QuarkCommerce enables QuarkXPress users to tap into a central management system; the application will first be targeted to direct mail and catalog publishers.Quark Inc. has introduced an order management application that connects the company's desktop publishing tools to back-end systems like inventory control and call centers.
QuarkCommerce was developed to address a need in the marketplace for more seamless integration between sales and marketing controls and design efforts, said Linda Chase, vice president of commerce solutions at Quark.
"Companies are looking at how to do more targeted promotion, and how to track their campaigns," she said.
With QuarkCommerce, users of design program QuarkXPress can tap into a central system that manages all inventory and pricing, making it easier to group products by families or categories with more consistency.
The application also integrates warehouse systems, call center and online store systems to give information about product availability.
For campaign management, QuarkCommerce has a module that can provide analysis and forecasting.
The application will be targeted first to direct mail and catalog purveyors, followed by other types of industries that use Quark, Chase noted.
"In developing this, we realized that many companies using QuarkXPress could use the ability to link those projects into data systems," she said. "With QuarkCommerce, we're now able to give them the entire loop, from design to order management."
The blend of design capability with marketing and inventory systems is a strategy that is currently being done with multiple components and a variety of vendors, Chase said.
This leads to a Frankenstein-type system that can suffer from interoperability issues, which Quark seeks to alleviate with its single, integrated system pairing QuarkXPress and QuarkCommerce.
To read more about planned features in QuarkXPress Version 7, click here.
"It makes sense that Quark would be looking for ways to extend its reach beyond the traditional desktop publishing market," said Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox. "And, this is a logical next step."
Marketing campaigns are increasingly blending traditional print with online components, he added. For example, print catalog shoppers can search an online version by item number, and often see the same layouts and designs in both paper and electronic form.
With these once-separate selling channels becoming more integrated, there's a need for tools to manage them, and Wilcox says he's not surprised that applications like QuarkCommerce are taking back-end systems and putting them at the desktop level.
"Companies are looking to combine marketing efforts, and make information collection easier," he said. "Quark has every reason to try and embrace that."
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