Xlibris inks deal with Ng Khai for software, hardware licensing

In order to achieve higher productivity in its worldwide personal publishing operations in Cebu, Xlibris Philippines Inc., has inked deal with Microsoft reseller Ng Khai Development Corporation to have its software and hardware 100 percent licensed.

About 50 percent of Xlibris' total expenditure for Information Technology (IT) infrastructure is utilized to have its software and hardware backbone 100 percent license compliant.

Xlibris Philippines vice president Angela Wood said this is an indication that its Cebu operation is serious in its multi-million dollar investment in Cebu, as the company sees further expansion in the next few months.

Despite the availability of open source that can be used free of charge in some Operational System, and other software applications, Xlibris IT Development manager Jon Alfonso said the company decided to take Microsoft as the provider of majority of its software and hardware infrastructure because of the wide availability of tools and easy access to support.

"In our kind of operation we have to make sure that we don't experience technical glitches as we are serving clients around the world 24 hours a day," Alfonso said.

Having its infrastructure licensed would also promote productivity to its operations, he added. Philadelphia-based Xlibris has picked Cebu as its brain for worldwide operations because of the Cebuanos natural charm for customer service, good working attitude, highly skilled professionals coupled with sane business environment, among others.

Xlibris is one of the very few founding companies of the emerging personal publishing industry in the world. Started as a very small personal publishing firm in 1997, the company has already printed 1.2 million books and paid US$1.4 million of royalties.

Aside from writings, Xlibris also publishes children's drawings, wedding photos, and others, which are marketed worldwide.

Currently, the company offers to as low as US$500 (close to P30,000) charge to authors or would-be authors to publish their works easily and market them through over 25,000 websites.

Its Cebu operation is manned by (close to) 300 personnel. Wood said it is aiming to double the number in the next few years.

Xlibris engineers publishing operations into inexpensive, repeatable, low cost process. It also package sets of publishing services into publishing products which serve a specific market, as well as market and sell its services either directly or through partnerships.

Currently serving most of their clients from the United States, the company is expanding its reach to the United Kingdom, Europe and other continents.

The company has constantly developed products to help the authors sell their books in the worldwide market.