David Bywater, Chief Operating Officer, State Government, Xerox Services

We’re proud to tell people that Xerox provides services to more than 1,500 government agencies, but why do governments turn to outside companies in the first place?

Here’s one way to think about it:  If you’re looking for a company to paint your house, your top priority is that they do good work.  But in order to stay in business that house painting company has to be good at many things, some that have nothing to do with painting—such as making sure the bills get paid on time. In that case, it’s best to get an accountant to help out. The result? The business runs smoother and can focus on what it does best – painting and keeping customers happy.

It’s the same for governments.  People want government agencies to be good at the core services they rely on every day.

Xerox works with government agencies in all 50 states, using our expertise to improve services that aren’t core to running a government.  There are dozens of services I could tell you about, everything from managing Medicaid claims systems, administering child support payment programs, information technology services, even helping people recover unclaimed property.

There are many success stories.  For example, we’re working with the state of Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services to administer its state-funded daycare program. With our eChildcare solution, the state is saving $15 million annually, and state payments made to daycare providers are more accurate and timely, thanks to the updated technology. You can read more here.  We’re also helping the state of Ohio run a similar successful program.

By working with Xerox, government agencies save money and focus on what they do best and citizens have access to the most up-to-date technology and improved services. It’s a partnership that works.  You can go here for more examples.

By Al Leary, senior vice president, MPS Acceleration, Xerox

According to some business leaders at a Xerox “Focus Forward” event this week in Minneapolis, MPS (better known as Managed Print Services), could easily stand for “More Productivity Success.”

Judging by the size of the crowd, it’s a topic that’s top of mind for all kinds of enterprises.  After all, who isn’t looking for the next big source of savings and efficiency these days? MPS helps free a company’s workforce from the labors of managing print-related IT tasks (toner, paper, printer troubleshooting) and get control of associated costs. It also clears clutter by reducing the number of printers, copiers and fax machines; by two-thirds in some cases.   Not to mention the sustainability and security advantages.  The folks who were with us yesterday were moved by the message of industry analyst Angele Boyd of IDC who suggests what kinds businesses might benefit most from MPS:

 
Here’s what other business leaders had to say about implementing MPS:

Grant Logan from Allina Hospitals and Clinics says their partnership with Xerox has helped give his team more freedom to focus on the task at hand: 

During a break-out sessions, Boyd stressed that for long-term success, businesses need to emphasize boosting revenue ahead of cutting back.  That’s the productivity plan behind Xerox MPS, helping put companies in the driver’s seat of their own futures.

By, Marcia DeMinco, Xerox Analyst Relations

Are you constantly under a deadline, bombarded with requests for information, drowning in email or toggling back and forth between Twitter, Facebook and the company blog?

Let’s say my world is your world. By that I mean, just for the time being, pretend you and I do the same job.  Whether you’re a small business owner, lawyer, or an industry analyst professional (like me), no matter what your profession the demands of work are growing rapidly.  But we all have our little “secrets” to help keep us sane, focused and on track.

Industry analysts are influential stakeholders who whisper in the ears of our customers and guide them on buying decisions. My day is spent responding to requests, inquiries, briefings, phone calls, blogs, tweets and managing large-scale events to keep this key group of influencers up-to-date on the ins and outs of  Xerox’s business. Since I have my hands full (like all of us do), I was asked to share some tips on how I stay sane.

Organization for prioritization: As the requests pour in, first and foremost, don’t panic but focus.  Not every inquiry has to be completed  instantaneously.  We think in this world of instant gratification that once something lands in our laps we must take immediate action.  Not always -some things need to be thought about, reviewed and assessed.  And once that is done, you begin the prioritization process.  My goal each day is to make certain I respond to every request I receive.   Courtesy and acknowledgement go a long way.  Everyone likes to know they have been heard.

Use your relationships: Having been in the business for a while, I have secured a great team of partners and internal experts that help me along the way.   The industry analyst community is well respected and valued and executives are willing to support these requests with their time and information.  Telling the “Xerox story” with the right messages and content makes these exchanges  a win, win for the analysts and Xerox.  That’s why building relationships with analysts and executives is key. No matter your profession, relationships are critical.

Multitask: I’m constantly juggling dozens of action items at a time, such as managing the finite details surrounding a corporate briefing while simultaneously fielding questions on numerous other topics.   You never know what each day will offer you, but looking back on how you got it all done, makes it fun and rewarding.

My advice:  Be flexible, fearless and impatient, don’t panic, stay positive,  build good relationships…and learn how to juggle!   So at the end of the day, you know that you have done all you could do to succeed.

By, Ken Ericson, Xerox Public Relations

I’ll confess, I’m not a big basketball fan, but I do like a challenge.  So when asked to write a blog on college basketball and March Madness, I accepted.

I’m a resourceful guy, so the first step was to call my colleague and college basketball junkie Chris Gilligan, who lives and works in Lexington, Kentucky, along with around 5,000 other Xerox people.  Chris loves everything about the state of Kentucky and trust me, isn’t shy about telling anyone who will listen.  He’ll also tell you that two of the teams in college basketball’s Final Four are from the state– Kentucky and Louisville (the other two teams are Kansas and Ohio State).  It’s only the fourth time in history that teams in the final four have been from the same state.  They’ll play Saturday to decide who goes to the championship game.  Some people are calling it “The Civil War.”

I ask Chris the obvious question, “So it’s a big deal there, right?”

He told me about the uber-craziness in a state that is basketball crazy even in the off-season.  There’s vendors selling souvenirs on many street corners in town and people are getting ready to head to New Orleans for the game—with some plane tickets are going for more than $3,000.  You can only imagine what it will be like on Saturday night.

