Today we’re excited to roll out a project we’ve been working on for a while: combining the Verba Compare and Verba Compete applications into one back-end infrastructure.

While we hope clients will like the convenience of having a single management interface for both applications, we’ve accomplished some bigger goals by bringing Compare and Compete together, and paved the way for some great new features. Here’s what to look for:

Speed!

The new infrastructure is faster, more reliable, and more responsive on both the Compare and Compete sides. From processing imports to jumping between books in Quick View, clients can expect a rapid-fire user experience.

Improved Catalog Management

Showing and hiding terms in the old Compare interface wasn’t as intuitive as we wanted it to be. With the improved Settings page in Compete, users now have flip-of-the-switch control over which terms students have access to.

Sales Analytics for Compare-Only Clients

For a long time, the Compare-Compete division has meant that Compare-only clients have a hard time accessing their sales analytics. Starting today, every Compare-only store gets access to the same great checkout and affiliate earnings data that Compete users have enjoyed.

Some Other Tweaks

The simplified infrastructure has given us the opportunity to address some things we’ve wanted to do for a while. For example, on the student side, we now only show departments that are specific to the selected term. While these kinds of changes are small, taken together they make for a cleaner, more navigable user experience.

And More To Come…

Having Verba Compare and Compete in the same “stack” makes it easy for us to develop integrated features between the two. Want to know how that book you’re looking at in Compete looks to students visiting your Compare site? We’ll soon be able to jump right out to the comparison page for the course in which the book is used.

And with department, course, and section data now in Verba Compete, we have more ways than ever to analyze your store pricing and student preference data. This can lead to specific policy recommendations (“Work with Engineering to get adoptions earlier,” or, “Encourage history professors to allow old editions”) that contribute to both store competitiveness and textbook affordability.

Stay tuned!

The rush whirlwind has passed, and adoptions season is in full swing! Verba’s here to help with a full update to Verba Collect, which enhances the instructor experience and increases the bookstore’s administrative flexibility. Here’s the update:

Adoptions collection is one of the primary interactions the bookstore has with the faculty community. We want this interaction to be painless for instructors, and we want the bookstore to get all the credit.

That’s why we’re introducing full bookstore branding and color-theming on all instructor-facing pages. Give us a color and a logo and Verba Collect will do all the rest.

We’ve also modernized (read: simplified) the instructor interface and inserted intelligent notifications to provide guidance and feedback throughout the adoptions process.

Altogether, we think this version of Collect is the easiest way yet for instructors to get your store their adoptions, and they’ll have you to thank for it.

Self-Assignment

Until now, Verba Collect has functioned best when a bookstore assigns an instructor (complete with name and contact information) for each section in the catalog. This week we’re introducing an optional complement to that approach called self-assignment.

Self-assignment allows any visitor to the adoptions website to create an account using a verified email address. Once they’re in the system, users can assign themselves to sections for which adoptions have not yet been submitted. From there, everything works as usual – they can compile course materials lists, submit them, and receive email notifications and confirmation about the status of their adoptions.

Existing users can also add themselves to courses and sections when this option is enabled. When combined with a decent database of instructor names and emails, self-assignment makes Verba Collect an even more powerful way to efficiently gather and manage adoptions from the faculty community. To learn more about the new self-assignment option in Verba Collect, check out our documentation Wiki.

System Emails Revamp

Verba Collect harnesses a series of automated emails to keep the adoptions process rolling. The new version of Collect comes with significant enhancements to these emails.

As an adoptions platform driven by email notifications, emails from Collect can pile up for certain users. This version of Collect gives store staff a lot more control over which user levels receive which classes of email. Now the store can decide which emails are important, reducing clutter, and keeping instructors focused.

The actual content of emails from Collect has also been restructured to include key information about what the user has to do. Here’s an example:

You are assigned to submit textbook adoptions for:
3 sections from 2 courses.

So far, you have submitted a textbook adoption for 2 sections.
The following 1 sections need a submission from you:
MATH 2510 – 10

Lastly, we’ve implemented a highly requested feature: adoption confirmation emails. Now, whenever the bookstore accepts an adoption, Verba Collect automatically notifies the instructor who submitted the adoption to let them know about it. The email contains a list of all accepted course materials, so there’s no confusion between store and instructor.

