CAIRO: Xerox is reorienting the firm from being a simple photocopy machine company to a fully global managed print service provider. With its acquisition of US-based Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) — a provider of business process and document management — in February 2010, Xerox is setting out to deepen its knowledge and specialization through the deal, while ASC will benefit from Xerox's global expanse, an executive said. Steve Clay, Xerox's new General Manager for Egypt, said that ACS, a $6 billion business, will help Xerox add business process outsourcing to its arsenal. According to Clay —who joined the Egyptian branch this past April after having held the position of general manager, operations and post sales for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region — the acquisition will ensure that his firm is focused on grabbing a bigger chunk of the document and process management market, estimated to be worth $500 billion worldwide. He underscored that the move has completely “repositioned” Xerox, going from a copy business to a services-focused firm. Through the fusing of both firms, Clay said, they will provide “a total portfolio” of outsourcing solutions. In a recent International Data Corporation report, which highlights market leaders in various areas, Xerox was selected as the leader in the domain of managed print services outsourcing. Xerox, which has been present in Egypt since 1978, has been striving to make its clients' businesses more efficient — providing cost savings, which ranges between 15-30 percent depending on a client's organizational size. The ACS acquisition falls in line with Xerox's Egyptian market strategy of operational efficiency, and in 2011, the global firm will delve deeper into “formulating strategy” for the local market, Clay noted. Currently, Clay explained, Xerox has a firm customer base, especially in the banking, telecommunications and utilities sectors, where “(it) owns the market” for printing statements or “transactional printing” services, which in terms of market share floats around 85-90 percent. Transactional printing, with all related services including print, repair service, human resources and mailing statements — otherwise termed “managed print services” —represents around 35-40 percent of Xerox's business activity. For some of Xerox's clients, such as banks, a customer's statement is a bank's unique avenue of communication; as such, Xerox noticed a niche in the marketing field: providing “customized one-to-one messages” by offering gifts and promotions for each individual customer that can even be printed on the back of a statement. Clay pointed out that Xerox's transactional printing with promotional material service, termed “trans-promotional printing,” has spiked its corporate clients' interest, adding that it's a new service in Egypt and the more advanced corporations are eager to “get on board.” Trans-promotional printing, he said, is one of Xerox's strengths, but other areas have been left untapped. “In other industries, such as financial services, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and education…we are currently developing solutions that are best suited” for each. Clay sees direct coverage of support for its clients as a growth area for 2011. Parallel to this line of business, a main aspect of 2011's strategy is growing the channel arm — or “covering the whole of Egypt geographically from a sales and customer service point of view through the biggest network of service engineers, fundamentally one of the most important areas of investment.” Expanding the channel service, which has only been developed in the past four to five years, will be done through adding new partners as well as cultivating existing ones by allowing them to offer more services, such as managed print services.
