delivery personnel to record newspaper sales information through a manual process that needed significant data entry. “The elimination of manual data entry costs alone justified the cost of the Syncronex solution. However, we received additional benefits by having up-to-date information to analyze, which translates to fewer locations that run out of newspapers every day,” said Mike Burlingame, Circulation Director of The News Tribune.
Using Syncronex, The News Tribune has streamlined the data collection process significantly while providing delivery personnel with an easy-to-use device. The News Tribune deployed Palm m130 PDA’s, utilizing Bluetooth wireless technology to synchronize data with their circulation system. “I was surprised how intuitive and easy to use the PDA’s are,” said Tony Ort, Single Copy Manger for The News Tribune.
The solution implemented by The News Tribune uses Syncronex’s unique combination of web and wireless access to enterprise data to provide a single point of contact for each participant in the process. Point-of-sale information is collected on the PDA, downloaded to the Syncronex server, and synchronized with the circulation system. Managers are then able to run web-based reports to determine the needs of each customer location. The communication process and route information is easily managed with Syncronex Single Copy Edition.
"Syncronex has brought the delivery of newspapers to retail locations to a whole new level. There are several solutions in the marketplace that we evaluated, but none of them provided the return on investment we needed to justify the expense. The use of low-cost Palm PDA’s was a tremendous advantage over custom proprietary solutions that most vendors utilize,” Burlingame added.
The News Tribune serves Tacoma and Pierce County, Washington. Anchored in the South Puget Sound with majestic Mount Rainier nearby, The News Tribune has a circulation of 128,000 daily and 144,000 on Sundays. The News Tribune is the newspaper of choice in the growing Tacoma/Pierce County market. In addition, its two weekly newspapers, the Puyallup Herald and The Peninsula Gateway, offer regional coverage of the fastest growing and most affluent areas of the community.
Syncronex, an enterprise software company based in Bellevue, WA, provides field service automation software to the publishing industry. Syncronex software improves mobile workforce productivity by simplifying communication procedures and integrating enterprise data, voice and messaging through a single wireless device. Companies using Syncronex Newspaper solutions can simplify the task of managing a mobile workforce with a low total cost of ownership software solution that can be implemented within 30 days. For more information please contact Syncronex at 877-796-2766 or visit http://www.syncronex.com for more information on Syncronex products and solutions.
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