Himanshu Goyal

Organisations the worldover are increasingly becoming dependent on information for gaining competitive advantage in today’s cut-throat business arena. This has made it imperative to have anytime anywhere access to information. It also calls for preservation of the data in a manner that will not only enable easy accessibility but will also provide a revenue stream. Existing methods of reservation do not allow easy search facilities. To counter this problem Pune-based Digital Publishing Solutions (DPS) has come up with a solution, which has made digital archiving a reality. The company has till date digitised a total of 3.5 million pages.

Christened DXXML, the company’s proprietary technology is a commercial format that allows conversion of books into a useful and futureproof XML format. “We provide electronic publishing and content management services to publishing houses and newspaper publishers. Our service suite includes the entire spectrum of conversion into e-book format including scanning, digitisation, indexing, keywording, storage, content security, conversion, full eCommerce fulfilment and content-enhancement through value-added media creation," said Himanshu Goyal, vice president of sales at DPS.

Using state-of-the-art scanning equipment and technology, content is scanned from a variety of formats, including paper, microfilm, microfiche, photographs, negatives and transparencies. After the scanning process, the content is digitised using OCR and proprietary proofing processes and software. The scanned matter is then stored in DPS’s scan repository and the content is available to the customer on demand for selling it in the e-book format or ready-to-print format. The content is then distributed and sold online using DXReader, an online XML reader.

DPS manages the electronic bookstore, which is being hosted through two Dell workstation class servers based out of STPI Pune. The company is networked with a 256 Kbps line from Satyam. The company is also connected via VSNL’s ISDN channel. The bookstore has a diverse, multi-format online catalogue that provides myriad cost-effective content resource models.

DPS has already successfully implemented its solution abroad. Its client roster includes illustrious names like Taylor & Francis Pearson, National Academic Press and Cambridge University Press. DPS is now offering the full range of content production technologies on a franchise basis to the domestic market.

In India the company has more than 15 libraries as well as Pune-based National Chemical laboratories, Delhi-based Indian agricultural Research Institution, and the Indian National Science Academy using its solution. Other than this the company is also in talks with publishing houses, certain corporates with huge amount of paper data and also data entry operators for its products. Said Goyal, “We expect to see around 20-25 signups in the current financial year.”

Today DPS has a team of 355 people working from its office in Pune as well as in Chennai and Delhi. The company is currently in the process of increasing awareness about the product in India. It is mainly targeting libraries wishing to preserve rare books, publishing houses and even corporates. According to Goyal, the awareness in India about the product is not very high. But in the last few months since it launched the solution it has already found a vast market for content factory. The company expects to see a 20-25 percent growth rate in the country in the current year.