Tizra beating sales goals for Agile PDF

PROVIDENCE – Since the Tizra Agile PDF online book platform had its public debut early this year, Tizra Inc. has been exceeding sales goals and begun collaborating with major partners including Quebecor World Inc.
The Web-based software-as-service allows customers more flexibility in indexing, packaging and selling information from portable document format (PDF) files. Its first public uses were early this year, on sites run by Cabazon Books and Rate It Green. (READ MORE)
“From the beginning, publishers have been excited about the level of control Agile PDF offers them, and by the possibility of avoiding expensive custom development,” Tizra co-founder and CEO David Durand said in a statement. “But now that they’re seeing Agile PDF in production on live sites, interest has really taken off.”
In the past two weeks, the East Side company has announced contracts with The Federation Press, a leading Australian publisher of legal, social and academic books and journals, and The New York Botanical Garden Press, one of the largest and most-respected publishing houses in its field.
The Australian publisher looked around the world before settling on Tizra, according to Linda Nix, Federation’s manager of business development. “After researching all our options, we find that Tizra offers us the best combination of capability, flexibility and affordability,” she said.
Flexibility also was key to The New York Botanical Garden’s decision.
“Our books are unique and definitive, yet the cost and inflexibility of print increasingly restricts their potential,” said Nate Smith, associate director of The New York Botanical Garden Press. “Tizra’s approach lets us repackage and remix the extraordinary editorial assets we already have to reach new markets, and offer our existing readership new tools to access the references they depend on.”
In another potentially significant partnership, Tizra has produced two demonstration sites for Quebecor World (TSX: IQW), a giant in the print media services market and a provider of value-added services including pre-press, digital services and logistics.
“Tizra’s software enables us to provide digital capabilities many of our customers desire as extensions of their print brands,” said Marilynn Jacobs, vice president of marketing for Quebecor’s Magazine Division. “We were really impressed with how quickly we were able to go from print content to fully branded online storefronts – and more important, our customers were impressed as well.”
Also impressed is Thorne Sparkman, managing director of the quasi-public Slater Technology Fund, a key investor in the tech company.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with the early sales traction Tizra has shown,” Sparkman said. “A strong market response based on the worldwide excitement around online delivery is exactly what we hoped to see when we began working with Tizra last year, and confirms our belief that the time has now come to scale up the company’s sales and product development efforts.”
Tizra Inc. is a software-development startup whose investors include the quasi-public Slater Technology Fund. Its first product is Agile PDF, an online publishing and delivery service that makes it easier to sell and distribute data from portable document format (PDF) files. Additional information is available at www.tizra.com.