By: Russell Peacock, president, North America, Xerox Corporation

As I watched Monday’s CNBC clip featuring former Xerox chairman and CEO Anne Mulcahy and current chairman and CEO Ursula Burns, it reminded me just how much our stable leadership, commitment to the channel and focused growth strategy means to this company – and more importantly, what it means to our clients.

It’s no secret that some big name competitors are struggling with displacement at the top, ill-defined sets of offerings and uncertain futures fueled by questionable acquisitions. That type of instability from a partner often has long-term ramifications for customers.

How has Xerox managed to not only survive, but excel during a leadership change, major acquisition and challenging economic climate?  As Ursula and Anne pointed out on CNBC – we planned for it. We knew our core strengths and knew how to leverage them. And the results speak for themselves. Earnings are up, and our services-led approach is giving us a competitive advantage in the market.

When I meet with current and prospective clients I like to expand on that thought and point out Xerox differentiation in three critical areas:

Successful succession / consistent culture
The seamless passing of the baton between Mulcahy and Burns is the most high-profile example of consistency within the company but is just one of many. In any organization regular turnover – especially at the top – leads to confusion about strategy. Our customers recognize that our stable leadership and deep-seated commitment to the IT market manifests in innovative, relevant technology and service offerings.

Unwavering channel support
We enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with our channel partners. Together, we offer a solid product set that adapts with end-user needs. But channel partners demand more than a strong product and service portfolio. They want stability – an ally they can stick with over the long haul. A partner that gives them the flexibility to offer their customers what they want and need in today’s marketplace to grow revenue.

An eye on the future
We invest heavily in R&D, with leading research facilities across the globe. The aforementioned 2010 acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) is driving revenue growth and opening doors with key sales prospects. Xerox takes a sustainable, strategic view in terms of growth and expanding our base of offerings and our stakeholders take notice.

The new services-led Xerox is in full stride. While uncertainty can be found among our competition we offer a stable, committed option for clients to improve their business today and well into the future. And the reason why? As Ursula pointed out – we planned for it.

– By David Smith, vice president, DocuShare Business Unit, Xerox Corporation

This may be a biased opinion, but I believe Xerox’s recent acquisition of WaterWare Internet Services’ assets could be important to your business. Why? Well, if you’re looking for ways to control costs, improve productivity and keep your workforce connected – and want to reduce the amount of paper in your business operations – then it matters.

According to a recent study from AIIM, 53 percent of companies surveyed hope to decrease their paper consumption further with document scanning and capture operations.

Enterprise content management (ECM) –  a formal way of organizing and storing your company’s documents and other content that relates to your internal processes –  has played a big role in this revolution.

For Xerox, the increasing popularity of paperless business processes is exciting since our ECM platform, Xerox DocuShare, gives businesses a 24/7 way to reduce paper and manage, share and control documents – freeing employees to concentrate on the important business at hand.

WaterWare –  a software development and consulting services –  has solutions that matter in today’s business environment, including electronic health records capture and management, case management and pharmacy order automation.

And now, they are part of the DocuShare team – expanding our professional services offering in terms of deployment, system integration and customized tools that drive business results.

So, while this isn’t a mega-merger, for those on the front line looking for ways to cut down on paper while improving how information is shared throughout the organization – this is big news – and we’re proud of it!

Submitted by Matt DeRoller, chief architect, MPS platform, Xerox Global Services

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of introducing our mobile print solution to the Procter & Gamble leadership team at their annual Goldmine event, a day P&G created to encourage collaboration and innovation among its technical and strategic partners.

Our booth was flooded with traffic – right away people wanted to try out mobile print. The workflow was very simple:

1. Visitors to our booth used their PDAs/Smartphones to send documents to the email address we had posted on the booth.
2. Once they received an email confirmation code, they’d walk up to the ColorQube 9203 to retrieve their print jobs using mobile print application.

Everything happening on the printer interface could also be seen on a plasma display screen in the booth so that folks waiting in line or walking by the booth could see mobile print in action. Xerox CTO, Sophie Vandebroek used the mobile print solution to print her airplane boarding pass, and was on hand to discuss the technology with our P&G partners.

The P&G folks were excited and eager to start using mobile print. We heard lots of “Oh man, when can I have it?” and “Really, it can do that?” Yes, it really can.

The mobile print solution is the first result of the Xerox and P&G Innovation Council, created to explore future work and technology trends, and design solutions that will benefit the P&G business. Mobile print supports P&G’s “Give Back 500 Million Minutes” program by reducing time employees spend on print and output related issues. It is available to all Xerox Enterprise Print Services customers.

- Becky Dziedzic, Xerox public relations manager

I’m inspired by Procter & Gamble. Not because I basically keep the Pampers and Tide brands in business with two small children, but because of their commitment to IT innovation.

