Xerox announced four new tools to help the channel tap into the underserved SMB market, of which the printing giant says three-quarters do not have managed print services in place.
The areas that Xerox wants to target include supply management, infrastructure assessment, administration, and workflow.
“The channel is going to grow to represent two-thirds of the [Xerox] technology business within two years,” said John Corley, the company’s president of channel partner operations. Currently, he said, the indirect business sits at around half of the total.
The first of four tools announced is the Enhanced Managed Supplies Service. This offering allows for proactive supply replenishment for printers and multifunction printers that are not under a cost-per-page price.
According to Xerox, partners that sell managed supplies services “average 25 percent margin on managed ink and supplies revenue.”
The second tool is called the NewField IT e-Commerce Storefront, designed to facilitate ordering and renewal of assessment tools and services that analyzes a company’s infrastructure. The end-goal here is to develop custom managed print services.
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Next is an SDK called MPS Application Programming Interface, which aims to reduce reduce administrative costs involved in client billing and help desk management. It integrates with a partner’s own systems.
Lastly, Xerox’ Digital Alternatives is now being made available to the channel. The solution, featured on CDN late last year, helps speed up workflow by helping users actually print less, and has document annotation, sharing, saving, conversion and signing capabilities.
The company has said that the NewField IT tools and the MPS-API are now available in Canada, while the Enhanced Managed Supplies Service will be available later this year. However, there is “no current plan to launch Digital Alternatives in Canada for this year, although it may be considered for the future based on market/partner interest.”
“As we go to 2018, we have four times the growth in the small and medium business channel [compared to large enterprise],” said Corley. Therefore it’s really important for Xerox to work closely with channel partners to bring to customers in this segment a full next generation of managed print services.”