Xerox, IPNet to Unveil Book Production Plan

Under a program created in part by a Newport Beach firm, sophisticated technology is being used to develop one of the most passe products in this digital world: books.

Xerox Corp. is introducing a service to make it cheaper to produce books in ultra-short run lengths--from one to several thousand copies--using electronic data interchange (EDI) technology from IPNet Solutions Inc. in Newport Beach, the companies plan to announced today.

The Book In Time service digitizes the marketing, selling, printing and distribution of books, making it more economical for publishers to offer a larger variety of titles by printing books on demand.

The program showcases the uses for electronic data interchange, a method of exchanging data between businesses using electronic networks that for years has been based on costly proprietary systems owned by companies such as Harbinger Corp. and Sterling Commerce.

Recently, EDI has been moving to the Internet, an open and less costly network with broader reach, and IPNet and others have been trying to capitalize on the transition even as Harbinger and Sterling try to hold on to their customers.

The Xerox program, for example, allows small publishers to implement the technology for about $500 using IPNet’s software.