Harvard University Press, the MIT Press and Yale University Press have completed the final phase of a joint distribution system first discussed in the summer of 1997.
Over the past five years, the three university presses built a 150,000-square-foot state-of-the-art warehouse in Cumberland, R.I., and set up a limited liability partnership, Triliteral LLC, to administer it. Last year the three transferred some seven million books into the new warehouse and began shipping directly from Rhode Island. However, it wasn't until this month that the three combined their database systems to create a single Triliteral account for each customer and consolidated their order processing, EDI, customer service, accounts receivable, credit and collections functions. Although orders can be combined for shipment across the three presses, they do not combine for discount. Each press will continue to maintain its own discount schedule.
According to Mike Leonard, associate director for operations at the MIT Press, the joint distribution plan "started with a feasibility study that Harvard and MIT jointly took to deal with an obsolete warehouse and a lease that expired. We needed a new warehouse and at that time we thought we could add a third partner and approached Yale." Harvard sales director Susan Donnelly views the decision for the three to cooperate on customer service as a natural progression, given that all three presses share the same rep force, although each sells to national accounts and wholesalers individually. "Triliteral is building on a model that's been very successful," Donnelly told PW.
