NEW YORK, March 2, 2001  -- The print-on-demand industry, which has grown in a decade to a U.S. retail value of $21 billion, is poised to ride a new wave of growth. Driving it is the convergence of two great technological streams - digital printing and the Internet. Together, they are creating capabilities that permit graphic arts customers to operate more efficiently, market more effectively and create new revenue streams that will generate a new boom in the industry. These views were expressed by Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) executive Frank D. Steenburgh in a keynote panel presentation yesterday at On Demand 2001, a digital printing and publishing conference and exhibition. The short query posed in the panel's title - "e-Printing Live! Is it for Real?" - prompted Steenburgh to provide this short answer. "It's yes," he said. "This is where the industry is going." "We believe that there is a whole new world of opportunities that are all about aligning your services with new customer requirements for printing just-in-time, one-to-one, over the Internet," said Steenburgh, a graphic arts industry veteran. "Leading industry experts believe that new content management and delivery systems supporting both print and electronic media expand the worldwide value of the printing business from $534 billion to more than $1 trillion." Steenburgh explained that both print buyers and providers benefit from e-business. "For print buyers, e-procurement of print can reduce inventory and warehouse costs and reduce cycle time. "For graphic arts service providers, the Internet is a great enabler for new services such as image repository hosting, global distribution, remote proofing, online order entry and much, much more. It can be a key to reducing your costs and increasing customer satisfaction." Market-research firm CAP Ventures expects e-print to be used in about 80 percent of print jobs by 2005, Steenburgh noted. His advice to graphic arts service providers: "Printing is becoming an e-business as we speak. And you really have to do something about it."