Prepress
Sun-Times Media chooses Atex Managed Services for hosted advertising system
Friday 25. June 2010 - Sun-Times Media, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times, as well as 60 websites and 58 daily and community publications, has signed a 250-seat managed services agreement for the Atex advertising and accounts receivable system.
Sun-Times Media (STM) will use the hosted Atex systems for all publications, providing a common set of tools to book, bill and place all types of advertising. STM anticipates generating new ad revenues through enhanced advertising packages that allow sales reps to cross-sell advertising into any combination of print and digital products.
A primary factor in STMs selection was Atexs ability to provide a managed services solution. Under the hosted framework, Atex will install, maintain and support its advertising system in the Atex Data Center. This hosted model will allow STM to reduce and centralize its IT responsibilities, and to consolidate all properties onto one common database.
“We are excited to work with Atex as a key partner in our transformational Customer to Cash program, or C2C, which will enable us to better service our advertising clients from order entry to collecting payments to tracking the advertising marketplace,” said David Martin, Sun-Times Media Senior Vice President, Business and Operations Development, “After a thorough vetting process, it became clear that Atex was the most experienced and capable company to help Sun-Times Media achieve its goals and expand its leadership position in the Chicago area market.”
STM will also use the Atex advertising system to standardize its accounts receivable operations into a single database. With the integrated Atex accounts receivable engine, STMs managers will have a complete 360-degree view of financial information for all publications. This includes insight into account balances, client demographics, and a real-time look at where staff members stand in terms of cash collection.
“By choosing the Atex Managed Services deployment model, Sun-Times Media will achieve a faster ROI by freeing up its staff to focus on building ad sales and generating more digital revenues,” said John Hawkins, Atex Group CEO. “Our hosted system is enabling media companies around the world to respond quickly to the demands of their changing businesses, without large capital investments. Under Atex Managed Services, customers like the Sun-Times will be assured of a secure and reliable operating environment, and their Atex software will always include the latest capabilities to help drive further advertising growth and reduce overall operating costs.”