Xerox Case Study Analysis
Xerox's "Book In Time" is a revolutionary product, presenting some new opportunities for the company. It is simply a matter of costs. The Book-in-Time equipment allows for a publishing company to produce a 300-page book for $6.90, something which could have been previously reached only for lots larger than 1,000 copies. A significant decrease in publishing costs, given the fact that these cover up to 20 % (including the paper and binding the book), would create the possibility of an increased profit margin.
Book-In-Time solution provided by Xerox is one of the most efficient solutions for publishing companies running on demand for short-run books. The advantage gained by larger publishing and printing companies that may have achieved economies of scale with large print runs would be evenly compensated with the significant cost saving short run Book-In-Time technology.
Based on the analysis of the on demand conversion potential, several long-runs can be targeted by the Book-In-Time technology. For example, subscription reference have a 100% conversion potential, downside being it just covers 1% of market share. College, University press and Professional textbooks all have a demand conversion potential of 50%. Clearly conversion potential is a key component in estimating market size for Book-In-Time technology. In this sense we can estimate market size for on demand market would be 240,000 books per year. Details enclosed in appendix 1
At the moment, Xerox had two clear distinct options. First option is to stick with what is best at printing, copying and delivering exclusively the Book-In-Time technology. Meaning, selling Book-In-Time equipment to all those elements of the value chain t...
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...s 1 24 50% 12
Professional 7 168 50% 84
Total 26 634 37% 234.58
Appendix II
Xerox Book-In-Time Break Even Analysis (Option of selling solution)
Component Costs 895000
Per Unit Set Up Costs 10000
Additional costs 10000
5% Sales Commission* 982000
Total Variable Costs 971000
Per Unit Contribution** 529000
Fixed Costs 1500000
Break Even Amount*** 2.93
Appendix III
Equilibrium between Digital Printer and Book-In-Time Solution
Bookrun Lengths Short-run Digital printer Book-In-Time
Less than 25 6.9
25 6.9
50 6.9
100 11.47 6.9
250 6.9
500 3.85 6.9
100 6.9
Short-run digital and Book-In-Time offers similar cost at runs of size:
((500-400)/( 11.47 3.85)) * (11.47 6.90) = 249.34 + 100 = 349.34 or 350
***Short-run is selected as it offers lowest cost for runs more than 500
This source considers the issue of converting to digital books, specifically as it pertains to the effect that this change would have on the global environment. Although the research does recognize that there are disadvantages to not having a physical copy of a book and to abandoning certain platforms that do not transfer well to a digital form, overall, these researchers conclude that publishers should move towards digital products not only for the sake of cheaper long-run costs, but also for the good that going paperless can do for the environment. By displaying a series of graphs, as well as including multiple data sets, the text explains how e-books compare with printed texts; then, analysis of these facts is also included to show the reader the authors’ point.
Technological developments and improvements have allowed for businesses to communicate information faster and better by the use of email, live chats, and video teleconferencing. These enhancements allow for a faster flow of information in which a business can easily distribute and receive responses in real-time from its customers. It helps employees to function more efficiently by using software programs such as word processing, spreadsheet tools, statistical analysis software and computer aided design programs. With the growth of the internet and social media, businesses expose its products to a larger customer base. Others advances such as inventory management software are able to track and fill orders, and replace stock when the volume fails a pre-determined quantity at much faster rates. Digital storage of documents and information on servers and multi-media storage
In a recent study that was conducted the rate of individuals attending college has increased. This increase in students comes at a time when the country has been described as being in a recession. With job losses, companies closing and lack of job availability many people are returning to school. This return to the classroom comes at a cost. The rate of college tuition has risen in the last few years. In my home state of Kentucky, it appears both of the major Universities have asked to raise tuition every other year. When college cost rise so does the tools needed to attend college. One of the most expensive tools is books. Last year I enrolled my son in college when calculating the books for his classes, we soon learned that the cost of his books and the cost of my books were almost on month’s salary. My family soon learned if we were going to be able to not only attend college but have the necessary tools needed, we would have to consider alternatives to buying books. I did some research and soon discovered that technology had again come to the rescue. I found a company called Chegg that is an online book rental company. This company provides students with an alternative to buying books by renting them for a portion of the price. According to their article in CrunchBase named “Chegg edit” the company began at Iowa University in 2005 as a “hyper-local” classified directory. It was not until 2007 that the company introduced their textbook rental service. When looking at the company from an Information Systems standpoint I would say it ranks up there with the creative ideas of the century. You go online type in your order and it is processed within a matter of days. During the next portion of this paper we will loo...
