Real Business at Xerox

– Submitted by Ursula Burns,  chief executive officer

In real business, change is a constant.  Transformative change isn’t as frequent but it sure is significant.

That holds true for Xerox.  Especially today.  We just closed on our acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS).   The deal transforms our company into the world’s leading enterprise for business process and document management.

Who is ACS?  Fair question.  ACS’s expertise is in business process and IT outsourcing.  They are behind the scenes managing many day-to-day operations – most of which require the handling of documents and paper-intensive work – think health care record keeping, claims reimbursement, loan processing…you get the picture.  Here’s a quick snapshot of how ACS touches millions of lives every day.

• Provides services to more than 1,700 federal, state, county and local governments, making ACS the largest provider of managed services to government entities in the United States
• Processes about $3 billion electronic toll collections every year (think E-Z Pass!)
• Handles more than one million phone calls daily in 140 customer care centers
• Processes 16 million parking tickets annually
• Manages more than 12.5 million federally-guaranteed student loans
• Processes about 1 million credit card applications annually
• Provides HR services to more than 4.4 million employees and retirees

They are an impressive, growing company with exceptional leadership (their CEO is Lynn Blodgett –  an amazing leader and a great person.  By the way, it’s worth checking out Lynn’s book here. ) They give us instant scale in the fast-growing $150 billion BPO marketplace – and we give them a well-known brand, global reach and innovation to help drive efficiency in the work they do for clients.   We’re able to connect our strengths in document technology and services with their expertise in managing document-driven processes.

This is the new Xerox.  We’re now a $22 billion global enterprise with 130,000 talented people in 160 countries and a services business that has tripled in size to more than $10 billion.

The terms “transformation” and “game changer” tend to be overused in business.   This time they’re true.  For 50 years, Xerox has built and strengthened leadership in document technology – first, the copier, then multifunction printing, digital production publishing, color laser printing, solid ink, managed print services.  It’s a heritage of innovation we continue to build on today.   But now we take that leadership to the next level by broadening our company to include the services businesses need so they can focus on what matters most:  their real business.

In case you can’t tell, I’m very excited by the possibilities that stretch out before Xerox. I had a mentor years ago who used to say that that there was no better feeling in business life than helping – really helping – a customer. Well, our ability to do precisely that has just gotten a whole lot better. The acquisition of ACS puts an exclamation point on our decade-long drive to transform Xerox.  It dramatically escalates the value we can deliver to our customers.

The real work and the real fun of securing that future begin today.   This is the new Xerox. All of us – now 130,000 strong – are ready for real business.

– Ursula Burns,  chief executive officer

– Submitted by Lisa Weaver, Xerox public relations

Everyone is still buzzing about the Golden Globes, but Meryl Streep isn’t the only big winner.

While we didn’t receive a fancy statue or the red carpet treatment, Xerox closed 2009 with more than 350 honors worldwide.  Our innovative technology, reliable products and leading services all took home awards from the industry’s top critics.

But why should you care?

Just as Meryl’s big win for Julie & Julia might help you choose your next movie rental, these awards can help you select a new printer, MFP or business partner. Whether you are looking for a color printer or MFP with outstanding image quality, new ways to save money on printing costs, or a company that provides world-class service and support, you don’t have to take our word for it.

Xerox has always delivered vibrant, high-quality color. The Phaser^® 7500 and its unique “Color by Words” feature won the Tech Innovator of the Year award from Everything Channel as the top printing and imaging product of 2009.  Xerox’s iGen4™ 220 Perfecting Press was a show stopper this year and earned a Future of Print Product Must See ‘em Award at Print 09, the year’s largest graphic communications event.

Our products weren’t the only winners. J.D. Power and Associates recognized Xerox for providing and “Outstanding Customer Service Experience” for the fourth year in a row. Xerox also received an Outstanding Achievement Award for IT Friendliness from Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI) for delivering the best technology innovation to our customers.  We were also awarded the Channel Insider’s Bull’s Eye Champion Award for PagePack^® 3.0 as the Managed Service Enabler of the Year and named the No. 1 vendor for Document Process Outsourcing by the Black Book of Outsourcing.

Just as Avatar and The Blind Side excite moviegoers everywhere, I look forward to seeing the work of Xerox people across the company honored for delivering innovative technology and services that help our customers find smarter, simpler ways to work.

