A top representative of Xerox Corporations talked to Al-Ahram Weekly about the Egyptian market's potential When Xerox is mentioned, the first thing that occurs to mind is the copier company. Active in Egypt for the past 27 years, Xerox has managed to grow into a major IT company that provides fully integrated office solutions and technological innovations. Sherine Nasr spoke to Xerox's president of Developing Markets Operations, Jean-Noel Machon, who visited Egypt recently seeking to expand his company's activities. During that visit he met Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and a number of government officials. "We believe that the growth potentials in Egypt are huge. This is one reason why Xerox is interested to steadily increase its market share," said Machon. He pointed out that Xerox Egypt has embarked upon an expansion strategy based on supporting an extensive network of dealers, service centres and distribution facilities. The company also has been working in close partnership with different government departments. Egypt is trying to boost the use of IT applications, specifically targeting various government departments and youth. "There are ongoing talks between the company and the Ministry of Telecommunication and Technology to introduce personal computers for every home, school and small business," said Machon who added that there is a strong trend in the Egyptian government to invest heavily in education. Focussed on growth opportunities in emerging markets and countries around the world, Machon underlined that the growth potentials in Egypt are enormous. "Egypt can act as the centre of IT- related services in the Middle East and North Africa." According to Machon, Egypt's prime advantages are a stable, growing economy, as well as human skills, a low-cost labour force, and an excellent location close to Europe and in the heart of the Middle East. He expressed his belief that Egypt soon will make significant progress in the IT industry's service sector. "The expansion opportunities for us in many sectors are huge because the market is not yet saturated," said Machon. Keen on developing the services it provides, Xerox Egypt recently introduced an array of consulting services to help companies of any size optimise their performance and minimise costs. "This is a growing part of our business worldwide," said Machon, who underlined that the solutions developed by Xerox's specialised team help companies cut the cost of document production, management and distribution between 10 to 25 per cent. As a matter of fact, Xerox Egypt has closely been working with different Egyptian sectors to upgrade their infrastructure performance. The company provides different applications for consumers ranging from big players in the telecommunications or finance fields, the government, or small enterprises. For example, the international company has played a significant role in the statement printing of telecommunication bills as well as utility bills. By the end of last year, Xerox had implemented a major project with Telecom Egypt to install software that would enable the Egyptian company to change its contracts on regular basis in case a change of price or legislation took place. In the financial sector, Xerox signed a $40 million contract with HSBC to manage all the bank's documents while complying with the bank's conditions for privacy, confidentiality and security of the data handled. A similar task was carried out on a smaller scale at the Bank of Alexandria. By the end of last year, a significant initiative was also undertaken between Xerox, the Shura Council and the People's Assembly to improve the document management and communications systems. Similar solutions have also been provided to upgrade these services in the utility and pharmaceuticals sectors. These achievements and others have made Xerox Egypt a foreign direct investment success story in Egypt. Through a network of 30 local partners and distributors, the international company has been able to generate more income and create more job opportunities. "There are at least 1,500 people who are directly employed in Xerox," noted Machon. In 2004, the overall revenues grew by 16 per cent, equipment revenues by 40 per cent and post- sale revenues by nine per cent. "Xerox also launched 20 new products during the year," he said. As part of its culture, Xerox Egypt invests heavily in research and development. "Xerox Corporation has been ranked number nine worldwide in the field of innovations," said Machon, observing that one of the key contributors to that success was an Egyptian, Rafiq Lotfi, who until recently held the post of vice- president for strategy planning and innovation in Xerox Corporation. There is only one product which Xerox has not been able to introduce to the Egyptian market, the high ink colour, which Machon called "the largest and most revolutionary colour machine worldwide". He explained that Egyptian law as it stands prohibits the possession of colour machines unless a licence from the Ministry of Interior is obtained. Obviously, the purpose is to eliminate currency counterfeit operations. But, as Machon pointed out, the Egyptian prime minister has expressed his support for the development of a new mechanism to release this technology in Egypt.
