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Élan™ is a cloud-based software solutionbuilt to help media businessesPackage, Sell,Deliver & Bill• Digital Advertising• Print Advertising• Newsletters• Sponsorships• Events• Custom Content -
Élan is an end-to-end ad sales solutionReduce costly miscommunications,improve customer relationships and increase profitability byintegrating, streamlining and modernizing your advertising sales workflow.
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Élan gives you a 360° view of your clientsWork from a single and complete view of your clients fromsales opportunity through billing and collections -
• View and Pay Invoices• View, Pre-Pay and AssignMaterials to Open Orders• View and E-Sign Proposals• Book new Ads Directly OnlineOffer your clients 24/7 online self-serviceÉlan Engage™ gives your advertisers access to your sales, billing and production systems
700,000+
Advertising Invoices
Generated Each Year using Élan
$2 billion+
Advertising Billing
Managed Each Year using Élan
4,000+
Media Business Professionals
that rely on Élan™ every day
5,000+
Publications, Websites and
other Digital Properties
Supported by Élan
A modern, integrated advertising sales
and billing platform
Élan™ is a modular, cloud-based software platform built to streamline and integrate advertising sales for publishers, media businesses and content creators with annual revenue from USD $5 million to over $10 billion.
CRM for Advertising Sales
Like most CRM systems you can track opportunities, pipelines and customer communications, generate call lists and manage your email and calendar activities. But we don't stop there... You can also view past and upcoming orders and generate proposals combining all different types of print, digital and exhibition products. You can even collect digital signatures, manage advertiser / agency relationships and track commissions in real-time.
Order Management & Billing
Élan supports nearly any type of sale, from impression-based digital advertising, sponsorships, and custom content to traditional display and classified advertising. Better still, orders can be entered and billed separately or in packages. You can even create custom billing schedules with any number of installments or billing stages. Then there are the snazzy and flexible templates that allow you to control how much detail you show on each invoice.
Production Workflow
Customer instructions, pick-ups, order details and sales rep notes are all here. Setup and manage multiple production queues for print and digital products or break them up by production controller. Track production notes, send mass-email reminders to clients, and keep everyone in the loop.
Advertiser's Portal
Élan Engage is an Advertiser Portal that lets your advertisers see their orders, invoices, ad materials, proposals and contracts online, anytime, from just about any device. Your clients can easily retrieve copies of recent invoices, proposals and contracts. They can also review and submit changes to upcoming orders, pre-pay them, even book new orders directly through the portal!
Digital Ad Management
Digital orders can get very sophisticated. Dare we say... near incomprehensible in some cases! Not to worry, Élan makes it easy to enter complex digital orders, send those orders to your ad server, and get the delivery results back - whether they are for billing or your own satisfaction. You can also track & manage impression-based and sponsorship/tenancy-based inventory.
Ad Server Integration
If you use Google DFP or AOL One [the ad server formerly known as AdTech] - things are even easier! Élan will automatically share orders with your ad server and returns real-time performance information directly to your sales reps, production and ad ops teams.
Credit & Collections
Élan gives credit controllers the upper hand by keeping all client notes / interactions and information in one place. This can be a huge relief when your job is chasing for money! Organizing accounts by their aging, tracking call-backs and reminders, emailing copies of past due invoices, sending collections letters - it is all here. You can even generate statements on the fly and email with just a few clicks.
Financials
Élan offers a complete solution for Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, General Ledger and Fixed Assets.
Already have an accounting system that you really like?
No problem.
Élan also integrates with other popular accounting systems like Netsuite, Peoplesoft and Great Plains.
Reporting & Analysis
Élan offers dozens of dynamic analysis screens built to help you save time and make key decisions with accurate and up-to-the-moment information.
Pipeline reports, year-on-year comparisons, sales performance and pacing reports, rankings, customer analysis, product analysis and salesrep reporting - to name just a few.
There is also an optional ad-hoc reporting system that will let you write custom reports, even schedule auto report generation and distribution.
The User Experience
Élan is a cloud-based software platform that will work on any internet connected device with a browser. It leverages the latest technologies like HTML5 and CSS3 to deliver a powerful, yet simple to use interface.
Work from Anywhere
Work from anywhere with an internet connection. Élan is a cloud-based system that is available anywhere you are.