– Lisa Weaver, Xerox public relations

– Submitted by Susan Weiss, Manager, Worldwide Customer Business Development, Xerox Corporation

A recurring theme at the initial sessions of the Print on Demand Initiative (PODI) AppForum in Las Vegas this week (Jan. 25-27) is that print providers need to have a social media presence.

We’ve heard this before — and we’ll hear it again, because the case grows more and more compelling.

In a session titled Web to Print, a panel of experts gave their views on the future of cross media. The most common answer: more integration with social media.

Additionally, Jeffrey Stewart and Robin Tobin of Trekk Cross Media presented data from a survey of senior marketing executives that showed social media is playing a role in every step of the sales cycle.

• A whopping 81 percent say it generates awareness for their business.
• Nearly half (48 percent) said it generated qualified leads.
• An impressive 35 percent said it helped them close business.

At a social media session for DEX – Digital Exchange members, Kate Dunn of Digital Innovations Group noted that quantifying the ROI for social media activities is something many companies are still working towards. But that’s not a reason to wait. Like in the early days of the Web, print and communications companies that choose to not participate lost some of their shine as forward thinkers as well as an opportunity to build brand awareness.

Like the Web, social media can compete with print and complement print. Print and communications companies can’t afford to wait until the ROI picture is clearer. They need to understand social media as they would any competitor or any business opportunity.

The message from the PODI App Forum is that they need to develop their social media presence, to get smart about the different platforms, and to see where it takes them.

– Susan Weiss Manager, Worldwide Customer Business Development, Xerox Corporation

(Editor’s Note: Chairman Anne Mulcahy and Joseph Cahalan, president of the Xerox Foundation, recently visited Haiti.  Here is Joe’s account of what they found. Anne visited Haiti on behalf of Save the Children.  In addition to her Xerox responsibilities, Anne will become chairman of Save the Children’s board on March 1.)

– Submitted By Joseph Cahalan

You get it immediately.

The airport terminal in Port-au-Prince is unusable; the control tower inoperable; the tarmac congested with passenger planes disembarking relief workers and volunteers and cargo planes unloading medical supplies, water and food.  A disproportionate number of people with missing limbs hobble about on make-shift crutches trying to arrange flights out.  A young woman tries in vain to comfort her two children who are hungry, frightened and disoriented.

As you survey the scene, a Haitian sums it up with brutal brevity: “Before the earthquake, we had nothing.  Now we have less.”

It’s nearly two weeks since the earthquake ripped thorough this small island nation without warning, destroying everything in its wake.  The toll is beginning to be clear – perhaps as clear as it will ever be: 150,000 dead; 200,000 seriously injured; 500,000 homeless; countless missing.

If the numbers are mind-numbing and hard to comprehend, the personal tragedies behind them are heart-wrenching and impossible to ignore.  There are children whose parents are missing and perhaps gone.  There are families whose homes and all their earthly belongings have been destroyed.  Amputations without anesthesia or proper surgical instruments are commonplace.  Mothers are seen begging rescue teams to keep looking for their infants, unable to accept the inevitable.  People roam the streets in search of food

It’s a cruel irony that the infrastructure designed to help in a crisis like this has received a crippling blow.  Some hospitals which are in desperate need have been reduced to mounds of crushed concrete and debris.  An obstetrics center stands abandoned, its roof caved in upon itself.  The headquarters of the United Nations mission, which normally would be leading the relief effort, has been demolished and dozens of its employees killed.  In downtown Port-au-Prince, everywhere you look – everywhere – you see destruction and suffering and death.

It would be so, so easy to lose hope, but Haiti inspires it.  News reports of violence or looting, while accurate, are grossly misleading.  The streets are safe.  People with nothing are helping people with less.  The worst of the medical horrors are over.  The dead are being buried.  Water and food are being distributed.  Make shift camps are being organized.  Markets are just beginning to re-open.  Some of the banks are allowing people to withdraw much needed cash.  Long lines are forming at Western Union offices where Haitians are receiving money from family members living abroad.  The tiny signs of better days are first and foremost a remarkable testimony to the resiliency, optimism and faith of the Haitian people.

But they are also a remarkable testimony to the decency of the human family.  Scores of relief agencies are augmenting their existing efforts in Haiti and new Non-Government Organizations have arrived to lend their help.  Countless thousands of volunteers are on the ground – doctors and other medical staff, fire and rescue workers, teachers and social workers, caring people from around the world who have left their lives behind to help Haitians find new ones here.

Xerox has invested money in four organizations all of whom were already in Haiti: The American Red Cross, Save The Children, Concern Worldwide and Doctors Without Borders.  

