IPG Questions Xerox CEO About Outsourcing Efforts

At Graph Expo this week, IPG Editor Bob Neubauer got a chance to sit down with Xerox CEO Ursula Burns and a small group of trade magazine editors. He asked her point blank about the recent upsurge in efforts by Xerox to push its document outsourcing expertise, while simultaneously selling equipment to in-plants at those very organizations.

Burns explained that Xerox was trying to "back up and focus on the customer"—in other words the parent company or organization, not simply its in-plant. Xerox wants to serve these organizations so they can focus on their core business, she said. If Xerox can best do that by partnering with an existing in-plant, she stressed, her company would prefer to do that, as long as this enables Xerox to serve all the end customer's needs as effectively as possible.

"If you get there first, it's yours," she said. "We have very little interest in taking away a big Xerox customer's business." She advised in-plants to stay close to Xerox and work with the company to serve the needs of the parent organization.

Earlier this year, Xerox acquired ACS, a provider of IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing services. Xerox's "Ready for real business" campaign has been busy enticing businesses to outsource document management, business process management and IT services to Xerox. One of Xerox's recent commercials touting its document management work with Notre Dame University has caused great concern among higher-ed in-plant managers, worried about Xerox's intentions.

Also during the interview with Burns, she insisted that, despite the major presence of inkjet presses at Graph Expo, xerography has a long future ahead of it. It is fairly permanent, she noted, cost effective and flexible, while inkjet still has many barriers to knock down. Xerox will continue to invest in toner and solid ink technology, she said, as well as inkjet.