Xerox India targets SMB Segment; Launches 8 New Products : By - Princy Bhatnagar, Director, Office Business Group, Xerox India Limited; Carl Bothner, Vice-President & General Manager, Desktop Multifunction

To secure a strong foothold in the SMB segment, Xerox Corporation recently announced the global launch of 8 mono printers and MFPs for the first time in India, ahead of the rest of the world. The global launch, which was kicked off from India, will be rolled out subsequently in 162 countries and underlines India as a strategic destination for Xerox Corporation.

The newly-launched products range from small, cost-effective A4 printers to feature-rich monochrome MFPs and are targeted at the fast-rowing SMB community (small and medium businesses) that is expected to spend $1.3 billion on printing and printing supplies in 2008, as per a report by AMI Partners.

According to AMI Partners, India will be the fastest-growing major market in the APAC region with IT spending set to increase more than 20 per cent in 2008, to US$9.7 billion. Banking, financial services and manufacturing are expected to be the growth engines, leading to increased business spending in India.

Xerox’s newly-launched products include: Xerox Phaser 3600 (40 ppm A4 mono printer), Xerox Phaser 3250 (30 ppm A4 mono printer), Xerox Phaser 5550 (50 ppm A3 mono laser printer), Xerox Phaser 3100 MFP (21 ppm A4 multifunction printer), Xerox WorkCentre 5020 (20 ppm A3 mono multifunctional printer), Xerox WorkCentre 5016 (16 ppm A3 mono multifunctional printer), Xerox WorkCentre 5225 (25 ppm A3 mono printer) and Xerox WorkCentre 5230 (30 ppm A3 mono printer).

Commenting on India’s status as the launch country for Xerox Corporation to announce these products ahead of the world, Carl Bothner, Vice-President & General Manager, Desktop Multifunction and Printer Business Unit, Xerox Office Group, Xerox Corporation, said, “India is a strategic market for Xerox Corporation and has the right characteristics in terms of business opportunity“– a market that is growing, and a market that we believe holds the potential to be an engine of growth for the company. It is also amongst the fastest-growing SMB economies in the world, which is a key reason we chose this market as the first place to announce these new products.”

Andrew Horne, Managing Director, Xerox India Ltd., said, “2008 has been a historic year for Xerox India, starting with a major brand repositioning initiative, followed by a series of marketing activities across our three lines of business to reach out to our customers and the business community. The launch of our new products is an extension of our strategy to get closer to our customers, relate more directly to the Xerox brand and make stronger inroads in the SMB community.”

Added Horne,”“I am delighted that Xerox Corporation has chosen India as a platform for the global launch, underlying the growing importance of India as a strategic destination for Xerox Corporation.” Said Princy Bhatnagar, Director, Office Business Group, Xerox India Limited,”“Today’s competitive business demands ‘to do more’ while spending less. This is a challenge, especially for small- and mid-size businesses that need to invest to grow. Xerox’s portfolio of technology gives these businesses an array of choices to fit products and solutions the way they work, without breaking the bank. We will be rolling out a multi-city road show across the top 15 non-metro cities to showcase Xerox’s newly-launched products, to our channel partners and SMB customers across India.”

The cities where Xerox will conduct its road shows are Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Udaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Pune, Nagpur, Raipur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Vizag, Madurai and Cochin.

The new Phaser black-and-white printers and MFPs join Xerox’s growing stable of products designed with the small- and mid-sized business in mind and plays critical role in Xerox’s overall SMB strategy. In addition to offering a broader product portfolio, Xerox is expanding its distribution network, making it easier for the SMB market to benefit from the cost and quality advantages of doing business with Xerox.

Xerox Corporation’s most notable channel expansion initiatives include the acquisition last year of Global Imaging Systems Inc., in the U.S., and its planned acquisition of Veenman B.V., the largest office technology distributor in the Netherlands.

The Growing India SMB Opportunity -SMBs are increasingly focussing on better print outputs and printer usage. -SMBs in India will spend $9.7 billion on IT this year (an increase of 22% over last year). -SMBs in India to spend $1.3 billion on printing and printing supplies in 2008 (an increase of 16% over last year).

The Xerox Phaser 3600 laser printer is a robust 40-ppm printer with duplex printing and networking facilities. Meeting the needs of a workgroup and even a small office, the Phaser 3600 includes advanced security features and Xerox’s CentreWare Internet Service technology, making the printer easy to use and maintain. The printer comes in two variants of 3600N priced at an MRP of Rs.45,644 and 3600DN at an MRP of Rs.54,012.

The Xerox Phaser 3250 laser printer is small in size but rich with features, including automatic two-sided printing and the ability to print up to 30 pages per minute. It also includes a network-ready version, packing many features into a small footprint. The printer comes in two variants of 3250D priced at an MRP of Rs.19,018 and 3250DN at an MRP of Rs.24,090.