“Xerox people can be proud that they are part of the solution.  Our funds are making a difference,” said Chairman Anne Mulcahy.  “We’re playing a small part in a larger effort to help a country that has been though so much to survive this latest catastrophe.

“I hope people will consider making personal donations.  No amount is too small.  Soon the media will leave Haiti, and the spotlight will fade.  We can’t forget.  The need will continue to be great for a very long time.

“Next on the agenda,” she emphasized, “is replacing bed sheets strung on wire as shelter with more protective tents.  That has to happen before the rains descend in March.”

And so the need, the challenge and the work goes on.  If the last two weeks are a good indication, Haiti will rise again – a triumph of the human spirit.

Anne Mulcahy visits a safe play area in Port-au-Prince. Photo Credit: Adriana Zehbrauskas, Polaris

– Joe Cahalan, president, Xerox Foundation

~ Submitted by John Conley, vice president of publishing, Xerox Corp

Have you ever had a tough time finding a specific novel – like a title that’s out of print?

Have you always wanted to publish a cookbook with your family’s favorite BBQ recipes but didn’t know where to start?

Maybe you’re a college student and the last copy of a textbook you needed for class was checked out – where will you turn for those critical pages?

Xerox just announced that it’s teamed up with On Demand Books to bring speed and exceptional image quality to books produced on demand by the patented Espresso Book Machine – turning what were challenges into opportunities.

What do we mean by on-demand?

Well, this solution can print a book, for a production cost of one penny per page, in a matter of minutes.  The days of waiting for your custom books to be mailed to you or hunting down beaten copies of out-of-print books are over.

The Espresso Book Machine offers real promise for readers, authors, and print providers. Libraries, book and retail stores, even universities can offer the exact title you want, at the quality you expect – right now while you wait.

As readers’ tastes change, and technologies such as eBooks gain steam, publishers need to take a look at new distribution models and opportunities for revenue growth.  The Espresso Book Machine is changing the way books are being distributed in a way the industry hasn’t seen since Gutenberg invented the printing press by bringing the production process right to the consumer.

Sure, I work for a Xerox so I might be biased, but for me, nothing beats the look and feel of having a real book in my hands.

Read the Xerox/Espresso news release if you’d like to learn more.  What do you think?  What’ll be first on your wish list to print on-demand?  I’d love to hear your thoughts, so drop in a comment.  Happy publishing.

– John Conley, vice president of publishing, Xerox Corp

– Submitted by Elissa Nesbitt, Xerox public relations

Our history has contributed to who we are today, and at Xerox, we are proud to be champions of diversity.  By working hard to create an atmosphere where different ways of thinking are promoted, we believe we have gained a competitive edge and are a better company for it.    Now more than ever, when the world is at once both global and local, business is better served if its people are the best and the brightest AND the most diverse in thought.   In Xerox’s annual Report on Citizenship, the company calls attention to diversity in this way: Through a comprehensive set of employee-focused initiatives  we promote diversity by nurturing a culture of inclusion and opportunity, and through measurable actions.

Different backgrounds yield differing points of view.  We’ve seen firsthand how a diverse workforce is more creative, more dynamic, open to new ideas and challenging of the status quo. Xerox’s chief diversity officer, Phil Harlow explains that companies interested in fostering creativity and innovation  need to be vigilant in searching for diverse talent.

In fact, NPR just published two stories outlining diversity in the US workplace, and the fact that “companies still have a long way to go” despite the dramatic gains in recent years.  Although we have focused on a diverse workforce for decades, we never think the job is done.  One can argue that without such a keen eye on the ball, our business would suffer; and homogeneous thinking would hamper our efforts to break out new innovations and competitive products.

At Xerox, our differences are celebrated, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

–  Elissa Nesbitt, Xerox public relations

Take a look around your office. What do you see?

I see piles of paper staring back at me. We’re all guilty of wasting paper – and my resolution is to cut back. To remember the forgotten print outs, to stop making the extra copies, to read the 20 page article online instead of in hard copy.

It’s no secret that more and more companies are making similar resolutions – changing the way they do business to make the workplace more environmentally friendly. But as Heather Clancy points out in her recent ZDNet blog post, making the most of how you they use paper-based processes and printing/copying/scanning technology, is a secret that many companies are still discovering:

“You’re whipping your data center into energy-efficiency, you’re managing the power of your notebooks and desktops, but have you started really evaluating your printers and other office equipment? The green potential is very real, and I’m not just talking about saving a few trees.”