Access from Any Device
If your device is connected to the internet and can run an HTML5-compliant browser - you are open for business!
Touch-Enabled
Take full advantage of modern, touch-enabled devices like tablets, smart-phones, touch-enabled PCs and Laptops.
Customizable, Easy to Use
Élan is a flexible platform that can be configured to support any advertising-based business workflow.
CRM for Advertising Sales
Élan CRM for Advertising Sales provides your sales reps and managers a single, integrated, 360° view your client accounts. It includes all the standard features found in popular CRM systems today. It has the added benefit of real-time integration with all other departments and client touch points within your business.
Prospecting, Calendars & Emails
Élan has the basics covered.
Keep track of clients, contacts, notes and to-do's.
And yes, your current email accounts and calendars will plug right in.
Élan integrates with both Microsoft Exchange and Google Gmail to make sure you are always up to date and organized.
When it is time to get on the phone, you can even click-to-dial.
Opportunity Management
Opportunity Management is another pillar of any good CRM system.
It makes it much easier to keep organized when you are handling complex and drawn out sales opportunities.
In a nutshell, Opportunities allow you to keep notes, to-do's, client interests, proposals and related information all in one place from first contact through the sale.
They are also an important part of pipeline management and reporting.
Proposals and I/O's
If you can handle a few clicks and questions, Élan will reward you with sophisticated and snazzy proposals to print or email directly out to your prospects.
You can mix and match nearly anything, including print and digital advertising, sponsorships, custom content and, well if you can dream it up, you can add it here.
You may not even realize that you are actually entering orders!
Are you worried that your prospects are not quite comfortable signing digitally [with their finger]?
No worries, you can always manually attach a copy of the signed document to the Proposal before sending it down the line.
Reporting & List Management
Things get more interesting from here.
Unlike many [very good] CRM systems out there today, Élan is also your order management and billing system.
As such, you have at your disposal all of the data, including quotes, orders, invoices, payments, products and clients.
Want a list of everyone in New York who has not advertised with you in the last 12 months, and who were big spenders in prior years?
No problem.
Oh and only the ones that sell bicycles.
And show them on a map.
Yes, it will do that.
Quotas, Pipelines and Commission Tracking
Sales Rep Quotas and Pipeline tracking are all here.
You can even set quotas by publication or website or group of digital products.
Commissions are tracked in real-time, as orders are approved and invoices paid.
One System from Quote through Billing
This is a big one.
Unlike other CRM systems which are typically implemented in an isolated environment, Élan CRM is part of a completely integrated system.
This allows sales reps to interact in real-time with production, when chasing materials or to view current digital performance of an order.
This also gives your sales reps visibility into accounting, invoices due and streamlines collections and payment issues - provided of course that you want to give them access to this information!
Order Management:
Multi-Media Packages
Multi-Media Packages allow you to sell any combination of products together as a single order, or as a group of orders with custom billing schedules and performance & delivery tracking.
Digital Advertising
- Performance / Impression Products
- Tenancy / Sponsorship Products
- E-Newsletters
- Online Directories
- Online Listings
- Custom Content
Print Advertising
- Display & Semi-Display Advertising
- Text / Classified Advertising
Sponsorships
- For Print Publications
- For Conferences & Events
- For Exhibitions
Exhibitions
- Space Reservations
- Other Products & Services
Misc. Products
- Dream it, Build it, Sell it
Order Management:
Digital Advertising
The Élan Advertising Platform supports all types of digital products from sales through billing.
Key features include:
Performance-Based Products
Setup and sell any kind of performance-based digital advertising across platforms and networks. Bill based on actuals, with options for 3rd party and max caps.
Tenancy / Sponsorships Products
Setup and sell any type of rotation-based products.
Custom Content & and Services
Sell any type of custom content and/or product, native advertising, production services, etc.
Programmatic Advertising
Easily import, track and bill programmatic advertising from 3rd party ad networks.
E-Newsletters
Manage issue-based and adhoc e-newsletter advertising.
Advanced Targeting
Target by website/product, network, section and position, region, time of day, day of the week, custom key-values and more.
Inventory Management
Manage both impression-based and tenancy-based inventory from sales quotes through confirmed orders.
3rd Party Actuals
Easily import and compare 3rd [and 4th] party actuals. Track and report over/under delivery and discrepencies real-time as a campaign delivers.
