Being a Customer-Centric Company Remains the Prime focus of Xerox

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Pankaj Kalra, General Manager- Graphic Communications Business, Xerox India Limited is responsible to develop and drive Xerox business

 through direct and indirect channels in the graphic arts and photo segments in India. Pankaj is an Electrical Engineering Graduate with an MBA in Marketing and Strategy. He has over 14 years of experience in Sales and Marketing in organizations considered being the best in the industry. Previous to heading the Graphic communications business, Pankaj was responsible for Industry Marketing and Business Development at Xerox India. He also has over 5 years of experience as the Product Manager for the entire range of Xerox colour digital presses. Pankaj has expertise in Sales and Marketing Operations, Business Development, Marketing Strategy and Channel Management. During his over 11 years continuing relationship with Xerox, he also had the opportunity to work overseas and spent almost 5 years with Xerox in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Previous to his association with Xerox, Pankaj has also worked with Philips India Ltd. He has various citations & awards to his credit. He has been awarded with Xerox Honor’s Club, Xerox Excellence Award, and Manager of the Year Awards to name a few. In an exclusive interaction with ITVN, Pankaj provides an insight about the latest product offerings by Xerox in Digital Printing Space, future trends and scope he foresees in the Printing Industry, Potential Growth Opportunities and Key growth initiatives for Xerox in India etc. Here are the excerpts.

ITVN: Please shed some light on the latest product offerings by Xerox in Digital Printing Space. Are you branding Xerox products any differently?

Pankaj Kalra: Xerox India has launched a series of products and solutions- from extending the Phaser range to mid segment laser MFD’s and high end digital presses. These products have enhanced features viz Wi-Fi printing etc in some of them and have enhanced color adoption in office. 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. 

Some of our cutting edge offerings for the Indian market are as follows-

·         Color 1000 digital production press – This next generation product is well positioned between Xerox’s hugely successful DocuColor 8002 and iGen4 digital color press. To further expand its customers’ digital printing capabilities, Xerox has added an optional clear toner station that brings prints to life. This equipment offers versatility, scalability and performance that is perfect for production environments. With flexible workflow, feeding and finishing, the Xerox Color 1000 press will help Xerox’s customers as their business volumes grows. The Color 1000 Press will target print applications like high capacity stacking, hole punching and folding to square fold booklets, layflats and an array of finishing options.

·         Xerox iGen4 Press - The most productive and highest-quality cut-sheet digital press in the printing industry. The iGen4 increases productivity by 25 to 35 percent by automating operator tasks, reducing the need to interrupt the press for adjustments and decreasing overall operating costs. As a result, the iGen4 improves the break-even point between digital and traditional offset printing - making it faster and more economical to run more print jobs on digital.

·         Solid Ink Technology: Xerox has printers that use the Solid Ink technology that is a package of excellent image creation method, simplicity and ease of use that sets it apart from the other laser printers in the market. Solid ink printers have easy process to load ink. Each color has a unique shape-coded and numbered ink stick which ensures there is no mix up. The right color goes only in the right place. And, because solid ink is solid, there is no mess. The only other consumable is a maintenance kit, which takes less than a minute to replace, about once a year. One of the biggest competitive advantages of solid ink technology is the fact that it is environment friendly technology producing 90% less waste than laser printing. Xerox has three products that are based on solid ink technology. These include: Xerox Phaser 8500, Xerox Phaser 8550 and WorkCentre C2424. Xerox WorkCentre C2424 is the star product which was launched in 2004.

·         Xerox’s Emulsion Aggregation High Gloss toner: This technology significantly reduces the amount of toner needed because nearly 100 percent of the toner transfers to the paper. That translates into real cost savings and reduced waste. All three systems are Energy Star compliant and allow for duplex printing, which reduces the amount of paper needed for a print or copy job.

·         Xerox Glossmark technology is a "watermarking" technology that exhibits a special visual effect by creating different levels of gloss within an image. The Glossmark is an image or pattern embedded in an existing image without the need for special toners or paper. Similar to traditional watermarks, embedded Glossmarks can be easily observed without the assistance of special devices, yet cannot be deleted or reproduced by conventional scanning or copying.  Glossmark technology combines a visually striking gloss image with a high quality color image in a seamless fashion, and allows both images to be easily viewed with little interference.

o    Can record variable information

o    Can be produced by existing Xerox printing solutions

o    Do not require assisted viewing

o    Cannot be reproduced using conventional equipment

o    Use conventional toners and papers

o    Are very difficult to counterfeit

o    Can be varied in appearance from striking to subtle

Xerox's Glossmark technology provides added security features to documents at print time. It helps tackle counterfeiting and fraud by embedding a hologram-like image onto the surface of the printout. This creates a tamper-proof document and guarantees its authenticity. The Glossmark is visible to the eye, but cannot be reproduced on a copy of the original."

ITVN: What future trends and scope you foresee in the Printing Industry? What are the Growth Drivers?

PK: Xerox is of the opinion that ‘digital printing’ is one of the key growth engines for the Indian printing industry. The Indian digital printing industry has experienced a very good growth rate in the last few years and we hope this growth momentum continues in the year 2011 as well.

Xerox is one of the leading players in the digital printing sector in India and is constantly looking for opportunities to enable print providers drive new revenue streams. We are focusing on being a customer-centric company instead of a product centric company and providing personalized solutions to our customers through our various offerings, to meet their business specific needs. Digital printing enables print customers to buy exactly what they need, when they need it; Web-based electronic storefronts are a perfect match for this Print on demand model.

ITVN: What are the Potential Growth Opportunities and Key growth initiatives for Xerox in India?

PK: India is a key market for Xerox and over the years we have ushered in a revolution in technology and innovation in the Digital printing industry. In the year 2011, Xerox will consistently build its inventions into business by embedding them in superior Xerox products and solutions, using them as the foundation of new businesses, or licensing or selling them to other entities. Xerox has been investing in the Indian print market to help print providers build their businesses through digital technology. That investment is paying off for our business and for our customers. This region has reached a tipping point in the adoption of digital technology.  And now print providers are embracing digital faster than ever before.

As discussed above, Digital printing industry is seeing significant transformations with new technologies and applications being developed every day, to provide cost effective, customized solutions.  Digital printing market hence has a tremendous growth potential.

As more commercial print providers are seeing the value in adding Digital printing to their traditional offset printing businesses, the line between the two is continually blurring.  The ability to cost-effectively produce short runs of traditional jobs and create new applications that incorporate personalization and variable-data printing, coupled with the high-quality results, make Digital printing a very attractive option.  For print providers, it’s not necessarily about choosing one technology or conforming to a tradition.  Instead, it’s about implementing the solutions that help them meet customer demands and increase profits.

ITVN: Seeing this current competition scenario, the prices of a product plays a very decisive factor in incrementing its demand growth. Have you adopted any aggressive and strategic Pricing policy so as to ensure performance and prices goes hand in hand?

PK: The entire pricing structure in digital printing is fool proof and time tested. You pay for what you print against which service is provided, be it maintenance as well as consumables. Instead Xerox customers are happy with the FSMA concept and have complete peace of mind regarding their costs. Hence the question of hidden or invisible cost does not apply. Any increase in costs are not due to toner or fuser technology etc., instead since these equipment & their consumables are completely imported, any increase is more due to the foreign exchange currency fluctuations, change in import duty structures & other non-controllable factors.