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

Change Management in media
Business Process Optimization in media
Professional Project Management in media

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.

Different from most competitors, knk serves media companies globally and brings inspiration and perspective from the newest trends in North America, Europe and Asia.

knk’s team ranges from experienced publishing professionals with extensive industry knowledge to the brightest minds from tech and development. knk is rated as a “top employer” investing heavily in employee education and offering challenging new technology and its application to the media business. Thus knk has a healthy mix of staff born into the new digital technologies as well as experienced business consultants in their project teams.

Meet our US Team

Knut Nicholas Krause
Knut Nicholas KrausePresident
Knut Nicholas Krause M.Sc., Founder of knk, has been active as an IT consultant for medium-sized companies since 1986.

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.

Jason Spanos
Jason SpanosChief Revenue Officer
Jason Spanos joined knk with a wealth of experience in consulting services and Microsoft-based products. As Chief Revenue Officer Jason Spanos is responsible for new business development and sales in North America.

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.

Sebastian Mayeres
Sebastian MayeresCEO & COO
Sebastian Mayeres joined knk in 2003 focusing on Business Informatics.
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.

Edward L. Wood
Edward L. WoodCFO
Ned Wood is a business and financial software consultant providing implementation and support services to numerous profit and non-profit clients since 1997. He is a certified Microsoft Dynamics Software Consultant and Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

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.

David M. Hetherington
David M. HetheringtonCMO
David Hetherington started his career as a manager in the book-manufacturing group at Simon & Schuster. He became Director and later Vice President of Book Manufacturing. He also had other key roles at Reader’s Digest, Wolters Kluwer Health, Columbia University Press and Baker & Taylor.
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 Lawson
John LawsonUK Director
John Lawson joined knk to run the UK operation bringing over 25 years’ experience selling and implementing enterprise ERP/CRM software solutions across various sectors including Publishing, Property, and Finance. He is a seasoned professional with considerable experience in the areas of sales, client management, and the software implementation lifecycle. In his career John gained exposure to all aspects of Book, Magazine, Journal, and Digital Publishing; Sales, CRM, Distribution, Credit Management, and Marketing, and his professional skills include Business Development, Pre-sales, Account Management, Software Implementation, Project Management, Systems Analysis, Training, and Customer Service.
Jo Burges
Jo BurgesProject Manager
Jo Burges has held various positions within the academic and professional publishing sector during the last 30 years, including Systems Director, and Editorial and Production Director at Ashgate Publishing, as well as several other publishing consulting roles. While at Ashgate Jo was responsible for the successful implementation of several complex IT projects, and she brings that experience to knk as Project Manager.
Bruce Freeman
Bruce FreemanImplementation & Support Consultant
Originally from an engineering background, Bruce has worked extensively in hardware, software, design and testing environments. Before joining knk he was employed as Support Manager for a company supplying a bespoke NAV solution to the National Health Service and used by a wide range of hospitals across England. Through this he gained extensive experience of inventory management and warehousing. His career has also included supporting the infrastructure and Navision installation for a large, nationwide retail organisation, which involved migrating a Unix solution to an early version of NAV, installation and ongoing support across the estate.
Marilyn Cresswell
Marilyn CresswellImplementation Consultant
Marilyn is an experienced publishing professional with first-hand expertise in rights sales, royalties, licensing, and copyright permissions. Having worked in several publishing roles, most recently at Manchester University Press as Rights and Digital Systems Manager and then as Distribution and Content Manager, her extensive knowledge of the rights and content management process (from marketing, to contract negotiation and post-contract management) make her an ideal fit for both knk and its UK subsidiary, Bradbury Phillips (https://bradburyphillips.co.uk) whose products have become the industry-leader for publishers and agencies worldwide.

450 happy customers around the world

knk and the publishing industry

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