Ad Server Integration
Automatically send approved digital orders to 3rd party ad servers like Google DFP and AOL One - and receive realtime actuals back throughout the delivery of the campaign.
Order Management:
Print Advertising
Manage all of your issue-based advertising from quote through production and billing.
Key features include:
Support all Issue-Based Products in Print and Digital formats, including:
- Magazines
- Newspapers
- Newsletters
- Journals
- Directories
- Digital Editions
Support any Issue Frequency
Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annually or on a Custom Schedule.
Inventory Management
Setup and manage position inventory to insure accurate sales and happy customers.
Classified Orders
Enter, price and publish classified advertising, with pricing by column inch/cm, agate lines, word count, and more.
Editions
Support any number of custom editions.
Advertising Rate Contracts
Advertising Contracts allow for tracking of discounted rates based on fequency or unit commitments. You can optionally generate short-rate invoices or rebates based on actual performance.
Production Management & Ad Serving Integration
The Élan Advertising platform offers a comprehensive production management module, which supports custom workflows by product, product group or production controller.
Customized Workflows
Setup custom workflows to manage the production process for different products and groups of products. New orders will queue up automatically according to their correct place in the process.
Chasing for Materials
Whether you are chasing for new materials, confirming pick-ups or looking for approval on custom creatives, Élan has you covered. Just pick the group of orders you want to chase, and quickly generate mass emails to all parties.
Involving the Sales Reps
Who ever thought the sales rep's job is over once the I/O was signed? Élan keeps the sales rep in the loop throughout the production process to insure accurate deliveries. There is simply nothing good about make-goods.
Material Management
Élan supports display, semi-display and text-based classified ad materials as well as digital materials, including any number of components. Do you keep your files somewhere else? No problem - just link them in.
Pick-ups and Changes
With all materials in one place, pickups are a cinch. Pickups with changes however are not always as straight forward. It can all be recorded by the sales rep during the order process, or amended by the production controller.
Digital Ad Serving Integration
Unlike print, digital production is ongoing throughout the lifecycle of a digital campaign or line item. Élan can help you keep track of multiple creatives in any format against a single spot. If you use Google DFP or AOL One, it can even send this informaiton along automatically if it is attached to the order.
Billing, Credit & Collections
Élan includes everything you need to bill any type of print or digital advertising order.
You can even make up miscellaneous products or charges and bill those too!
Manage payments, credit terms, overdue invoices and all other collections activities from a single system.
Raise Invoices
Élan includes several powerful invoicing engines that allow you to bill just about any kind of product. There is also an HTML-based forms engine that allows you to build your own eye-catching invoice and statement forms. Prefer to email those out? So do we. Élan supports print, email and online invoice and statement delivery options.
Chase for Payment
Extend credit, identify bad payers and monitor receivables like a hawk.
Élan's Credit and Collections module is an extension of the Accounts Receivable module that allows you to easily manage your collections process.
It includes flexible account assignments, debt ranking, instant aging reports, collection letters [and emails], instant statement generation and easy reprinting and emailing of overdue invoices.
It even integrates with browser-based auto-dialers.
Process Payments
It should be easy for your clients to pay their bills.
Élan supports electronic transfers, credit cards, checks and even cash payments [for those who have walk-ins].
You can even direct your customers to pay online using the
Élan Engage™
portal.
Do you use a lockbox?
Excellent - Élan can auto-import and reconcile those payments too!
Work with the Reps
Things tend to work best when everyone is on the same page and working from the same playbook.
Élan makes is simple to keep the sales rep involved throughout any collections process.
With an integrated CRM system and configurable security, you can decide how much to share with your sales reps and make sure that their interactions are properly recorded and shared with your collections team.
Financials, Payables and General Ledger
While Élan™ integrates with many well-known financial systems [like NetSuite, Great Plains and Oracle Financials], if you don't already have one - you don't need one! Élan has its own full-featured General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets and Financial Reporting modules that are perfect for many media businesses.
General Ledger
Import your existing chart of accounts from a spreadsheet - or start fresh - and you are off to the races.
With Élan all transactions automatically create entries in the appropriate general ledger accounts as they move through the system.
Manual journal entries, cash disbursements, budgets, trial balance reports - yep, it does that too!
Accounts Payable
Élan makes payables flexible and straight-forward.
