Leading South African bookseller Van Schaik selects Ingram’s VitalSource® to power e-textbook offering to customers
As more students, educators and institutions adopt digital course materials for study, more booksellers, such as Van Schaik Bookstores, South Africa’s leading supplier of academic, trade and reference textbooks, are adding e-textbook solutions to their offerings, using Ingram’s VitalSource® online platform.
In April 2012, Van Schaik concluded a deal with Ingram to use VitalSource® and aims to launch its e-textbooks offering in July 2012.
“Having served the academic market in Africa for nearly a century, we have a clear understanding of the needs of our unique customer base” said Stephan Erasmus, Managing Director, Van Schaik Bookstores. “We believe that e-textbooks are a growing and important part of the future of education, and working with an international market leader like VitalSource®, we have the resources to enhance learning throughout Africa and meet the digital needs of the academic community today and into the future.”
With an online store, a library division and 55 stores, located on or near academic institutions, Van Schaik is the leading provider of academic resources in South Africa and Namibia. As e-textbook use in higher education continues its dramatic growth worldwide, the Vital Source reseller solution provides Van Schaik with tools to sell and deliver e-textbooks to its widespread customer base without costly infrastructure investments. Through the reseller program, Van Schaik will administer publisher and institutional relationships, content, contracts, orders, and financial management.
“Van Schaik was looking for a robust e-textbook solution that would serve even the most remote of its customers,” said William Chesser, Vice President of Sales, Vital Source Technologies, Inc. “The VitalSource® platform is a true online/offline e-book solution, with robust iOS and Android apps complementing Mac, Windows, and browser-based access. The multiplicity of access options is crucial in an emerging environment like South African higher education.”
Van Schaik easily incorporated its online store and in-store kiosks with the VitalSource® fulfillment engine through industry-standard web integration. Students and educators who purchase e-textbooks from Van Schaik enjoy all the benefits of the VitalSource® platform including integrated download, online and mobile content options, advanced searching, and annotation, note-sharing, and accessibility features.
Becoming a reseller of the VitalSource® solution allows Van Schaik’s stores to consolidate their position as the key content service provider on campus. “They become the go-to local experts in e-content, and are able to help their client campuses solve not just content aggregation and access challenges, but the critical integration, finance, support, and training challenges that come hand-in-hand with migration to a digital education world,” said Chesser.
“As resellers reshape their business and enhance their offering for today’s students, the Vital Source reseller solution is perfectly suited to support those efforts,” said Kent Freeman, Chief Operating Officer, VitalSource® Technologies, Inc. “Using VitalSource®, Van Schaik will connect more students and educators to the newest interactive learning tools and e-textbooks from the leaders in education. We are pleased to support Van Schaik in their efforts to make e-textbooks available to all that want them.”
VitalSource®, with more than 2 million users, is the most used e-textbook platform in education today. With a presence on 6,000 campuses in 180 countries, educators and students have access to tens of thousands of titles from the world’s leading textbook publishers.