Xerox CEO Steve Bandrowczak says that Xerox remains committed to production print in a first address to the Premier Partners users group during a meeting in London last week.
He had taken over as interim CEO and then as permanent CEO following the unexpected death in office of John Visentin earlier in the summer.
Bandrowczak was not physically present, speaking instead via video link, telling those present that “the future is incredibly bright”. He had, however, been in the UK, including a visit to Go Inspire, now part of the Xerox empire, as part of a tour of European countries.
“We have listened to our partners and the message we told them was very consistent,” he said, “We are Xerox.” This was a mantra that was taken to encompass those employed by the business and those using its technology, from offices through production print to non print data led applications.
“We are Xerox. That gives us the starting point. We are in the production business and have connected to and driven billions of dollars of business revenues through partners that are serving their end customers. Our commitment to print is as strong as it has ever been.”
Its future commitments will also be to the metaverse, with AI, VR and the investment in CareAR last year as the first step in this direction. CareAR will expand and drive both remote service and fixes that keep customers in production and to provide cloud based learning that will shorten training cycles, particularly for inexperienced staff. This ties in with market conditions that print customers are experiencing in terms of labour shortages and the need to avoid unnecessary down time. CareAR is already delivering first time fixes in 30% of cases calling its service centres.
“We have to help customers become more productive,” he says. This involves greater interaction and proximity to customers. He adds: “As we become more customer centric, customer focused you get tremendous insight into what customers are looking for.”
The customer centric drive will take Xerox into the meta verse. “We are going to be where our customers are,” Bandrowczak says. And although the meta verse is entirely digital he says that people will want something physical to takes away. “The reality is that change happens and it gives us opportunities to create new markets and added value propositions,. It does not mean print is going away.”
