Meet thINK Member Raj Barman, Acutrack CEO

Acutrack's journey began in 1992, when it started as a humble garage-based 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 full-service support, which now included print in addition to fulfillment. Although Acutrack outsourced the print, taking ownership of the entire print and fulfillment cycle made them highly popular with their customers, and their business took off.

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 books with ease and seamlessly transition to an automated book solution to achieve favorable economies of scale for short-run production by incorporating the C.P. Bourg Preparation Module, Perfect Binder, and Challenge Three-Knife Trimmer as part of the Book Smart Suite solution.   

However, it was when they began utilizing the iX for their sales and marketing efforts, demonstrating their print-on-demand fulfillment model, which brought 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. 

While rapid growth presents challenges, Acutrack made strategic decisions to maintain control over their expansion. CEO Raj Barman 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.”

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. For more information, visit Acutrack.com or email sales@Acutrack.com. 

"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," expressed Francis McMahon, executive vice president of Production Print Solutions at Canon Inc.

Canon has led the evolution of print for over a decade, with industry-leading web-fed, sheetfed, and total high-volume inkjet market share in the U.S. reported in 2022. 

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About thINK 

thINK is an independent community of Canon inkjet customers, solution partners, and print industry experts, and Canon is a proud executive sponsor. Led by some of the most successful inkjet service providers in the country, it provides a forum for members to network, gain knowledge, discuss common challenges, and share best practices. For more information, visit thINKForum.com.

Canon is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. PRISMA and varioPRINT are trademarks or registered trademarks of Canon Production Printing Netherlands B.V. All other referenced product names and marks are trademarks of their respective owners. Views and opinions expressed in this testimonial are based on the actual experiences of each voluntary participant.