About us
As experts in the publishing industry, knk Business Software combines the strengths of a business consultancy and the solution expertise of a software company.
knk develops and distributes knkPublishing – the only Microsoft-certified publishing software in the world. knkPublishing combines the classic business functions (financial accounting, controlling, shopping and logistics) and the strength of the CRM functionalities of Microsoft Dynamics with industry specific functions for book, periodical and specialist publishers, adding the data analytics of Microsoft PowerBI and strong Content and Asset Management Functionality e.g. of Microsoft Sharepoint and integrates this with InDesign, WordPress and Drupal.
knk’s role in the ecosystem is to apply Microsoft’s most recent technologies in a way that publishers can put to best use.
In doing so, knkPublishing takes the latest developments of the publishing industry into account, e.g., multi-channel distribution, digital media and standardized data transmission along the value chain. By entering into an intensive dialog with customers and prospects, requirements of practical relevance are continuously integrated in the development of the knkPublishing software. knk is a member of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), FIPP (the global association of periodical media), BISG Book Industry Study Group (incl. The Supply Chain Committee of BISG), many other international media specific groups and associations and Microsoft-certified Partner (with seven gold certifications: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Application Development, Data Platform (SQL), Collaboration and Content, Data Analytics, Application Integration and Datacenter).
Our Core Competencies
The knk advantages
Our team are thought leaders and experts in the publishing industry. We adapt new market challenges and are supporters of innovative publishing houses. We know the challenges you face and we know how to drive sales and profits. We know that process optimization must go hand-in-hand with software. Our members are experts in both.
Gold-Certified Partners represent the highest level of competence and expertise with Microsoft technologies and have the closest working relationship with Microsoft. knkPublishing is based on Microsoft Dynamics, used by more than 110,000 companies globally. It is completely integrated with other Microsoft products such as Office 365 (Word, Excel, Outlook etc.), Microsoft Azure, CRM Online, Microsoft Power BI, etc.
Microsoft invests about a billion dollars per year in R&D. No other provider of publishing software has such enormous resources being invested in the improvement and modernization of their solution. Whether you are interested in data science, machine learning or picture recognition, knkPublishing is the solution leading the way.
Meet our US Team
Son of an editor in chief of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ, the German equivalent to New York Times), he founded knk in 1988 and specialized in developing and implementing knkPublishing, the only Microsoft certified business software for publishing houses.
In addition, he established the knk implementation procedure for media companies based on Microsoft’s Sure Step methodology.
Before he had worked for over six years with mid-sized companies in their requirements definition and management of the software buying processes. Prior to that, Jason Spanos held business development roles for about five years, in addition to ten years’ experience in implementations. He has implemented business systems across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. He is a professional project manager (PMP certified), and is based in the Seattle area.
He specialized in software development for the first years, switching to sales and consulting afterwards.
Since 2013, he works as a Senior Account and Channel Manager with national and international publishing clients (especially in the area of Educational Publishers and Professional B2B Publishers) and partners.
He is especially knowledgeable about Editorial Office, Media Production, CRM, Paid Content, Digital and Physical Subscription Management and – for B2B – Advertising.
Previously he served 12 years in public and private accounting; 7 years as a Controller or CFO. During his 18 years in the software industry, he has provided extensive implementation and integration consulting services as senior consultant and head of the implementation team. His focus is implementation methodology and customer support and he is based in Pennsylvania.
A logistics engineer by training, he is focused on project management and the delivery of the software to our customers, and is directly accountable for the successful implementation of our publishing software knkPublishing in several publishing houses across North America, Europe and Asia.
In addition to that, he is adjunct professor at Pace University and New York University in their graduate schools of publishing. Before joining knk, he was responsible for the whole US operation of Klopotek, another market-leading provider of publishing software, based in Germany.
Meet our UK Team
John is a seasoned IT professional with a hands-on approach and considerable experience in the areas of sales, client management, and software implementation projects.
He is familiar with all business processes applicable to Book Publishing, B2B and B2C Magazine, Journal and Digital Publishing; ERP; CRM; Credit Management; Sales, Marketing and Distribution. During his IT career, he has enjoyed roles in New Business Development, Pre-sales, Account Management, Software Implementation, Project Management, Business Consultancy, Systems Analysis, Training, and Customer Service. Prior to joining knk, John spent 7 years as the Director of Klopotek UK and 6 years as Business Development Manager for Ingenta.
After graduating from Oxford University, Anne worked as a Systems Analyst and Programmer. In 1987, just as PCs were being introduced into the UK, she and Alison set up Bradbury Phillips having identified the significant efficiencies that computers could provide to the management of Rights and Literary Agency accounting.
knk and the publishing industry
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