But what does this have to do with Xerox?

Chris said you can think of it this way, “If March Madness were a business, Xerox would be the ones who let people go crazy.”

And that’s a great point. When you’re focused on something, like your Final Four bracket or painting your face blue and white for the big game, you shouldn’t have to worry about distractions.  That’s just what Xerox does for businesses and governments around the world—they’re able to focus on what they do best, and we take care of the rest– making processes simpler and more manageable.

So the real question for Xerox employee and Kentucky native Chris Gilligan— who will you root for on Saturday night?  He said without a doubt it’ll be Kentucky, but he’s hedging his bets, since a team from Kentucky is guaranteed to be playing in the championship.

I am a self-described fan of pop culture, so I (like many others) have been counting the days to the return of Mad Men. Yesterday Mad Men returned after a too-long hiatus, and so did one of my favorite characters – the Xerox 914. It was a big deal (literally) when it first arrived, back in the first episode of season two:

“It’s much bigger than they said it was. I think it needs an office.” – Joan

She’s right – it was a big piece of technology at the start. As the world’s very first fully automated, plain-paper copier, it initially weighed a whopping 648 pounds. In this episode, the copier spent several days sitting in the middle of the office (and being curiously gawked at by the agency’s employees), before being relocated to copywriter Peggy’s office, much to her dismay – especially when she walked in to find one of the ad men copying his face. Not surprisingly, Ned the Xerox repairman was not too happy about this misuse of the machinery (see above video).

The Xerox 914 was more than just a piece of new technology for these ad executives; it changed the way offices work, making it significantly faster to duplicate documents (be it advertisements or otherwise) and making everyone’s office lives a whole lot easier.

Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of Newsweek, even makes reference to this idea in her column in last week’s 60s-inspired special issue. When looking back on some of the things that made a splash in Newsweek’s 1960s coverage, she writes, “The office psychodramas in ‘Mad Men’ ran parallel with a serial melodrama in the news that Newsweek covered with panache…even the dominance of that new tech phenomenon the Xerox machine.”

Printers and copiers have certainly gotten a lot lighter, faster and more multi-function since the debut of the Xerox 914, but Xerox still remains an important member of the office staff through offerings like managed print services (MPS). In fact, Xerox was just named the market leader for managed print services in a recent IDC report. We’ve helped businesses save millions of dollars by offering the tools, support, security and processes to simplify the way work is done and uncover hidden print costs.

I hope that I get to see more of the Xerox 914 this season – maybe it will even help win a new account for my friends at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

By Armando Zagalo de Lima, president, Xerox Technology Business

Two truths I’ve learned about business—companies need to adopt change to survive and thrive, but change is never easy.

The recent announcement from H-P details significant organizational adjustments. What the future holds remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt challenges lie ahead.  We know because we’ve been there.  Xerox fundamentally and successfully transformed when we exited the consumer printing business more than a decade ago and shifted to a services-led model driven by our core technology.  

We changed to reflect the dynamics of computing and business, and we’re a stronger organization for it. So are our clients. That’s what it’s all about, really. Accountability across the organization that gets decision making and investments closer to what a client needs from a partner.

We learned long ago that our technology business is about more than printing—it’s really all about finding better ways to share information. Today our lines of business reflect the commitment to giving each marketplace we serve the personalized attention it needs, and we can effectively and efficiently adapt to the different requirements of a large enterprise as compared to a small business. From a dedicated organization focused on bringing new capabilities to channel partners, to an entire business group that understands and delivers what our graphic communications clients need to capture new opportunities in print, Xerox is built to deliver the technology, services and expertise that each unique client needs to succeed.  (See Lyra Research brief for more details.)

Corporate transformation takes vision, commitment and a true understanding of your customers. The numbers tell our story – we’re the leader in equipment revenue market share worldwide, we’re the global leader in managed print services, and more than 80 Fortune 100 companies use Xerox services. Our purpose and our role in real business today is clear – to make work simpler for businesses of any size. We’re more agile and more capable of meeting client expectations than ever before.

by, Karen Arena, vice president, Global PR, Xerox

Xerox is a global company with operations in over 160 countries.  We recently learned of Greenpeace’s report concerning Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and after completing our due diligence we wanted to share the following official executive response with our partners, suppliers, employees, and stakeholders. 

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Xerox is committed to developing and acting on sustainable paper sourcing practices in in all the places around the globe where we conduct business. 

We do not currently source from AP&P, and there are no Xerox products in the marketplace coming from AP&P. While at one time AP&P was a Xerox supplier, our corporate direction has been to cease doing business with AP&P on a global basis. This direction was put in place years ago and is based on our stringent paper sourcing guidelines. We have since been working with our local operations in countries around the world to ensure that all paper suppliers for Xerox products must comply with our sustainability standards and that we’re terminating relationships with suppliers like AP&P that do not meet our standards. In working with independent affiliates around the world, we continue to educate and reinforce our sustainability standards and sourcing guidelines, so they can make the same decisions we have with respect to suppliers like AP&P.

UPDATE, March 28, 2012

ADDENDUM:  CONFIRMATION OF AP&P PURCHASING BAN

We have completed a thorough evaluation of Xerox entities around the world.  While we have confirmed that no Xerox branded products have been sourced from AP&P since implementing our ban in 2002, we have uncovered that a Xerox European entity bought and resold AP&P branded paper as recently as 2011.    This was against the company’s purchasing protocols.  The activity has since ceased, corrective actions have been taken, and we are reinforcing  our policy — banning any purchase of paper from AP&P.   We appreciate that this violation of policy was brought to our attention by GreenPeace, and hope that, in the future, the group will contact us directly when they uncover discrepancies to our stringent paper sourcing policy.