A few years ago, P&G re-aligned its IT support structure to focus on innovative solutions instead of just technology, and to ensure IT initiatives support business objectives – an example other organizations should follow, according to Sonal Shah’s blog in Computerworld last week. Shah urges IT professionals to look beyond the technology, the processes, the standards and “to instill in the IT staff, a mindset of continuous improvement, and to ensure that their goals align with the business needs, even as they change and evolve daily.”

In P&G’s case, they not only changed the internal structure, they forged new vendor relationships (or revised existing ones) – requiring strategic partners that understand their business and collaborate to build that continuous improvement into the way they work. For example, before Xerox signed on to deliver our Enterprise Print Services to P&G, they wanted to know upfront what we were going to do to raise the bar. How would we go beyond managing their global print infrastructure to provide innovative ways for P&G employees to be more productive, more sustainable and more mobile?

Luckily, Xerox and P&G are cut from the same cloth when it comes to innovation – it’s a large part of our past and it’s vital to our future, so we had the answers.

And having those answers, being able to co-invent with customers, is the future of the customer – vendor relationship, as I see it. The more customers I hear from, the more apparent it is that the vision we set forth in the contracts we are winning is a joint venture – one that meets business objectives for both companies.

In this economy, P&G says innovation is a lifeboat and we would agree. But, as we say, “Innovation is only innovation if it is of interest to your customers.”

For more on Xerox and P&G, check out this video of Xerox CTO Sophie Vandebroek and P&G’s director, Global Business Services, Caroline Basyn. 

Today we introduced Enterprise Print Services (EPS) and personally, I can say we do so with great pride because it’s the outcome of three years of collaboration with our largest clients and leading industry analysts. EPS is the next generation of our industry-leading Managed Print Services (MPS) offering and we’re once again leading the market in a move to extend the cost savings, productivity, security and environmental sustainability benefits we’ve delivered in the office, across the entire enterprise.

So, what is EPS?

It’s the first offering in the industry to help companies better manage documents across their entire global print infrastructure. This means we’ve taken what we have been successfully doing in the office – saving clients up to 30 percent of operating costs by optimizing the way they print – and extended that savings opportunity to make output more efficient in the in-house print center and for the mobile, home and virtual office employee.  We are introducing breakthrough output governance tools, powerful routing tools, and multiple ways to better enable your mobile and remote worker.

While everyone is looking to save money, EPS does that – and more. Our clients are eager to innovate and give their employees new ways to work efficiently – to win new business, to get products to market, to get invoices processed, to communicate more effectively with customers.  A properly implemented EPS strategy does all this by creating a digital platform that can integrate with their overall IT strategy.

Why are customers choosing EPS? Here’s what they are telling me, and what I’m telling them:

I want a strategic partner, not a vendor - We know most companies are cutting their list of vendors and signing up with partners who can innovate the way they do business, not just provide technology. The EPS platform directly connects their print environment to their core business applications so they can leverage new technologies and design new ways for employees to work more efficiently.

Cost and efficiency is still the ticket to the game, but environmental sustainability is right up there – There are many ways EPS can lead to improved environmental impact – but it’s more than printing two-sided documents. We urge you to consider your entire output supply chain. By strategically rationalizing the ratio of output devices to your employee population, you reduce energy usage – eliminating unnecessary output to help save a significant amount of fresh water and trees.  New forms of toner and ink coupled with innovative packaging can help reduce landfill waste by thousands of pounds annually.

No big investments, I want to use what I have – Because Xerox monitors both our devices and those from other vendors, you can maximize the print infrastructure you’ve already invested in.  We fully embrace a multi-vendor strategy.

I need  easy,  global implementation – What you see is what you get from us – we have the same approach to EPS across all geographies and it’s a proven global delivery model.  We stand alone in our ability to execute with measurable, guaranteed results on a global basis and the majority of the industry case studies prove that point – as do very detailed reports from the most reputable research firms like Gartner and Quocirca who continue to recognize Xerox as the market leaders in our ability to execute what is promised to our clients.

EPS, while a new and exciting announcement for us today – is not new to Xerox.  We have been testing, piloting and implementing this strategy with several of the world’s largest corporations for over three years – and that’s not counting the eight years of MPS experience under our belt.   We wanted to make sure we were ready and the foundation was solid and consistent on a global basis when we announced this strategy today.   We are ready, and we’re excited.  No other vendor has been able to accomplish what Xerox has accomplished with our clients – our greatest sense of pride.  Success in MPS/EPS comes from effective execution, not up front promises.   Check references and portfolios carefully, and look for guaranteed, validated and clearly measured results from those you are considering – and make sure we are on your list because EPS will give you great opportunities and Xerox execution will give you results.

Click here to hear more on my thoughts about all things MPS: Xerox Managed Print Services

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