Acutrack Addition of Canon varioPRINT iX Inkjet Sheetfed Press Leads to Explosive Growth
Acutrack’s journey began in 1992, when it started as a humble, garage-based fulfillment business in Livermore, California. Their fulfillment service offerings included media production and kitting for Silicon Valley’s software giants.
Within just three years, Acutrack achieved a breakthrough by becoming one of the early pioneers of zero-inventory manufacture on demand (MOD). This innovative approach focused on manufacturing products only when needed and in the required quantities.
As time passed, Acutrack recognized an opportunity to expand its services when customers began requesting book fulfillment. Leveraging their successful zero-inventory MOD strategy, the company started offering printing as part of their full-service support. Although Acutrack outsourced the print, taking ownership of the entire printing and fulfillment cycle made them highly popular with their customers, and their business took off.
Leveraging their successful zero-inventory MOD strategy, the company started offering printing as part of their full-service support.
With print becoming a crucial part of their service offering, CEO and Acutrack owner Raj Barman added the Canon varioPRINT iX inkjet sheetfed press to his warehouse floor. What happened next was beyond his expectations.
“It truly was a game changer for us, but not in the way you typically read about,” said Raj.
As expected, the varioPRINT iX’s high quality and media versatility enabled them to produce monochrome and full-color short- or long-run book jobs with ease, as well as seamlessly transition to Canon Solutions America’s Book Smart Suite. This end-to-end automated book solution helps Acutrack achieve favorable economies of scale for short-run production by also incorporating the C.P. Bourg Preparation Module, Perfect Binder, and Challenge Three-Knife Trimmer.
However, it was when sales and marketing began utilizing the iX to demonstrate the power of their print-on-demand fulfillment model that the company really saw game-changing results.
“With the iX we have been able to explore profitable new opportunities, including short runs, one-offs, backlists, out-of-print titles, reprints, and more, and this led us to explosive growth,” Raj shared.
"With the iX we have been able to explore profitable new opportunities . . . and this led us to explosive growth." — Raj Barman, Acutrack CEO and owner
While rapid growth presents challenges, Acutrack made strategic decisions to maintain control over their expansion. As CEO, Raj firmly believes in their current model of controlled growth, which combines in-house and outsourced print operations.
“Outsourcing has always been a part of our business model as it allows us to scale up and down to meet customer demand,” stated Raj. “Acutrack had been outsourcing print services before and will continue to do so, with the varioPRINT iX serving as the catalyst to attract business and provide the agility and control we require.”
Today, Acutrack prides itself on offering the broadest range of book trim sizes and binding options, catering to diverse book types, including glossy hardcover photography books, perfect bound books, and coil-bound hard case journals. Their clientele includes authors, training institutions, coaches, corporations, and educational institutions.
“We are thrilled that the Canon varioPRINT iX has played a pivotal role in Acutrack's remarkable growth and has become the cornerstone of their thriving business strategy,” said Francis McMahon, executive vice president of Production Print Solutions at Canon Solutions America, Inc.