You can enter invoices for payment, attach digital copies, setup invoice and payment approval queues, and generate checks.
It also handles Positive Pay and ACH Payments.
Do you issue 1099's or 1042's?
Élan has that covered as well.
Fixed Assets
If you are looking to track fixed asset acquisition, depreciation and disposal, Élan can help simplify the process.
Keep track of all of your assets in once place, including receipts, warranties, serial numbers, photos and any other key documents.
Élan supports several depreciation models including straight line, reducing balance, fixed amount and accelerated depreciation.
Financial Reports
Provide your executives and key stake holders online, touch-enabled financial reports that will let them drill all the way down to the transaction detail on any given line of a report.
Build just about any kind of custom report, or use the standard, pre-packaged P&L, 12 Period, Quarterly Trailing and Balance Sheet reports.
Prefer them in print?
No problem, with Élan you can print them, export to PDF or Excel, even package multiple reports together and email them out, with just a few clicks.
3rd Party Integrations
The Élan platform includes pre-built connections with many popular 3rd party products to create an integrated business ecosystem and a seamless user experience.
Google DFP
Élan includes bi-directional integration with Google's ad serving platform, DoubleClick for Publishers.
Previously know as AdTech, AOL's new ONE ad server also integrates natively with the Élan plaform.
Informer
Élan offers single-sign-on support and direct data access to Entrinsik's powerful web-based data analysis system, Informer.
Publisher's Studio
Élan provides out-of-the-box compatiblity with Quad Graphic's Publisher's Studio.
Production Management
Breeze offers an alternative production workflow solution for material management, preflighting and e-tearsheets.
Address Correction
Élan includes integrated address validation and correction using Smarty Street's execellent APIs.
Google for Business
Élan CRM integrates with Google for Business, including your Gmail, Calendar and Google Documents Accounts.
Email Integration
Élan CRM integrates with Microsoft's cloud-based Office platform, matching your inbound and outbound emails automatically.
Corporate Email
Élan also integrates with Exchange Server, for businesses that are managing their email servers inhouse.
Credit Card Processing
Credit card processing through the Engage™ portal and within Élan's billing systems works natively with Authorize.Net.
Credit Card Processing
Élan also offers direct integration with PayPal for credit card processing.
E-Mail Marketing
Élan Marketing Lists were built to work with MailChimp's powerful email marketing platform.
Oracle Financials
For larger organizations using Oracle Financials - Élan knows what Oracle wants.
Open Accounts
Another 3rd party financial system, Élan includes a sophisticated integration with Advanced's Open Accounts.
Telecheck Lockbox Pro21
Automatically receive and process lockbox payment information from Bank of America.
Commercial Services
Automatically receive and process lockbox payment information from Wells Fargo.
About Us
The Media Services Group is an amalgam of companies – some new, some older.
One of them dates back to 1972 when Nixon was still president and Pong was the video game rage.
We provide cloud-based software to media companies.
Our customers publish books, websites, magazines and newsletters.
Many of them put on events, conferences and trade shows.
We are a tech driven company.
In fact, our CEO and our President are the primary system architects.
We spend a ridiculous amount on development and love [nearly] every moment of it.
We do have a small sales and marketing team, but rely mostly on word of mouth to earn new business.
We also employ a diverse [some might say eclectic] bunch of media experts to help you get the most out of our software.
Our software is used by hundreds of companies and thousands of professionals around the world.
We have offices in the U.S.A. and in the United Kingdom.
Meet [some of] the team
Once known as a tech whiz kid but now too old for that title. Thinks he's hip but we know he watches Downton Abbey.
A tech visionary that loves to create cool new stuff. Spends his evenings reading blogs on design and user experience.
A one-time CIO at Penton Publishing, Tom left to create his own e-commerce company. We liked it enough to buy it.
Small in stature but big on organization and process. We hear she arranges her groceries by size and color in her refrigerator.
An accomplished hoarder in both the physical and digital realms, Benjamin’s minor super power is being able to find the things he is looking for. Except his DVD of Sunset Boulevard, that thing has been missing for years.
Loves to read and relax on a beach so not sure why she still lives in the Midwest. After years of commanding that her family treat her like a queen, she now heads up our Accounting and Royalties offerings
Actually makes a system implementation interesting and entertaining. Probably should have been an actor.
