Now that Xerox has officially disengaged itself from Conduent—a provider of business processing outsourcing services it acquired in 2010 under the name Affiliated Computer Services (ACS)—the provider of document workflow software and hardware products and services intends to focus much of its future efforts on expanding its presence in the small-to-midsize business (SMB) sector via expanded relationships in the channel.
Mike Feldman, president of North America Operations for Xerox, said one of the first orders of business will be to partner with solution providers that are not exclusively focused on Xerox. Recognizing that most solution providers in the SMB space represent multiple vendors, Feldman said Xerox will offer a mix of hardware, software and services as part of an effort to significantly expand its product portfolio in the months ahead.
As a standalone company, Xerox is now an $11 billion company that views digital business transformations as significant opportunities. Feldman said most organizations are looking for packaged applications to simplify those transformations by moving many paper-based processes onto mobile devices.
While there may never be a truly paperless office, Feldman said that interest in digitizing business processes creates significant new opportunities for Xerox and its partners—opportunities that he said can be valued in the range of $3 billion.
Obviously, many of those opportunities extend into an SMB segment where Xerox doesn’t have a strong presence. Partnering with a much broader segment of the channel makes sense. Earlier this year, Xerox committed to working with partners to develop workflow applications.
As 2017 unfolds, it looks like Xerox is gearing up to make a lot more of it intellectual property available to channel partners, regardless of how deeply entrenched they may be in any given part of the Xerox product portfolio.
Mike Vizard has more than 25 years of experience covering IT issues in a career that includes serving as Director of Strategic Content and Editorial Director for Ziff Davis Enterprise.