advanter media — ERP, CRM and DMS for Publishers, Agencies and Media Services
advanter media is the industry edition of the advanter 5 elements system from Guenther Business Solutions GmbH, headquartered in Leverkusen in North Rhine-Westphalia. The platform combines ERP, CRM (customer relationship management), project management and DMS (document management) in an integrated solution targeted specifically at design and media-services businesses, agencies, publishers, repro and print shops. For buyers looking for a vertical-industry ERP for project-led businesses with demanding requirements on calculation, resource planning and media-asset management, advanter media is one of the established DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) options, with the vendor active since 1994. The product is one of the longer-running specialist plays for the agency-and-publisher segment and competes through depth of industry-specific functionality rather than through generic ERP scale.
Overview
Guenther Business Solutions GmbH was founded in 1994 and is headquartered at Campusallee 7 in Leverkusen. The company operates in the DACH region under the Guenther Business Solutions and Guenther Business Solutions Austria brands and specialises in integrated ERP, CRM, DMS and project-management solutions. The advanter product line has been developed continuously; the current generation, advanter 5 elements (also referenced as advanter 7), runs on the Claris FileMaker platform and therefore supports Mac, Windows and iOS clients on an equal footing. The platform choice is a meaningful differentiator: many publishers and agencies operate in Mac-dominated environments and find in advanter a native, simultaneously cross-platform business application that respects their existing OS-strategy.
Functional sweet spot
advanter media covers a broad functional scope tailored to the requirements of project-led media and publishing businesses. Core modules include project and sub-project management with transparent cost and resource views; quotation, order processing and invoicing; contact and communication management (CRM); web-based time and shop-floor data capture; project-tied email communication and document filing; media-database integration and document management (DMS); and analytics on utilisation, margin and project status. Projects can be managed from the initial briefing through calculation, production, billing and post-project analysis. The integration of project management with calculation and resource planning is the central differentiator versus generic Mid-Market (mid-market) ERPs that handle agency work poorly. The FileMaker platform makes the user experience particularly natural for Mac-oriented creative teams.
DACH positioning
advanter media is engineered for the DACH agency, publisher and media-services Mid-Market: German vendor, German development, German-language interface and support, with a customer base concentrated in Germany and Austria. The product handles DATEV (the German accounting exchange standard) integration, GoBD (digital-bookkeeping principles), ZUGFeRD and XRechnung e-invoicing through the standard advanter core. The competitive set is mainly other agency-and-publisher industry ERPs such as projektron BCS or Helmes' agency-vertical extensions on Business Central, rather than generic Mid-Market ERPs that lack the project-and-creative-workflow depth this customer segment requires. The Mac-native FileMaker platform is a meaningful selection factor for creative-industry buyers that explicitly do not want a Windows-only product.
Pricing and implementation
advanter media is sold as a project: pricing depends on user count, module scope, operating model (on-premise, hosted or cloud) and the depth of customisation. The vendor does not publish list prices. Implementation is delivered by Guenther Business Solutions directly with a small partner network, which keeps the project chain short and the industry-knowledge transfer consistent. The FileMaker platform allows fast adjustments to individual customer workflows, which is one reason agency customers tend to find the system more adaptable than rigid Mid-Market ERPs. Total cost of ownership is positioned competitively against other agency-vertical industry ERPs and well below the cost of customising a generic Mid-Market ERP to the same agency-workflow depth.
Selection considerations
advanter media is a defensible shortlist entry for DACH design and media-services businesses, agencies, publishers and repro and print shops that need an industry ERP rather than a generic one with bolt-on project tooling. It is particularly strong for Mac-dominated creative environments where the FileMaker platform aligns with the existing OS-strategy. It is less compelling for non-media businesses (generic Mid-Market ERPs fit better), for very small agencies where lightweight tools such as Mocoapp or HQ-Tools are sufficient, or for buyers that have a strict Microsoft-platform preference (Business Central with agency-vertical extensions fits better there). The defining buyer profile is a DACH agency, publisher or media-services business with serious project-cost and resource-planning requirements.
Related Topics
Vendor homepage of advanter media
Current view of the website https://www.guenther-bs.at/
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why is advanter media built on FileMaker?
FileMaker (now Claris FileMaker) provides cross-platform support for Mac, Windows and iOS on the same product. Many publishers and agencies operate in Mac-dominated environments where Windows-only ERPs create operational friction. The FileMaker platform allows advanter to run natively across all three operating systems without separate client builds.
Which industries does advanter media specifically target?
Design and media-services businesses, agencies, publishers, repro and print shops — the project-led creative-industry segment. The product is engineered around calculation, resource planning, media-asset handling and project profitability rather than around generic trade or manufacturing scenarios.
How does advanter media compare with generic Mittelstand ERPs?
Generic Mittelstand ERPs handle trade, services and manufacturing well but struggle with the depth of project-and-creative workflow that agencies and publishers need: calculation per project, resource-and-time capture, media-asset integration. advanter media is engineered for these scenarios out of the box, which makes it materially more efficient than customising a generic ERP to the same depth.