This is going to be a big year for media.

We’ve got the Olympics. The United States presidential election. The Euro 2016 football championships. The fallout from Brexit. You name it, it’s happening. And advertising revenue is set to boom this year. Global ad expenditure will be up by almost 5 percent. Is your ad management system ready?

That’s a tough question to answer. Here, let’s help break down the requirements:

1. Does your current ad sales management platform manage digital natively?                                                     

Unless it is designed for digital, your ad sales solution is likely to be managing digital as print orders, which can mean a laborious booking process and workarounds for your team. You’ll want a platform that is built for both digital and print, and overcomes these issues, so it is worth updating your legacy system as soon as possible.                                                                    

2. Do you have an ad sales solution that can easily be adapted for new products and platforms?                                                                      

The future of digital is still unknown and new ad formats are being released on a regular basis. Look for a solution that can support new products and platforms and one that can evolve in line with your business with minimal effort.                                                                                                                      

3. Do you have a single view of your customer engagement?                                                                     

Solutions that are not integrated with your CRM inhibit the single customer view. With all your information in one system, teams have a 360 degree view on their customers and prospects, which can be leveraged for tailored sales and marketing activity.                                                                      

4. How do you manage your inventory for programmatic trading?                                                                    

With the proliferation of programmatic trading desks serving various brands and audiences, you’ll no doubt want to be working with multiple desks. By managing inventory centrally, third party systems can be automatically updated to reflect the latest available inventory. Your sales teams will always know what’s available to sell at any one time without having to check with ad ops.                                                                     

5. Are you paying for multiple licences for CRM and ad sales?

Look for a solution that integrates CRM and ad sales management with one provider and reduces costs.                                                          

As advertising is heating up, now is an essential time for publishers to review their ad sales systems. You don’t want to be left behind, especially with the year we’re about to have.

Finding a solution that integrates print, digital, and CRM can boost efficiency, pave the way for better sales and save time and money. Get ready. Get set. Start your engines.

To stay ahead of these trends, download our new publishers guide, 5 Key Questions for Publishers when Replacing their Ad Management Systems, authored by BrightGen and Salesforce.