'The perception of being a photocopying company needed a change'

How is Xerox India focusing on channel partners for expansion into the

upcountry market?



The implementation of a two-tier distribution model at the beginning of 2005

was part of the initiative to create a demand and awareness of the Xerox brand.

The company needed to change the perception of being just a photocopying company

to one dealing with a whole range of IT products. Office products other than

copiers now constitute about 70% of our total sales revenue. As such, we are now

targeting SMBs, large enterprises, and home consumers.

We are driving these products through national distributors such as Ingram

Micro and Redington for equipment and eSys for supplies. In addition, Xerox is

focusing on two regional distributors, MicroMax and Ansata Computers. This

should help us expand our channel base from the current 1,000, especially in the

upcountry market. Bills are raised through Tier II partners, comprising 160

exclusive mono brand Xerox partners, while the rest are handled by multi brand

Xerox partners. While channel sales managers handle the multi brand partners, 25

business development managers have been assigned to work with the mono brand

partners.

Service and support has been Xerox's Achilles heel. How are you taking

care of this?



In addition to the alliance with Accel ICIM as a third-party service

provider, Xerox has strengthened its service support through our own branch

offices in 80 locations and 11 regional offices. We also have a one-man team in

11 additional towns to work closely with the channel. For our hi-end copier

range, we have 80 authorized service providers. We also offer extended service

packages to customers, but only through the channel. Typically, a warranty

package is restrictive as it might offer either onsite or offsite repair or it

might have a turnaround time, which might not be acceptable to certain

customers. Customers who have these specific service needs can get customized

warranty packages from the channel partners who provide the printing solutions

to them. We have 17 partners who offer these kinds of outsourced printing

services.

What are the initiatives taken by Xerox on the retail front?



Xerox will open an exclusive concept showroom in Bangalore, which will

showcase our full product range of 60-odd products in a live environment. The

showroom is a 70:30 joint venture between our Bangalore-based partner Bijirom,

with 70% contribution from Xerox.

Rajneesh De



rajneeshd@cybermedia.co.in