New Edition Alerts BETA

We’ve also implemented another widely requested feature in the form of new edition alerts. By connecting editions in our database, Verba Collect can now tell instructors (or bookstore staff) when a newer edition of a given book is available.

Clicking on the new edition alert takes the user to a list of one or more editions with more recent publication dates than the original edition. This feature should help Collect clients cut down on time spent chasing older editions.

And that’s not all…

These are just some of the larger improvements in the latest version of Verba Collect. Users will also appreciate a number of smaller features, like the ability to send test emails.

We’re looking forward to feedback from existing Collect customers. And for those of you who are looking for a more sophisticated, efficient adoptions process, it’s not too late for this go round! You know where to find us.

Last week we rolled out a substantial update to all Verba Compete clients. While users will notice updates throughout the application, we’re most excited about a new page in Compete called Quick View.

Two-Panel Layout

Quick View makes it easier than ever to filter, sort, and jump between books in a given catalog. Just click a book from the left-hand panel and the individual book page spins up on the right-hand side.

We’ve also included infinite scrolling for the left-hand panel, so you’ll never have to click through dozens of catalog pages again.

Vital Stats and Locking

Our new Vital Stats feature helps users make pricing decisions in record time. For each variant (new, used, rental), Quick View shows a graph with the store price, market price, and a range of prices at which the store can still obtain a decent margin. Find the spot where the market price and margin range intersect, and you have a price that’s both competitive and profitable.

Once you’re confident in a specific pricing decision, use Verba Compete’s new “lock” functionality to save the price in Verba. Compete also has specific filters for “locked” and “unlocked” titles, so you have an easy way to tell the books for which you’ve set pricing, and which ones still need work.

Birds-Eye Analytics

Now that it’s even easier to change prices on a title-by-title basis, Compete offers a quick way to step back and look at the big picture. Just click the “analytics” button to see your average margin across the board for both new and used titles.

Updated Online Sourcing

Sometimes it makes sense to source low-cost inventory from the online marketplace. Compete’s updated sourcing interface helps you spot the right copies to pick up.

The new embedded historical snapshot tells you whether or not it’s a good time to buy, while the new Quantity slider allows you to weed out one-off sellers and focus on those who can deliver both quality and quantity.

In conjunction with the updated sourcing interface, we’ve included a universal shopping cart that’s accessible throughout the application. Just click the cart button to see the item, quantity, and price of each offer in your cart, and proceed to checkout.

A Couple Dozen Other Improvements

While the above represent some of the bigger features we’ve been working on, there are a couple dozen other improvements to speed, data quality, and user experience included in this update.

Feel free to drop us a line to let us know what you think of Quick View. Or, if you’re not a Verba client yet, stop by the Verba Compete Sandbox to check it out yourself.

This week we’re rolling out a new feature in Verba Compare: the Retailer Settings panel. The panel gives client stores unprecedented control over the retailers and variants displayed in your Verba Compare implementation. Here’s what it entails.

Flip The Switch on Fully-Managed Retailers

Heading into the new Retailer Settings panel, clients will see a series of “On” and “Off” switches. The first set – called “Fully-Managed Retailers” – can be activated almost instantly.

Just slide the “Off” button to “On” and Verba will create an affiliate account for your store, start displaying offers in your Compare implementation, and collect the resultant affiliate commissions on your behalf. Removing the retailer is simple too: just slide the “On” button “Off” and it’s done.

A Little More Info for Self-Service Retailers

Some retailers require our clients to have direct relationships with them. Activating these retailers in Verba Compare has never been easier.

Each retailer only requires one additional piece of information: a tracking ID (for Amazon and Chegg) or a site URL (for BookRenter or Follett’s rental program). Insert the information, flip the “On” switch, and you’re good to go.

More Granularity Within Retailers

In the past, it’s been difficult or impossible to choose between different variants in Verba Compare. Starting this week, stores can choose to show any combination of available New, Used, Rental, and Digital offers from each retailer.

We expect these updates to give clients unprecedented flexibility when curating a comparison retail experience tailored to the educational communities they serve.