Xerox has recently announced a new global print go-to-market structure, as the company seeks to drive growth in key areas with a partner-first approach – and there is confidence that the company can deliver value to partners and customers.
Xerox recently announced its redesigned global print go-to-market structure, which unifies sales engagement, sharpens regional focus and aims to drive growth across key solution areas.
The redesign is part of Xerox’s ongoing reorganisation after the company acquired Lexmark last year and drive to make the expanded company as successful as possible.
At the same time, Xerox announced a raft of leadership appointments to reinforce the new structure, including installing Thomas Valjak as Western Europe Channels and Partners lead and Danny Molhoek as Western Europe Managed Accounts lead.
Danny will oversee the team that will target specific accounts, focusing on the larger, corporate customers that Xerox deals with.
Meanwhile, Thomas’ role involves leading Xerox’s partner engagement and driving sales opportunities together with its partners into the SMB space and others that aren’t corporates. “We are going in with the entire Xerox portfolio to try to establish relationships, understand their problems, needs and requirements, and see what from within the Xerox portfolio we can position for them moving forward,” he explains.
Partner-first strategy
Xerox’s new structure is part of the company’s partner-first strategy to drive sales. “This is about strengthening our partner-first approach,” says Thomas. “Our partners bring additional capabilities that complement Xerox’s strengths, allowing us to deliver more complete, outcome-led solutions for customers.
“Where customers choose to work with a partner, we fully support that model, using direct engagement only where it’s specifically required.”
Danny adds that the teams are working with Xerox’s entire product portfolio, noting that new devices will be added soon. Some of these were previewed at The Future of Xerox Production Print, a four-day event for commercial print providers, channel partners and industry leaders across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which took place at the Xerox Innovation Centre in Uxbridge in February.
“Coming from Lexmark, what really stood out to me was the breadth of the Xerox portfolio, spanning digital services, marketing services, AI, IT and a comprehensive print range,” Danny says. “We’re expanding beyond traditional print to offer customers a wider set of services.
“For partners, that means access to the full Xerox portfolio, helping them maximise opportunities and deliver more value.”
Thomas adds that Xerox will work with partners to enable them to deliver value to customers. “Like Danny said, we have a lot of capabilities that we can apply directly,” he says. “The goal is that we bring software solutions and services capabilities to our channel partners so they can take them to customers large and small.
“It’s a true partnership, we don’t prescribe how partners should operate, and we actively incorporate their feedback. It’s a two-way approach focused on maximising the value we deliver to customers.”
Plenty of opportunities
This new strategy is launched into a European print market that is still strong with plenty of opportunities for manufacturers and resellers to grow, according to Thomas.
“One needs to look beyond a traditional office environment,” he says. “We have all been in this industry long enough to know that we don’t print as much as we did 10-20 years ago. But on the other hand, in certain sectors, not only is print pervasive and staying, but it’s increasing. For example, a printed page is not necessarily a printed email. A printed page can be the address label of parcels being sent out. It’s clear that through e-commerce and the like, that volume has exploded. There’s lots of opportunities in different applications and sectors in addition to classical office print.”
Danny agrees, adding that Xerox is planning to invest in specific label and packaging devices moving forward because that’s a growth industry. But that doesn’t mean to say there won’t be new devices aimed at the office environment too, he adds.
Thomas adds that there will be announcements on new devices and services from Xerox later in the year and further into the future but, understandably, remains tight-lipped about specifics. “We will make those announcements at the right moment,” he adds. “But internally, we’re really excited about what is coming.”
Sustainability is key
Another key pillar of Xerox’s go-to-market strategy is sustainability, especially on the channel side, adds Thomas.
“With the acquisition of Lexmark, Xerox now brings together both A4 and A3 capabilities within one organisation,” he says. “What was previously a supplier relationship on A4 is now fully integrated alongside our A3 expertise.”
“Our engineering and design philosophy is to build devices that last seven years or more. Xerox is consciously designing and manufacturing devices for roughly twice the average industry lifecycle, which is typically around three to four years. This reflects a strong focus on reliability and sustainability.
“For example, new devices can include up to 70% post-consumer recycled content in some models, and we exceed Blue Angel requirements by a significant margin.
“These devices are also designed with serviceability and the ability to stay up to date in mind, including hardware features, security and compatibility.
“This enables customers to deploy devices for longer in the field, reducing the need for frequent replacement and delivering clear sustainability benefits.
“In addition, Xerox technologies allow us to provide partners with data that demonstrates carbon dioxide avoidance, based on fleet optimisation, energy savings, footprint and document workflow improvements.”
Future
Thomas and Danny are bullish about the future for Xerox. “We want to position Xerox as the partner of choice,” says Thomas. “We want to become the preferred go-to print and document workflow and solutions company. We’re excited and motivated internally as we bring the Xerox and Lexmark organisations together and move forward with the expanded product portfolio that we will bring to market via channel and directly to end user customers.
“We will be working with our channel partners to maximise value, and drive opportunities with a partner-first mindset and collaborating with our channel partners wherever we can.”
Danny agrees, adding that an immediate priority is to ensure the integration of Lexmark and Xerox goes as planned. “We have our work cut out for us, but it’s very exciting,” he says.
“We’re one team, Lexmark and Xerox, working together. There’s real energy around the capabilities we’re bringing together, and how we move forward as a single organisation. It’s a challenging market, but we’re well positioned and ready for it. Bring it on.”
