6 takeaways from the Xerox Global Partner Summit
July 6, 2023
Articles, Artificial Intelligence, Channel, Digital Transformation, Managed Print Services, Security, Trends
Xerox demonstrates its commitment to giving partners a competitive edge in the dynamic hybrid world of work.
Xerox held an energising global partner summit in Miami on 22–23 June, with about 400 channel partners in attendance. The overarching theme of this year’s event, Forward Together, showcased Xerox’s commitment to its partner ecosystem, its commitment to sustainability and community and how the company is harnessing its 100-year legacy in workplace innovation for the new era of AI.
Some key areas that Xerox is focusing on include:
1. Building channel momentum.
The global Xerox channel comprises over 700 mono-brand (Xerox only), 3,000 multi-brand and over 14,000 velocity (IT channel) partners. This extensive network has a diverse range of requirements, and Xerox is actively working to simplify the processes involved, increase partner sales productivity, and improve the partner experience. Xerox showcased a range of partner success stories along with channel-ready solutions across cloud, security and workflow automation.
2. Driving print relevance for the distributed workforce.
Xerox acknowledged that while the print industry has seen a decline in print volumes, it is well positioned to deliver services that go beyond print. The advent of hybrid work has led to more organisations re-assessing and reconfiguring their print infrastructure, creating new opportunities for channel partners to expand their footprint beyond print. Xerox has little to no footprint in the consumer market, so cannot depend on print device sales into the hybrid work/working-from-home market. However, its broad portfolio of MPS-centric solutions is key to capitalising on this opportunity and helping customers accelerate their digital transformation journey. Its digital services portfolio bridges the print and digital gap, including solutions such as MPS, Secure Print, Workflow Central, Cloud Print Services, Capture and Content Services, and Intelligent Document Processing. Xerox has also expanded its A4 portfolio, enabling partners to support the needs of hybrid workers across home and office environments.
3. Creating sustainability value in the workplace.
Xerox has a strong focus on helping its channel partners drive new business opportunities through sustainability-led products and services. Xerox’s core values around CSR were established in the 1960s and remain central to its strategy today. Xerox discussed its net-zero roadmap for 2040 and how circular-economy principles are embedded across the Xerox product life cycle. Products are sustainable by design, with equipment longevity supported by features such as high reuse capability, post-consumer recycled content (PCR), upgradeability, configurability, and paper and toner efficiency. Of particular note is Xerox’s automated intelligence software, which engages components and resources only as needed, minimising energy consumption and wear and tear during operation.
Xerox also discussed its Green World Alliance returns programme, which diverts used supplies from landfill. This programme operates in over 60 countries and supports all Xerox-branded supplies. According to Xerox, it has processed over 82 million returned items, and 90% of components are reused in Xerox remanufactured supplies.
4. Unlocking new digitisation opportunities through analytics.
Xerox recognises that organisations are accelerating digitisation strategies and reducing paper usage, and offers a comprehensive digital services portfolio to support customers’ environmental goals.
Across its portfolio, analytics plays a key role in helping partners unlock opportunities around digitisation and sustainability. Xerox is helping partners deliver sustainability assessments, which are supported by its Advanced Analytics Sustainability Dashboard. This provides customers with detailed metrics related to paper use, CO2 emissions, and energy use.
5. Reinventing the support experience with CareAR.
Xerox’s acquisition of remote augmented reality support and field services company CareAR is paying dividends in helping the company transform the service experience for customers. The AI-/AR-powered service experience management platform offers faster service call resolution, leading to improved uptime and shorter downtime. By increasing remote resolution rates, it also helps channel partners improve their sustainability credentials by reducing CO2 emissions through reduced service engineer visits. It also supports sustainability by limiting service engineer travel time. According to Xerox, the use of CareAR has led to 21,000 fewer site visits, alongside a 24% higher resolution rate on service escalations.
6. Driving innovative AI-powered service offerings.
Xerox already widely uses AI for customer service interactions to enhance the customer experience. Within its product offerings, its Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) offering is powered by AI. Xerox discussed the use cases in which its robotic process automation (RPA) and IDP have been applied, such as legal deposition and contract management. Xerox is actively working to develop a channel-ready IDP offering to help partners capture opportunities.
Quocirca opinion
Xerox has built a powerful partner ecosystem that can help fuel innovation in the workplace. Its broad portfolio of products and services extend beyond hardware, encompassing solutions that can help customers transform their print and digital technology infrastructure to be more secure and sustainable. As an early mover in the print industry with AI-powered solutions, Xerox is set to modernise its business and those of its partners and customers. The Xerox Global Partner summit demonstrated clearly how the company continues to strengthen collaboration and streamline the partner experience. Quocirca expects to see strong partner momentum as Xerox makes further enhancements to help partners differentiate their business and drive further competitive advantage.
