Vista, a U.K.—based firm specializing in software and consulting for general publishing operations and warehousing, may be the most important technical infrastructure company that you don't know enough about.
Founded in England in 1977 to provide fulfillment systems for warehousing, the company set up its U.S. operations about 10 years ago when it began working with HarperCollins. Vista provides its Author2Reader software, a suite of publishing operation applications, to the largest publishers in the world, among them Random House, AOL Time Warner, St. Martin's and Reed Elsevier (PW's parent company).
"We focus on publishing," said George Lossius, CEO of Vista, drawing a distinction between his company and firms such as SAP and Cats Pajamas that also offer all-encompassing business-technology systems. Lossius told PW the firm's business is divided into trade book publishing and STM journals and reference. "We have a lot of trade book customers," said Lossius, "but the U.S. market for us is predominantly reference."
Vista generates about $20 million in annual revenues and has about 150 employees, 60 based in the U.S. "The U.S. market is about 10 times the size of the U.K. market, and U.S. revenues are beginning to edge ahead of the U.K.," said Lossius.
Vista's services are aimed at huge publishing companies (firms with at least $10 million in revenue) that need to bring all their operations under one back-office system, said Lossius, and at companies growing through acquisitions "that need to rationalize subsidiary firms with varying computer systems. We install and manage the applications that they need." Vista's Author2Reader software suite offers a framework of applications—fulfillment, e-commerce, e-books, royalty and data management and more—aimed at every publishing operation. A publisher can install the comprehensive system or start slowly and add applications as needed. And Vista partners with such firms as Microsoft and Oracle, allowing its clients to integrate their individual business applications into Vista's technology.
Typically, Vista's huge international firms—Elsevier Science, Holtzbrinck or Harcourt, to name several clients—require a 12- to 18-month process (services for small houses can be installed in under five months) that begins with a "business process analysis," evaluating the likely savings and efficiencies. "Our customers can then decide if the savings are worth the costs," said Lossius.
However, Lossius notes, "there are only so many publishers that can do this." Over the last year, the firm has introduced hosting services offering targeted applications to small publishers ($6 million in revenue up to about $15 million). "Smaller firms don't need our biggest systems. And we can help, say, a $6-million firm grow into a $20-million company," he said, citing such clients as Chronicle Books and Sterling Publishing, "and they will already have a system in place that can handle the growth."
Costs can be steep. Elsevier's comprehensive installation cost between $5 million and $10 million. Small firms may pay about $50,000 to $70,000, plus a monthly fee.
Vista is also looking for growth by offering "more and better services to our existing customers," said Lossius. Vista has begun offering production and editorial systems, digital-asset banks that store and allow the repurposing of editorial content. And Lossius is bullish on Vista's technology in the nascent era of e-commerce: "Our applications can talk to different systems handling related information in different parts of the world. Our technology can automatically calculate freight charges or sales taxes across national boundaries—functions critical to international firms."
"Budgets are tight right now, which always affects us," said Lossius. "But the market is coming back. We're optimistic and we're gearing up for the next fiscal year."
