New On-demand Solution Enables Author Solutions to Automate and Speed its Own Publishing and Production Processes; Company Plans to Offer Other Publishers a Similar Solution Later this Year
LOS ANGELES, CA--May 28, 2008 – Book Expo America -- Author Solutions (ASI), the world leader in the fastest-growing segment of publishing, today announced it is developing and implementing an innovative new solution for the publishing industry that is transforming its own business and could offer similar benefits to other publishers later this year. The solution, developed by Appirio and Author Solutions on the salesforce.com Force.com Platform, integrates multiple applications in the entire publishing workflow, including everything from editorial to book layout and cover design to marketing and distribution. The result is high-quality books that can be brought to market faster, at a lower cost than what is possible today.
The new publishing workflow and customer service solution was developed on the Force.com Platform, taking advantage of the openness and flexibility of Platform-as-a-Service to create a unique solution that can adapt to the evolving needs of authors and publishers. The Force.com Platform provides an integrated set of tools and application services to build any business application and run it via the Internet on the proven salesforce.com service infrastructure. Appirio led the development of the initiative, providing guidance and technical expertise for developing on the Force.com platform.
"We've utilized our expertise from publishing over 80,000 titles and combined it with the world's best on-demand platform, to develop a system that will not only transform our own business but fundamentally change what it costs to produce a book and manage the publishing business," said Kevin Weiss, president and CEO of Author Solutions. Weiss added, "This new solution brings together an automated front end with publishing rules baked in, production workflow, file management, accounting, a Web site with shopping cart and CRM capability. The end result is a radically improved process for producing high-quality books at greatly reduced costs. It makes the whole publishing experience better for authors and publishers."
The solution will first be deployed this summer for iUniverse customers. Author Solutions plans to deploy the solution for its other Author Services brands by the end of the third quarter, and expects to package and sell this solution to other publishers later this year as part of its Publishing Services offerings.
"The development of this powerful publishing solution on Force.com showcases how companies are using our platform to build powerful on-demand business applications that revolutionize ways companies manage and share information," said Clarence So, chief marketing officer, salesforce.com. "Salesforce.com shares a common vision with Author Solutions, to harness the power of cloud computing to deliver game-changing solutions for businesses."
"Author Solutions exemplifies the type of forward-thinking company that is using on-demand technology to create a competitive edge for their own business, as well as their customers," said Chris Barbin, chief executive officer, Appirio. "Their choice to build on the Force.com platform not only reduced their time to market, but gives them future flexibility that's essential for their business strategy. Competitors who attempt to build tomorrow's solutions with today's legacy on-premise technology will have a hard time catching up."
Weiss went on to say, "We chose to work with salesforce.com and Appirio because we believed they would give us the flexibility, expertise, and speed-to-market we needed to develop a solution that is truly unique in this industry. While others have spoken about their commitment to the SaaS model, salesforce.com continues to focus on technology innovation and customer success. We could not be more pleased with the partnership."
Representatives of Author Solutions will be available to answer questions at the Book Expo America show in the Author Solutions booth 4437. For more information, please visit: www.authorsolutions.com.
About the Force.com Platform
Force.com (http://www.force.com/) reinvents the traditional development, deployment, and distribution of any business application with platform-as-a-service. Developers, customers, and partners can use Force.com to easily create a new generation of on-demand applications and deploy them worldwide as a service. Force.com allows applications to be easily shared, exchanged, and installed with a few simple clicks via salesforce.com's AppExchange marketplace, enabling all the innovation that Force.com unleashes to be easily distributed to the entire on-demand community.
About Author Solutions, Inc.
Author Solutions, Inc., (ASI) (www.authorsolutions.com) which is owned by Bertram Capital, is the world leader in the fastest-growing segment of publishing. Through its Author Services brands, iUniverse, AuthorHouse, and Wordclay, ASI enables more authors to self-publish, promote, and sell their books than any other company in the world. Through its Publishing Services group, ASI offers a DIY publishing platform that can be white-labeled, and the most flexible integrated publishing services platform in the industry. Currently, Author Solutions provides services around the globe through the AuthorHouse, AuthorHouse UK, Wordclay, and iUniverse brands. These different brands operate from offices in Bloomington, Ind.; Indianapolis, Ind.; and Milton Keynes, England; New York City, and Shanghai, China. www.authorsolutions.com
About Appirio
Appirio (www.appirio.com) delivers products and services that help medium and large enterprises accelerate their adoption of on-demand solutions. As a Services 2.0 pioneer, Appirio has a proven track record of designing and implementing complex and mission-critical systems using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions such as salesforce.com and Google Enterprise. Areas of expertise include CIO and business strategy, salesforce.com SFA, IdeaExchange and service and support implementations.
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