A word from the Vice President of Publishing

News & Events 2006-12-13

2006 has been yet another year of change within both the publishing industry and IBS.

As we head toward the end of the year we look back and reflect on the developments that have shaped the publishing industry this year. Digital content has changed and continues to change, the way publishers look at their intellectual content as Google and Amazon launched their online book search facilities: Google’s “Book Search” and Amazon’s “Search Inside the Book”. Some within the industry see this as an advantage which will result in a new avenue for increased sales while others are concerned over copyright issues; a debate I am sure will continue well into the New Year.

We also see the end of the long familiar 10-digit ISBN and the conversion to 13-digit ISBN. Many publishers around the world are not ready for the new 13-digit ISBN standard and only time will tell how this will impact the industry.

There is also a mixed outlook on Christmas sales with reports indicating increased internet sales are to be expected while high street sales, particularly in the UK, look to be fairly slow.

From IBS’ perspective, it has been a year of growth, with our publishing solution, IBS Bookmaster, being fully integrated with IBS’ worldwide presence. We have seen the growth of IBS Bookmaster resources in the USA, UK, Sweden, France and Iberia.

The US has seen strong growth with 5 new IBS Bookmaster customers this year; while we are poised on the edge of our first ever IBS Bookmaster customer in mainland Europe.

We released the latest version (7.3) of IBS Bookmaster with additional functionality in areas such as Warehousing, Editorial and Book Production, CRM, e-Commerce and 13-digit ISBN compliance. We have also been busy upgrading customers to the new release to ensure they are prepared for the conversion to the 13-digit ISBN standard due to take effect early next year.

IBS Bookmaster is continually being developed to meet changing industry needs. We are currently looking at many issues such as Rights & Licensing Management and RFID. We are also collaborating with large international printers to look for supply chain improvements and options around digital asset management.

On behalf of IBS I would like to wish you great Christmas sales and a safe and happy holiday season.