is a UK based, family operated business that sells gently used books, keeping them out of UK landfills and in the hands of book lovers. They pride themselves on friendly and reliable customer service, something they have very much in common with Indaba Systems. Nearing their one year anniversary as an Indaba customer, CEO Joe Davis spoke with us about their experience with Indaba. “After using almost every other inventory management product on the market, we found Indaba,” Davis says, “and realized that this was the most unique piece of software available. With Indaba, there is no limit to expanding profits and efficiency.”

Book Logic has a large inventory which requires them to enter thousands of new items every day. They are also growing rapidly with plans for continued growth and expansion. “Indaba does all the hard work for us managing our data and increasing our sales, which provides us with reliability and security knowing that we can focus on expanding our business,” Davis shared. Indaba not only provides a product to help businesses manage their day to day business activities but helps take the complexity away allowing for focus on growth and core competencies.

Indaba’s integrated customer service, robust competitive pricing tool, functionality and team of helpful individuals attracted Book Logic and kept them happy customers. Davis remembers, “We felt other organizations lacked in personalized customer service. Indaba does a fantastic job of combining their product with a unique, individual relationship. They are just a phone call away and their knowledge of their product is astounding. We have never had an issue that wasn’t dealt with promptly and efficiently. They have a great team, have thought of every function their clients need, and can be considered the Bentley of Inventory Management Software.”

Ireland’s biggest online bookstore, has been selling new, out of print and rare books since 1940. They stock over 500,000 new and used books at their location in Galway, their inventory is available online as well as in the store. With this kind of volume they were in need of a software package which could help manage their inventory and ensure they were pricing competitively.

Kennys had been looking for several years for a system that would help them not only list online but list with adequate bibliographic information. “Of the many systems we have looked at and used over the years, Indaba is the best we have come across” says Karen Golden of Kennys. For several years Kennys used a full Library Management System and catalogued to Marc 21 standard using OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) records making them one of the first commercial bookshops to catalogue to this standard. They were able to provide shelf ready books to clients with full OCLC information. However, the system has its drawbacks, one major one being the inability to easily re-price.

To resolve this issue Kennys moved to a more commercial system but that had its limitations as well. Given that Kennys specializes in not only new but also out of print and antiquarian books they found this systems to be too limiting in terms of information they could include with the book. This forced the company to run an additional system in parallel in order to retain that bibliographic information. A new solution was needed so the search began.

The company reviewed Indaba extensively upon a recommendation by a fellow bookseller. “We were very impressed by the mix of bibliographic cataloguing, the search function, the flexibility, the pricing, market integration and shipping modules. We implemented Indaba soon after this review and we are delighted with the results,” Golden says.

Given that Kennys was using different systems they did some data preparation and worked with the Indaba team to integrate everything into the Indaba system. “We are very grateful for all the work that has been done in recent months to help us move to Indaba as seamlessly as possible. We are also grateful for the work done by Indaba to customize reports for sales reporting, cataloguing and for getting book data off Indaba and onto our website,” Golden says, “Particular thanks to Shin Yu for her patience and insights during the entire migration process and for her help in cleaning up data which had been messed up through previous migrations.”

Kennys is a unique bookshop in that they sell not only in the store and on the major online marketplaces but also to private collectors, through their book club of over 1,000 members worldwide, and to libraries throughout the world through their Library Services. They also have a need for online catalogues as well as a traditional printed catalogue. Golden shared with us that, “from a systems point of view, we can do more of all of this with Indaba than we have ever been able to do through any other cataloguing system.”

Conceived on a ranch near Rupert, Idaho in 1957, the Idaho Youth Ranch continues to contribute to the lives of Idaho youth and their families today by providing: residential treatment for at-risk youth; family counseling; education scholarships; community transition programs; adoptions; and foster care services. Services come from generous donors and dollars raised through the sales of gently used items in their 23 thrift stores. Thrift stores provide local jobs, valuable experience for youth performing community service, and affordable goods for lower-income Idaho families. Thrift stores also contribute to the recycling of used clothes and household items (that might have otherwise ended up in Idaho landfills).

As the Idaho Youth ranch (IYR) made the decision to launch their e-book program, they relied on the Rainmaker Agency, who had existing knowledge of services and software used by other non-profits throughout the country. With the Rainmaker’s research and evaluation process IYR learned that Indaba was the program that offered the most complete solution. Rick Carns of The Rainmaker Agency/Idaho Youth Ranch describes Indaba as a, “Great product, with great service.” And he felt the service Indaba offers in getting a new customer up and running and making sales was one of Indaba’s best features. “Ilko and Ryan worked with our team at IYR and handled most everything for us. The step by step set up and simple operational process makes this seamless and simple.” Carns says.

After determining what IYR needed, everything was ordered, received and ready for set up and training. The Indaba team arrived for a two-day rollout and by the third day IYR was selling books online. “I’m extremely happy to say that in our first three weeks of business we did over $6000 in book sales. We have increased sales every month and as of January 09 we exceeded $50,000 in sales.” says Carns.

In closing Carns shared, “We truly appreciate the service and program that Indaba provides and would recommend Indaba to any organization looking to increase revenues by maximizing current resources.”