Ron makes our Cloud system work. He enjoys drawing complex diagrams and uses lots of TLA's [Three letter Acronyms].
The publishing veteran who manages our UK operation. He is a little too obsessed with Arsenal Football Club.
Worth speaking to just to hear his broadcast-quality voice. With at least a couple of decades in the media business, he is often interesting as well.
Once a BPA Auditor, but he is much nicer now. Allen really knows a lot about circulation management.
Perennial winner of our Miss Congeniality award, Ted is typically the first person you will chat with when you contact us. He is the heart and soul of our client and prospect outreach.
Ray has overseen dozens of implementations and lived to tell the tale. Speaks softly but carries great knowledge.
Jeff's dog. Doesn't do much but we thought it was a cute photo.
Our Locations
We have offices throughout North America, an office in London, England
and satelite employees [seemingly] everywhere in between.
Here is a short list of our brick & mortar locations.
Scottsdale, AZ
14614 N. Kierland Blvd, S-270
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
Tel: +1 (602) 674-5800
Fax: +1 (602) 674-5874
Santa Monica, CA
1223 Wilshire Blvd. #596
Santa Monica, CA 90403-5400
Tel: +1 (310) 481-0052
Fax: +1 (310) 481-9997
London, England
4th Floor, 1 - 3 Mortimer Street
London, W1T 3JA
England
Tel: +44 (0) 207-436-0070
Fax: +44 (0) 207-580-5706
Bridgeport, CT
1000 LaFayette Blvd. FL11
Bridgeport, CT 06604
Tel: +1 (203) 683-6030
Houston, TX
5625 FM 1960 Road West
Suite 503
Houston, TX 77069
What our customers are saying
Élan gives us a 360° view of the business. It integrates all the departments together and allows sales teams visibility into billing and accounting and vice versa.
Steve Galperin
We have had great success with the Multi-Media billing system. Our people feel this platform is terrific - providing huge productivity gains for entering contracts that are complex cross channel buys.
Ned Borowsky
We use the CRM module to streamline the entire sales process from opportunities and quotes all the way through to billing and accounts receivable. All of the data is in one place which makes it so easy to pull customer sales data reports and to build marketing lists.
Amanda Enderle
We use the Élan software across our business. The benefits of a fully integrated system with flexible reporting cannot be underestimated.
Stuart Edmundson
Dennis Kelly
We began working with Media Services Group in late 2004 with the intention of standardizing some visitor publications on a common accounting and financial system. Our initial goal was to migrate several recent acquisitions onto the same accounting platform to give our publishers across the country a consistent and comparative view of their publications' performance relative to their peers using various metrics we built into the reports available in Élan.
Since 2004 our business has grown exponentially, creating a critical need for a more integrated media solution. So what first began as a billing, accounts receivable and accounting platform for a few titles has evolved into an end-to-end publishing solution that begins with a robust cloud-based Customer Relationship Management database allowing our sales professionals in the field to create proposals for multi-platform media campaigns that can easily be converted into insertion orders with the push of a button.
From New York, Boston and Chicago, to San Francisco, Seattle and Las Vegas, to Hawaii and London and now finally to Australia, our sales reps and publishers have a single view of their customers. And our customers can now request e-bills, e-tear-sheets, cloud based customer self-service and various automated payment solutions. Our relationship with Media Services group has allowed us to implement this best-of-class solution for all Morris magazines in the travel, equine, sporting and lifestyle verticals.
Thanks Jeff, Wayne and all your staff, for what we have been able to accomplish together over the past decade. It’s been a very cool ride!
Continued best wishes for the future.
Dennis
Case Study
Trade Publishing
A software platform that "Thinks like a Media Company":
How Élan drives revenue and cost savings for UBM.
Click here to download
Case Study
Consumer Publishing
How TEN drove revenue and cut costs by overhauling sales, ad ops and billing.
Click here to download
Case Study
Trade Publishing
1105 Media revamps reporting, forecasting and tracking.
Click here to download
Get in Touch
Interested in learning more?
We would love to talk shop and give you a tour of our software.
Call, email or fill out the form below and we will [happily] setup a custom-tailored walk-through of our software and discuss how it may help your business.
We have offices throughout North America and in London England
North America: +1 (602) 674.5800
Europe: +44 (0) 20.7436.0070