Xerox defends direct sales policy

Xerox has hit back at criticism of its direct sales strategy by claiming the channel is not experienced enough to sell its high-end products and services.

At the Xerox partner forum in Monte Carlo last week, Pierre Danon, president of Xerox Europe, claimed very few resellers had the background, capability or infrastructure to sell its complete document management package.

"Most resellers offer network or software systems to customers, but very few are able to provide document management in the high-end," he said.

Xerox sells its high-end products direct through its Industry Solutions Operations (ISO) arm, with the channel restricted to the lower margin plug-and-play products.

Danon said this may change when resellers are ready, but did not say whether help from Xerox would be offered to partners.

"A couple of years ago, people just were not interested in this area, but the channel is waking up to it. It will take a lot of investment and it is slowly getting there, but not just yet. We will offer the product when it is ready," he said.

Danon added that there will always be areas that are solely available through direct sales.

Flemming Norklit, general manager of the Xerox channels group, denied that there would be competition between the channel and its ISO operation: "If a reseller is offering the same products as our direct sales force, then it will be down to the customer which it wants to buy from."

At the forum, Xerox announced an expansion to its reseller strategy, promising to bring more products to market faster than before. It wants to use the channel to help fulfil its services strategy and aims to become the number two player in the document market, behind Hewlett Packard.