Xerox to focus on SME sector; launches eight new products

Mumbai: Xerox India Limited, the document management company, is eyeing a larger share of the small and medium businesses (SMB) segment in the country. Xerox India has earmarked Rs17 crore for brand building and product marketing initiatives in 2006. Of this, Rs12 crore will go towards demand generation and market development activities.

The company has planned a dual strategy of strengthening its SMB product portfolio and expansion of geographic reach to strengthen its presence within this segment, which IDC has identified as the fastest growing market segment in the country.

Xerox also launched eight new office products for the SMB segment. The new products include Xerox Phaser 6120, Xerox WorkCentre PE220, Xerox WorkCentre 3119, Xerox WorkCentre 7132, Xerox WorkCentre 4118, Xerox Phaser 7760, Xerox DocuPrint 255 and Xerox WorkCentre Pro 123. With the launch of these eight products Xerox now offers over 20 SMB products that are priced between Rs 4,500 and Rs 5 lakh.

Xerox will also launch business process applications on select range of multi-functional devices (MFDs) to ensure a seamless workflow and offer an end-to-end completion of a print job. Some of the MFDs will come with in-built security feature such as access card or finger print recognition, that is becoming a fast growing need for the SMB audience.

"According to IDC, the total domestic IT spend in India stood at Rs 49,254 crore in 2005 of which 60 per cent (Rs 29,552 crore) is the SMB spend. IT peripherals spends were a substantial portion of this and contributed Rs 6,355 crore. Xerox will work towards realising the tremendous opportunity presented by market segment by customising its product portfolio and intensifying the company's market outreach initiatives within this segment," said Andrew Horne, managing director, Xerox India Limited.

Xerox proposes to roll out focused market engagement activities to increase awareness for its SMB products in 2006. These include close engagement with channel partners and demand generation activities in 12 cities over the next four months. These include Pune, Aurangabad, Baroda, Surat, Coimbatore, Kochi, Vizag, Bhubaneswar, Jamshedpur, Allahabad, Raipur and Nagpur.

The company will offer attractive options such as plug-and-play products, competitive prices, after sales support, upgradation / replacement schemes, extended warranty and attractive finance options to become a preferred partner for the customers, said Natesh Mani, executive director, New Office Group, Xerox India.

Xerox India Limited is a part of Xerox Corporation, a Fortune 500 global document management company. Xerox India offers an array of innovative document solutions, services and systems — including color and black-and-white printers, digital multifunction devices and digital copiers — designed for offices and production-printing environments.