This article, “Why Are Textbooks So Expensive?” by Henry Roediger reveals the truth of why textbooks are so pricey. He shows how textbooks prices are costly not because of inflation, corporate textbook companies, and frequent revisions, but because of the sale of used textbooks. The article is elaborating on why used textbooks are the real culprit as well. One main point that is highlighted is that used textbooks are resold for many years. The initial selling of the textbook is the only time the author will make a profit, but the bookstore will make a profit every time they resell a used book. It is essential for the author to raise the price to compensate for the loss of money when dealing with used textbooks.
D.W, C., & M., T. (2000). The e-tail revolution: challenges and limitations. Ivey Business Journal, 44-50.
Nodoushani, O., & Yang, C. (2011). E-Print industry and bookseller market: A Strategic perspective. Competition Forum, 9(2), 319-324. Retrieved February 24, 2012, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 2548633731).
The review of operations which had initially been signed with the Coutts company had to be halted due to operational constraints. The dilemma of the traditional versus the new methods of management brought to the surface the question of whether the traditional methods scored over the new purchase management software like the PDA. A very negative aspect which was not due to the fault of the system but due to an error in setting the upper limit for purchases in the library which was observed to cause a overshooting the budgetary limits due to a faulty definition of the upper limit for a book. The triggered a lot of activity of students who were not very conversant that they were working in a PDA environment. Book purchases due to the low threshold of purchase limit and these were subsequently never read. The local ISBN also caused a lot of problems which is an operational matter to be resolved with Coutts. The habit of academicians to bookmark titles also added to the complexity. This resulted in a redesign issue to ensure that bookmarked issues were kept alive at the end of a plan period.
With this opportunity in rise Kinko´s faces a decision with huge transformation as an organization, meaning restructuring, departments, operations and service functions. Accordingly this decision faces another issue: timing. Either they start pursing the challenge now or lose the opportunity of being first mover advantage and differentiate themselves in the niche market, allowing them to stick key corporate accounts or they might give the preferential occasion to another fast growing market : self owned machines provided by (what they believe is their competition) Xerox and IKON. But where they really providing their same solution? Maybe as an overall outcome (or product), but what they are not providing is Kinko´s Service Solution. This is where Kinko´s can and need to work, in order to provide key differentiation strategy and position themselves in the actual and potential customers mind, building the need for their service and adding value to their brand .
Signode Industries Inc. - Providing Packaging Solutions Executive Summary SIGNODE INDUSTRY: DILEMMA AT HAND: Mr. Gary Reed, President of Signode Industries packaging division, is in a dilemma as what he should be his course of action to meet the 6.8% increase in price of cold rolled steel- the raw material used in manufacture of Signode’s primary product, steel strapping. There are few options given in the case: Increase Signode’s strapping prices to offset the increased price of cold – rolled steel. Maintain Signode’s current book prices as increasing prices would affect sales force morale. Introduce price-flex model as proposed by Jack Davis i.e. a kind of selective discounting or premium charging for customized services. Recommendations Reason: (All data in accordance to 1983) In accordance to Exhibit 1: Sales of Packaging Division of the company = $285,950 In accordance to Table A: Sales of Apex = 33.3% of $285,950 Sales of BBM = 26.8% of $285,950 Sales of HDM = 33.4% of $285,950 Sales of Customized Products = 6.5% of $285,950 In accordance to Exhibit 4: Similarly, For Apex: As it has a capacity utilization of 71% now, Suppose a sale is $100. Then contribution is $39.15 Therefore variable cost is $60.85. Now if we increase the capacity utilization to 100%, Sales becomes $ 141 since production increases by [(100-71)/71] * 100 = 41% Variable Cost = 141% of 60.85 = $85.8 Fixed Cost = 69.38% * 12.3 = $8.53 Total Cost = 85.8+8.53 = $94.33 EBIT = Sales – Variable cost – Fixed Cost = $46.67 % of EBIT = [(46.67/141) * 100] = 33.09% Suppose the company sales 100x units, the total cost was 69.38. Thus per unit cost was .6938. Now the company sells 141x units, the total cost...
ONIX for Books v 1.0, was first published in 2000, with updates following rapidly. Release 2.0 was published in 2001 and 2.1 in 2003, followed by several revisions. The last new version was Release 3.0, released in April 2009, but after three years of availability, many US publishers had yet to adopt the newest upgrade because while the 2.0 versions of the standard were backwardly compatible with all previous versions, Release 3.0 is not. This compatibility was both blessing and curse; while it meant that publishers could more easily update their practices as new revisions to the standard were released, the improved and increased capabilities of later releases introduced conflicts with earlier versions. Release 3.0 was developed to solve problems that arose with earlier versions of the ONIX standard, but the publishing industry was initi...
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...g a book for the course. As a result, publishers continues to dominate the market by making their product the only product in order to become successful in class.
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