She means that companies like Western Forest Products are finding that in making business “greener,” they find bottom line benefits too. Western Forest Products switched its entire accounts payable process to digital with the help of Xerox’s DocuShare Enterprise Content Management software and multifunction devices that print, scan copy and fax all in one. The company now saves $20,000 per month, has freed up storage space and can turnaround invoices in a matter of hours. Prior to going digital, the company had to manually process more than 700 paper invoices which was costly and often took days to complete.

Now on to 2010 and may auld wasteful processes be forgot.

- Falynne Smith, Public Relations Manager, Xerox Corporation

– Submitted by Chris Iburg

I’ve observed over the last few years that just about every major print vendor has jumped on the managed print services (MPS) bandwagon, but not all of them actually deliver effective solutions.  I may be biased, but Xerox offers a sound MPS strategy, whether it’s offered through Xerox or our extensive network of partners and solution providers.  And it’s nice to see the industry is taking notice.

Channel Insider, a leading reseller publication, just named Xerox “Managed Service Enabler of the Year,” with a 2009 Bull’s Eye Champion Award. At the heart of this win is PagePack 3.0 – a suite of MPS offerings that includes the capability for solution providers to manage equipment from any vendor – an industry first. We recently shot a video with Tom Gall about what PagePack 3.0 means to the market. Watch his take: PagePack 3.0 Managed Print Product Overview: Xerox .

I think this opens up a whole new world for resellers – they can offer managed print services to any customer without the need to cobble together a solution for mixed-vendor print environments.  With this knowledge, solution providers are able to provide recommendations for improvements to their customers’ document processing structure and are able to equip them with the proper tools to run a successful business. This is just another great example of how we’re focused on developing technology that helps customers improve and simplify the way they do business.

MPS is the key to moving from selling a product to selling a solution, and one of my favorite parts of my job is working hard to educate partners on benefits.  I’d love to hear your questions and comments about MPS – please chime in!

– Chris Iburg, Director of Post Sale Marketing

-  Submitted by Jim Joyce, senior vice president, Xerox Enterprise Print Services

Today’s Wall Street Journal article on print outsourcing says that Gartner believes Xerox is still the market leader in managed print services (MPS).  We’re happy to confirm that according to last week’s Gartner report of MPS revenues worldwide in 2008, Xerox stands proud as the leader in a market we pioneered.

MPS is an I.T.-based services offering that is enabled by technology; both Xerox and non-Xerox technology.  Clients make decisions on services offerings based on credibility of the team they are working with, and the trust they can put in one firm over the other to deliver the desired results. Our people continue to shine in this competition because of their dedication, commitment and constant desire to learn and grow.

We will build on our base and protect and enhance our market position.  This year we raised the bar with several market-changing milestones:

• Launched Enterprise Print Services, making Xerox the first vendor to embrace all elements of an organization’s output infrastructure – from the networked office to the in-house print center to the virtual worker.
• Extended MPS to small and mid-sized businesses with Xerox Print Services’ global network of channel partners who now have the flexibility to build their own branded capabilities, supported by Xerox technology, software and supplies.
• Reached the milestone of 1.5 million devices monitored from multiple vendors worldwide this year – the most for any MPS provider.  This means companies like The Dow Chemical Company, EMC, Procter & Gamble and Reuters get more out of their existing global print infrastructure and benefit from a consistent approach regardless of size or location.

Stayed tuned for more game changing announcements next year, and congratulations to everyone on what we have accomplished so far….

-  Jim Joyce, senior vice president, Xerox Enterprise Print Services

– Submitted by: Melinda Stoker, Director, Marketing Communications DocuShare

Tis the season for gift giving, so I thought I’d offer a tip to those in the public sector still looking for new ways to save money next year:   Start with your paperwork. By taming your documentation demons and reducing or eliminating paper, you gain significant savings of time and money. More importantly, you’ll improve customer service turnaround times from days to minutes.

Seem too easy? Check out how well it worked for the New York City Department of Finance in the December cover story of Integrated Solutions magazine. As you might guess, the NYCDF manages hundreds of thousands of paper documents – everything from property and business taxes to nearly 1,000 bail cases each week.  The department spent $60,000 per month on a gigantic file storage warehouse in addition to spending more than $7,000 per month on paper and toner.

With Xerox’s help everything is now scanned into specific Docushare collections directly from a multifunction device – and just like that — customer service and productivity skyrocketed while costs took a big dip.

– Melinda Stoker, Director, Marketing Communications DocuShare