COMPUTER MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS -- The MISsing Link

Green believes the cooperative nature of this effort is key to its acceptance. "The e-business marketplace in book publishing is still very new," he notes. "For any solution to be successful, it must have a broad base of support among both print customers and vendors."

For its part, Von Hoffmann is first working on Web-enabling firm order (reprints only) and quote/pricing requests from major educational customers, according to Green. "We will follow this with capabilities for job planning/first print orders and advance shipping notices. Clients will also be given online access to job status, schedule and inventory information."