Built on the award-winning Phaser 5500 platform, the Phaser 5550 laser printer features automated tools for easy installation and service. The printer is geared to medium and large workgroups and comes with PhaserSMART, an online troubleshooting tool that helps diagnose and solve potential printing issues, preventing maintenance calls and increasing its reliability. The Phaser 5550 produces tabloid-sized prints up to 50 ppm for both single and double-sided pages. The printer comes in three variants of 5500N priced at an MRP of Rs.244,066, 5500DN at Rs.282,419 and 5500DT at an MRP of Rs.317,286.

Xerox combined ease of use, reliability and low cost to build the Phaser 3100MFP. The system, Xerox’s lowest-priced MFP, makes office work easy with print speeds up to 21 ppm and features like’“scan to e-mail”, a full keyboard for the fax directory, and Optical Character Recognition software that converts scanned documents into text-searchable files. It comes in two variants 3100 MFO P/S at an MRP of Rs.12,160 and 3100 MFP P/X at an MRP of Rs.17,279.

Small- and medium-sized business can also turn to the WorkCentre 5016 and WorkCentre 5020 for cost-effective productivity. With print and copy speeds of 16 and 20 ppm, respectively, these multifunction printers start at an estimated MRP of Rs.57,000 and Rs.85,000. They feature a scanning functionality with a paper capacity of up to 800 sheets for powerful, ongoing printing and copying. The WorkCentre 5016 and WorkCentre 5020 offer Power Save and Toner Save modes, which enable customers to save energy and stretch toner use, and

“ID Card Copy”, which lets people copy both sides of a document, such as a driver’s licence, onto one side of a piece of paper. The modular and easy-to-manage WorkCentre 5225 / 5230 multifunction printer is packed with high-end features to deliver a level of productivity beyond the typical office MFP. With print and copy speed of 25 and 30 ppm, respectively, base copier configurations start at an estimated MRP of Rs.185,000 and Rs.216,000. Powerful scanning, printing and fax features can be added to meet customers’ specific needs and introduce new productivity-enhancing workflows in the office environment. In addition to Xerox’s EIP, the WorkCentre 5225/5230 also has comprehensive security features such as’“scan-to-password-protected PDF”, hard disk overwrite and data encryption to ensure that confidential data stays private over the network.

The company’s vision is to implement a multi-channel coverage model based on market potential, separated by segment / industry that will allow Xerox to reach more customers at lower costs, with products that reflect market needs. The company has received ISO 9002 certification for its manufacturing and customer service support operations as well as ISO 14001 for complete environment management systems. The company plans to invest Rs.20 crore in India in 2008. It will also add more than 150 partners by Q4 2008 to further increase its market share.

Incorporated in 1983, Xerox India Limited is a part of Xerox Corporation. Over the past 20 years, Xerox India Limited has shaped the document management industry in India by ushering in the world’s best document processing products and bringing innovative value-added concepts to cater to customer needs. Xerox India Limited has successfully transitioned three major movements in India since its inception, from copying to printing, black & white to colour and standalone analogto digital, networked products. Xerox has deployed Lean Six Sigma in its corporate culture to achieve the major goals of Leadership Development and Cultural Change.

Xerox India Limited’s strategic intent is to become the leader in the document market in India by helping improve customer work processes and positively impacting productivity and costs. In other words, “helping people find better ways to do great work”. Xerox has three business groups in India.

These include New Office Group, Production Systems Group and Xerox Global Services. The New Office Group of Xerox caters to the requirements of large- and mid-sized and small enterprises, providing them with analog copiers, digital copiers, copiers-printers, advanced multifunction devices, colour copiers-printers and engineering copiers. These offerings are marketed through a “Two-Tier” distribution model. Xerox reaches out to its customers through its network of two national distributors (eSys and Redington) and two regional distributors (Micromax and Ansatta). The company has a network of 1,500 channel partners that are supported by a team of qualified and trained indirect sales personnel.

The Xerox Production Systems Group caters to three main production environments – Publishing, Transaction Printing and Enterprise-wide Printing through its multiple product categories. The group also offers total document solutions and services that can scan, view, manage and produce documents as well as a variety of pre-press and post-press workflow options to fully meet customer demands. The group markets its product portfolio through both direct and indirect model.

Xerox Global Services brings device and document management services to the marketplace. It enables Xerox to be a fully integrated document solutions company by providing a total end-to-end solution. Xerox Global Services helps clients reduce costs and create value by making smarter connections between people processes and technology. Xerox offers a number of supplies for its wide range of printers that include binder tape, covers, stapling supplies, developers, fusion oil, toners, and different kinds of paper, labels, transparencies, multipurpose coloured paper and index.

Each year, Xerox spends a large proportion of money on R&D to assure customers of products and services with matchless quality, an abundance of features, fast network support and speed. Since its inception, a billion dollars have been spent on research and development. Xerox Corporation spent about $760 million in 2004 (5.5% of the company’s revenues were spent on research and development). The Company holds more than 8,000 active patents and invests about 6% of its global revenue in Research, Development and Engineering. Its prolific patent portfolio places Xerox in the top 25 of American companies for innovation.