New developments in technology over the last decade have enabled processes that produce fast and inexpensive on-demand production and distribution. During the Digital Revolution in the 1990s there was a rapid drop in costs and expanded power of digital devices such as computers and mobile telephones. However, the invention of CD-ROM technology enabled widespread commercialization of multimedia content.
On demand publishing is a concept in which books, documents, CDs or even music and films, are not printed until after an order for them has been received, and it came about only after the development of digital printing. If there is any accuracy to predictions from the futurists, then on demand production may be the answer to assist people in making lots of money online. According to the U.S.
Census Bureau, the second quarter 2007 e-commerce estimate increased 20.8 percent from Q2 2006 while total retail sales increased 3.8 percent in the same period. ‘ASR Records Chairman and Co-founder Alaadeen, said, “My goal for starting ‘ASR Records was to provide a label to host my CDs and bring them in front of the public. But I soon ran into problems. In order to reduce manufacturing costs for the CDs, I had to order large quantities.
There were distribution challenges and the excessive inventory issue.” A revolutionary new way to produce products that are published on CD and DVD media, On Demand Production enables the creation, printing and distribution of custom DVDs and CDs. The On Demand business model takes care of inventory, packaging and fulfillment. Product packages are manufactured and distributed on an order-by-order basis, eliminating the challenges associated with inventory management and up-front cash flow, such as excess stock, or wasted money. Users can even track costs more effectively with a monthly billing process, and workforce efficiency improves. This technology can also be used to create a physical CD or DVD of any downloadable content providing a new revenue stream and giving people a great opportunity to customize content or artwork.
Self service pages enable customers to create and manage everything online as well as place new or reorder in seconds. “If a training company requires courses to be distributed on CD/DVD and they are not sure how many students are registering for the training, and then our On Demand Production is the ideal solution,” said Raj Barman, founder and chief executive officer of Acutrack, Inc.and one of the on demand production leaders. And if you don’t think that eCommerce is important enough to the global economy, according to the PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2006-2010, spend predictions for online advertising may reach $26 billion by 2010.
User-generated content continues to grow exponentially, and companies with on demand technology will remain at the forefront of this still rapidly growing curve.
Kristin Gabriel is the marketing communications director for Acutrack, Inc. (http://www.acutrack.com). The company enables customers to create, publish and deliver custom content for DVD and CD distribution worldwide. On Demand production gives customers the ability to produce and ship custom packaged CDs or DVDs one at a time. On Demand takes care of inventory, packaging and fulfillment.
