Xerox looks for enlarged image

Company looks to grow its European service revenues

Bullish Xerox Global Services (XGS) is looking to grow its European service revenues by more than 20 per cent annually, which could create more sales leads for Xerox Office Group premier partners.

The vendor plans to increase investment by more than a third this year, primarily in assessment, sales and technology.

Jonathan Leaper, XGS Europe general manager sales, marketing and strategy at Xerox, said: "Our marketing budget has doubled over the past year, as have marketing resources. The visibility and branding of XGS is something we expect to continue to invest in."

Leaper said VARs will benefit from equipment refreshes included in the company's proposals.

XGS typically works with firms with 3,000-plus staff. However, Leaper added: "We have a portfolio of service offerings and assessment tools that can work for organisations with 200 to 300 office employees.

"The role of resellers has been clearly defined and they have a continuum of services that culminate in working with XGS."

The company uses consultants to identify printing costs for customers before proposing a managed service to reduce these costs by at least 25 per cent. It then brings in the Xerox channel to provide hardware.

Rivals Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Lexmark offer equivalent strategies, called TPM and Discovery respectively. But Leaper claimed: "We've been longer in this market. Our proposition is more mature and stronger."

Jason Harcourt, senior analyst at Context Research, said HP's and Lexmark's rival strategies have begun to cause revenues to "trickle down" to VARs. He added that Xerox is well placed to capitalise on corporate interest in managed services but that it still had internal integration issues to address.

"Xerox has a well-deserved reputation for strong service, which has carried it through a depressing period [with products]. Now it has a strong product portfolio the reputation in services will help," Harcourt said.

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