Xerox has revealed that 75 per cent of its business in the UK is now indirect and the printer giant is looking to drive even more business through the channel in 2007.
Darren Cassidy, director and general manager at Xerox UK office business, told CRN: “Four years ago Xerox used to deal with about 22,000 accounts directly. Today, 125 accounts are handled directly by Xerox Global Services [XGS], but for 40 per cent of these XGS will work with our partners. We also have another 350 accounts that we target directly, but our strategy here is to work with our partners on these accounts more and more.”
The vendor is poised to launch a print-management offering – Transformation Services – which it will sell through its partners.
“Transformation Services is initially aimed at our Large Account Partners, but our Concessionaires are starting to deal more with larger accounts as well,” Cassidy said. “We are working on a version for Concessionaires and there is no reason why we couldn’t offer a version to our top end Select resellers as well.”
James Kight, managing director of VAR Printerland, said: “Xerox is definitely focusing more on its partners. We have had lots of meetings with it in the past year and it has asked for our views and opinions. Transformation Services is excellent because it is keeping business in the channel.”
Tony Newman, business manager for document and print solutions at Xerox Large Account Partner SCC, said: “I think Xerox has realised that the channel is key for it going forward. The amount of indirect business is increasing, but I expect it to accelerate further this year, particularly with the introduction of Transformation Services.
“We recognised the opportunity that managed print represents a while ago. We have been driving this ourselves through our own customer base, so its great that Xerox has recognised that it needs to offer a value added managed print proposition.”
Xerox added that its other areas of focus for 2007 will include expansion in the entry level and A3 colour markets, as well the graphic arts space.
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