Over the years, Xerox has created a niche market for its printing products in India. Now, with the new digitalized world, India’s printing industry has undergone several changes. Vipin Tuteja (VT), Executive Director, Marketing and International Business revealed to TechShout (TS) in an exclusive e-mail interview, the growing digital trends in the Indian market, hurdles faced in developing countries and the company’s innovative solutions for higher productivity.
TS: How do you see the Indian digital printing market growing in 2010?
VT: Currently, India’s digital printing industry is growing at a rate of 25.8 percent every three years and is expected to grow from US$504 million in 2006 to as much as US$2.5 billion by 2012. So while the print industry is growing at about 12.2 percent, digital print is growing almost at about 25 percent, double that of the overall printing industry growth. These numbers clearly illustrate how huge the digital printing opportunity is and the type of market we operate in is growing by the day. This holds extremely promising for us as we have significant share in both digital printing and laser technology based devices.
India’s printing industry has experienced rapid modernization over the past decade. Xerox has transitioned itself from being a product centric company to a customer-centric company and providing personalized solutions to its customers for their business specific needs. With this objective, Xerox has identified Real Business Live! as this year’s theme, providing real solutions to real business challenges of its partners and customers.
TS: What are the digital printing solutions available in the market by Xerox?
VT: Xerox India has launched a series of products and solutions from extending the Phaser range to mid segment laser MFDs and high end digital presses. These products have enhanced features viz Wi-Fi printing etc., and enhanced color adoption in office. Our cutting edge technologies include Xerox iGen4 Press, Solid Ink Technology that forms the basis of Xerox Phaser 8500, Xerox Phaser 8550 and WorkCentre C2424, Emulsion Aggregation High Gloss toner and the Glossmark technology. The ColorQube range based on the Xerox proprietary technology Solid Ink offering an environment-friendly value proposition will be the next big technology buzz in the segment.
TS: With reference to the newly launched Xerox Innovation hub in India, how different or challenging is the document management solutions market in developing nations as compared to that of developed countries?
VT: The uniqueness about Xerox India Innovation hub will be its focus to address the micro business enterprises that need specific solutions to cater to information processing and other document management. This is important from the developing markets’ point of view and India as the micro business focus caters to a different business model. Rural India holds the future and the focus will be on problems of small and micro organizations. Partnering with local institutes like the IITs, Xerox India Innovation hub gives us a strong platform for research and we believe that innovation allows any company to grow and create value for customers, globally as well as in India. This is one of the reasons why Chennai is the hub for Xerox’s first Innovation hub in an emerging market.
TS: Is there a significant amount of demand for printing solutions from the home segment in India?
VT: The demand from the home segment is significant and different from SMBs and Enterprises. While the audience at home is looking at entry level color and all-in-one devices, SMBs and above are looking at cost effective and optimized printing color solutions in an office environment. Xerox offers a plethora of products starting from entry level single function mono lasers to high-end color multi-function devices in laser, LED, Solid Ink and wide format Inkjet technology.
TS: If you could highlight some of the advances made at Xerox in the digital photo printing segment? What has the growth been like in this space?
VT: With Indian consumer’s penchant for going digital, we believe this segment presents a good market opportunity for us and has not been tapped to its full potential as far as digital photo-printing is concerned. Some of the applications that we are working on with our partners will help us attain a leadership position in the digital photo-printing industry in the time to come. Consumers are now looking at exciting ways to preserve their memories. Digital photo book printing is all about the ability to print one or multiple photo books & albums with personalized messaging & customized templates. The Internet does not limit to a photo and can be easily used to print and develop personalized photographs on a number of unconventional surfaces.
Xerox sees tremendous growth and potential in the area of personalized printing which takes printing to a different level of consumer experience. Xerox is tapping this market along with various photo printing partners to drive awareness among print providers and enable them to explore profitable business opportunities in this segment. The only hurdle in the Indian market is lack of education among traditional photo lab printers about new and cost effective technologies. Though there is significant awareness in metros now, photo lab printers in tier 2 and tier 3 towns still need to be educated.
TS: What according to you are the trends in Managed Print Services (MPS) in India?
VT: India presents huge growth opportunities for Xerox Global Services as large businesses continue to use paper and traditional means of storage, also an increased need for automation within enterprises. The MPS market has evolved over the years, and today it has become a core business process in every enterprise. Enterprises, which have not yet leveraged MPS are looking at it as a potential business enabler. One of the prominent factors being observed in document management space is that most of the medium and large organizations are consistently on the lookout for ways to cut costs and increase profits.
TS: What are the opportunities in Managed Print Services that Xerox offers in the digital print arena?
VT: We call our portfolio of MPS solutions as Xerox Office Services (XOS). XOS is a suite of services for managing document output and infrastructure assets to help organizations deliver measurable efficiencies, reduce costs and improve productivity. Xerox Office Services offerings in India include Office Document Assessment, Device Management, Asset Management, Asset Optimization, Supply Management, Break-Fix Management and Help Desk. They enable organizations to save costs up to 20-25 percent, help them go green, meet specific client needs along with secure access to confidential information. Xerox offers a wide range of extensions to MPS, including CRD and mailroom outsourcing, telecommuter support, document centric process optimization and outsourcing, vertical market programs and production print center staffing.
Xerox pioneered MPS practices that others have now adopted such as advanced needs assessment, monitoring and management of the fleet and user demand and change management to rally users behind MPS and help them cope with the transition to well managed office printing.
TS: Are there any hurdles when it comes to penetrating the Indian market in particular?
VT: There are challenges when it comes to innovation in a developed market vis-à-vis developing markets like India. Xerox Innovation hub is trying to focus on providing high quality low cost solutions to customers in developing markets. It focuses on two major areas that are suited to overcome the challenges of innovation in an emerging market. One is how to innovate more effectively to capture opportunities in the emerging markets. This would happen in two ways- by nurturing and innovating on proven technology platforms that is being currently used in the Indian context and the other is to innovate as basis the unique requirement from developing market which is yet to be addressed to its potential. The other focus of India Innovation hub will be for global customers.
TS: Though we keep witnessing relatively low priced color printing solutions now and again, can quality be guaranteed along with lowered price points?
VT: The newly launched ColorQube range is focused on the concept of ‘Affordable Color Printing’ which brings the cost of color printing at the cost of mono. Based on the Xerox patented Solid Ink technology, the ColorQube offers flexible print speeds ranging from 30 ppm -85 ppm. Solid Ink is simple to use, produces stunning color print quality, good for the environment and offers low cost color for small businesses and corporate. The Intelligent Ready technology minimizes energy use and the Xerox ColorQube disposes less waste than color laser printers.
TS: What new Xerox products can the Indian market hope to see this year?
VT: Xerox India recently became the first company to offer SMB, Enterprise, Government and Graphic Arts customers a choice of four technology platforms in color- Laser, LED, Solid Ink and Inkjet, in order to improve efficiency, enhance productivity and reduce overall cost. And as part of the four technology platforms in color, Xerox launched four color printers and production equipment – WorkCentre 7120 multifunction system, ColorQube 9201 / 9202 / 9203 multifunction systems, 7142 & and 8264ETM color wide format printers.
Xerox also strengthened the entry level color portfolio in single function and multi-function printers by launching the Work Center 6400 color MFP, the Phaser 6121 color MFP and the single function color Phaser 6140 to provide advanced print in house color solutions to SMBs and Enterprises. The latest entrant in the entry level mono, single function laser portfolio is the launch of the Phaser 3155 and 3160.
