Xerox gung ho about the future

Gurgaon : The
ongoing global financial crunch is being considered as one of the worst phases
for investors and there is hue and cry across the industries. However, Princy
Bhatnagar, Director-New Office Group, Xerox India is an exception who is not
perturbed by the downtrend in the industry. He sees opportunities galore for
Xerox even in such a situation.

"Big financial crunch
can mean bigger business opportunities. The idea is how you look at the
situation. What we all need to realize is that no company will scrap its IT
needs, if they need new machines or new solutions they will still buy, but in
such time every penny spent will be questioned. Everyone will demand a higher
return on investment and that is where we see the opportunity. This is the best
time for the vendors and solution providers to showcase cost effective solutions
that could meet the varied requirements of end-customers in a limited budget,"
remarked Bhatnagar.

"Considering the fact
that financial melting is happening across the globe and every industry has to
be efficient in utilizing the resources, Xerox will be promoting rental model of
printing solution in the next quarter and will attract customers for
pay-on-per-click printing solution. This way, customers can save their expenses
and the strategy will promote the new printing concept in the market,"
Bhatnagar elaborated.

Bhatnagar is also
gung-ho about the options and growth that the upcountry markets offers. With the
objective to build a strong ground with channel in SMB market Xerox recently
concluded trade shows in 16 tier-2 cities like Chandigarh, Indore, Meerut,
Jodhpur, Siliguri, Ludhiana, Karnal, Rohtak, Shillong and others in first half
of the year. Focusing on color printing, Xerox will be conducting roadshows in
15 new cities and towns by the end of this year.

 "Upcountry
market has got immense potential in printing business and we are exploring those
areas now. We train our channel to promote high-end printing solution for B and
C class cities and we have our own staff to handle service related issues," he
said.

Discussing the
opportunities why Xerox was enthused with upcountry market he said, "But what
is amazing is the options that upcountry partners are coming up with. They will
come up with such printing requests that we are also sometimes amazed at the
type of work that is happening in such locations. When you operate in major
cities you know that the market is set and you know what are the products and
solutions that will sell. But when such innovative ideas come up from upcountry
locations then you are really enthused."

Talking about the
challenges that Xerox faced while doing business in upcountry locations he
elaborated that, "The biggest challenge is the turn around time for complaint
handling, when we get a complaint from metro cities, the complaint is closed
within two hours, but that is difficult to achieve with upcountry locations
especially in case of a defective part. As a rule Xerox send the part directly
to the customer, our partners do not need to take stock up our parts. What we do
is that we will train engineers from our partner's firm who can handle a
normal complaint and close it. But if the part is defective, then sending it
from one region to another is what becomes a hassle. With many different tax
regimes and entry and exit barriers in every state, our customers sometimes
suffer downtime, which is a bother for us since we set very high standards. But
we are working to resolve these issues."

Making their foray into
system integration space, this year Xerox also started working with 25 system
integrators who are promoting Xerox Office Group products in tier-2 and 3
cities. "Working with SIs has been good so far. We have spent considerable
time seeing where the overlaps are and assessing each other's strengths so
that the work is mutually beneficially."

Are any expansion plans
for channel partners in the offing? "We are very happy working with the set of
people that we have chosen. We are not the kind of company that will announce
massive expansion in channel and go on adding everyone. We work with a select
group but ensure that the partnership is long and fruitful for both," he
commented.