With the acquisition of ACS, we now offer a full range of business process and IT outsourcing services. Services now account for more than 55 per cent of our revenues globally. This is Xerox’s transition and transformation to the back-office market leader. In India, it is a combination of document management services, innovative technology products and channel businesses that are driving growth and profitability for Xerox.
Vivek Chandel, Executive Director, Marketing, Xerox India has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and business operations in organisations such as Tata Teleservices, Bharti Airtel and Escotel. Prior to joining Xerox, he was Chief Operating Officer, UP West and Uttarakhand, Tata Teleservices. Brand Xerox is celebrating 75 years of Xerography worldwide this year and believes that it has transformed much beyond photocopying.
In conversation with exchange4media’s Priyanka Mehra, Chandel talks about how services now account for 55 per cent of the company’s revenues globally, and Xerox’s transition and transformation to a back-office market leader.
The printing industry in India is estimated to reach $8.9 billion in 2013, according to a report by PIRA. What is your view on this? Do you think the Indian print industry is at the cusp of an exciting phase, further strengthened by digital technologies?
Given the kind of evolving lifestyles Indians are adopting, printing technologies and services are immensely used by the end consumers, corporates and traders. Many of India’s commercial printers have diversified now into package printing. The developing world is increasingly using packaging as per capita income rises and so does the number of consumers. Today’s digital age is more ubiquitous than ever; with increasingly interactive and unconventional formats, the desires of the consumer are ever-evolving. Evolving technologies in the A3 and A4 printer segment, digital printing, MPS and DMS have led to significant shifts, not only in design processes and prints, but also in the development of new modes of production, distribution and consumption, cost efficiency and sustainable printing. What’s exciting is that the country has taken a big leap forward in various digital technologies to meet the demand in domestic and international markets for innovative executions in the field of consumerism.
What were the insights behind the re-branding exercise undertaken last year?
Transformation is inherent in the Xerox DNA. Since the days of the Xerox 914, the first successful commercial plain paper copier which in 1959 revolutionised the document-copying industry, Xerox has always looked at the future. Be it the document revolution in the digitised world to the next great leap in document management, Xerox has always been at the forefront of transforming document technologies. Acquisition of ACS, now known as Xerox Services, a large diversified business process & ITO company, expanded our services offering further aligning to address market demands.
Xerox today has evolved to become the world’s leading enterprise for business process and document management. However, printing technologies are still integral part of Xerox business and Xerox continues to be known for its printers and print capabilities with strong service support network across the country. As technology progressed, the company that brought printing to the masses is now working behind the scenes, digitising the paper. This brings us to the next level in document technology.
Globally, Xerox offers customised document management solutions, manage print environments and provide document processing, and with the acquisition of ACS, we now offer a full range of business process and IT outsourcing services. Services now account for more than 55 per cent of our revenues globally. This is Xerox’s transition and transformation to the back-office market leader.
In India, it is a combination of document management services, innovative technology products and channel businesses that are driving growth and profitability for Xerox. What are few of the key industry trends that Xerox India forsees?
Some of the emerging trends that Xerox foresees in the Indian market are customised printing, affordable printing solutions, optimised printing, document management services and 3D printing. 3D printing is a key consumer trend, which is picking up due to its capacity to service various industries and verticals. It is used across industries such as design, medicine and retail, to name a few. It might take some time before it could be commercialised, but then the speed of adoption and evolution could surprise us.
Also, in this age of digitisation, enterprises are shifting their focus into document management services and it is slowly but steadily gaining ground at the enterprise level. Further, there are a lot of new trends emerging in the document management space itself, few of them being mobility, security, integration and the option of storing data in the cloud. Through document management services, the consumers can today access data from anywhere making it mobile and integrating all information in the digital form. Such services are also very secure in nature prompting its adoption in a large scale. Besides this, a noticeable trend would be consumer opting for one stop solutions, that is, one product doing most of their jobs rather than different set of printers for different jobs.
How different is the communication strategy used in India different from that in the West? What are the common factors in marketing strategy across geographies? The market in the West is at a different stage of evolution and our offerings in the West also include our IT & BPO services, which touch a much larger part of the population directly. There are some natural differences in the communication and the media mix that we use. However, a large part of the communication is similar, with some adaptation of media and creative to make it relevant to our market and our offerings here. Many elements of the media mix remain common – social media, digital platforms, and CXO events being the primary vehicles.
Coming from a B2B space, how does the brand leverage its communication on the digital medium?
Digital medium is an extremely sensitive medium that requires robust processes as well as constant monitoring and real time response. Xerox has social and digital properties on a global scale, be it in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, where the focus is to have excellent and meaningful conversations who visit them. India content is also uploaded in alignment to global processes and uploading methodologies. The digital medium serves as a great platform for us to reach out to a large audience and interact with them. With the entire world adopting digital practices, it is the best way to keep your audience informed and posted on the regular activities that is happening.
Digital medium being an open platform also gives the consumer an opportunity to post their feedback and views on our products and services. The digital space has hence, become a very lucrative opportunity for organisations to give a personal touch to the brand name and be always in touch with the audience. It also gives you an opportunity to develop the company’s web capability as a significant source of revenue through online campaigns that leverage on web content and to increase internet leads and overall sales.