After experiencing a low phase in the business, Xerox realigned its business to regain the lost glory. In efforts to strengthen its business in India, Xerox announced a slew of new products and services. The company is focusing on its Workflow Management and Document Management Services in the country. In a candid interaction with Channel Times, Balaji Rajagopalan, Executive Director-Technology, Channels and International Distributor Operations, Xerox India talks about key trends in the MPS business and company’s roadmap to capitalize on new business prospects in the country.
After going through tough times, Xerox seems to be regaining its position in the market? How did you realign your business strategies to overcome the challenges?
2015 was a strong year for us with Xerox India registering profitable growth. Technology business was certainly the highlight and contributed a significant amount of the overall India business revenue. We brought in several new products, especially in the Graphic Communication space from entry to mid to high end segments with standout features at competitive pricing. This helped us establish a strong market share and position. All our devices have been well appreciated in the market place with Versant series, Colorpress 1000i and Color C60/C70 registering a high number of installations across the country.
On the Channel front, we organized multiple channel programs to educate and empower our channel partners to perform better in the market place. We further incentivized our partners to motivate them to outperform their numbers. We are looking to continue the momentum and grow further this year on the back of our strengths.
There has been a lot of momentum on the technology and product front for Xerox India since 2015. What are the new solutions you have introduced in the market?
True, we have brought in a slew of offerings in India in the past couple of years and all of them have seen a great response from the market. We have already installed double digits for our Versant series, Color C60/C70 across the country. We are seeing a strong interest in our iGen 5 and Impika inkjet offerings too this year. Further to capitalize on the opportunities we saw in the market, we introduced banner printing capabilities in the Versant 80 and this has reflected especially well with customers in this segment. The Xerox iGen 5 brought in this year is a great fit for the photo-printing segment.
In terms of solutions, we introduced Xerox’s FreeFlow Core’s automation tool set. Our FreeFlow Digital Workflow collection leverages over 20 years of production workflow solution experience. As security is a growing concern, we have also looked at how we can help our customers secure data and have brought in new solutions to keep digital information safe and secure. Development of all Xerox products is guided by the Xerox Security Development Life cycle.
What are the key trends in the MPS and Digital printing segment in India?
Print and document output is really the last unmanaged frontier when it comes to optimizing IT infrastructure. This, combined with trends that are affecting the overall print market, i.e. mobility, digitization, enhanced integration of documents with workflows, analytics, cloud services, etc. are changing customer buying behavior.
Few of the latest trends that we have seen in this market segment, are increased personalization and end user targeted prints. Furthermore, elements like book printing, photo-printing, publishing etc. are also on the rise and significant reasons for driving the growth of the overall digital printing segment in India. For the next few years, some of the emerging trends will be increasing integration of work-processes and workflow in organizations. Xerox is bullish and focused to tap this potential market.
The printing business has reportedly shrunk around the world. Do you see the same trends reflecting in India?
While the printing business globally is stagnant, India is growing significantly. There are new pockets of growth in the digital printing segment like short run and long run jobs, photo-printing, book publishing etc. The office printing segment is also growing well, there is an increased demand of MFPs and furthermore, companies are packing their products with innovative solutions to simplify business processes for customers.
The Graphic Communication business has emerged as the new growth area for Xerox. What growth prospects do you see in this space?
As mentioned earlier, various small pockets have pushed up the growth of the digital printing market. With our vast portfolio, we are well positioned to cater to the needs of our customers in this segment. We are bringing in new and innovative devices and solutions and these have certainly impacted our market presence. We are looking to further tap this opportunity aggressively.
Xerox business is largely routed through the offline distribution model. What is Xerox India’s success on the Channel front?
We operate in an indirect way via our channel partners and we have been extremely successful in this model. We have more than 200+ channel partners spread across the country and we have consolidated our base to further boost revenues. Over the years, we have developed a strong channel community and we work with them closely to understand market needs, challenges and how best we can optimize our operations and grow.
This year, we have brought in new initiatives and training programs and we are going to work more closely to drive growth, both for us and our partners. Xerox Partner Print Services (XPPS) is another opportunity for our partners to enter the MPS space, this is a huge motivation for our partners and we are constantly working with them to help them become consultants over box sellers.
What is your roadmap for the next three years? How are you capitalizing on the new growth areas?
From an MPS business perspective, we have a strong portfolio of solutions with next-gen MPS further is boosting our strength in this segment. Today, as most organizations are moving to a paperless office, we believe that we can play a critical role in this transformation. Our solutions can be a great fit in multiple segments, especially BFSI, transportation and health care.
We believe we shall continue to see accelerated movement towards more integrated work flow solutions. We believe that our Document Management Services have huge potential to grow. I am especially excited about Xerox’s solutions offering and an ever-evolving Xerox ConnectKey Technology ecosystem. In addition to this, we are bringing in exciting products catering especially to the SMB market.