Xerox Global Services: Media Backgrounder (Xerox Office Services (XOS) Line of Business)

Xerox Global Services is split into three lines of business: Document Outsourcing; Business Process Services (BPS) and Xerox Office Services (XOS). The XOS line of business specifically resolves issues experienced by large organisations that are often unaware of the real cost of producing documents in the office.

Organisations research, study and manage their costs closely - company cars, marketing, new business development are all allocated budgets and measured against them. However, few organisations monitor or are even aware of the cost of producing documents, whether financially or in terms of their effect on staff productivity. Typically, organisations perceive the cost of printing as the cost of purchasing printing, photocopying or faxing devices, but this is only a fraction of the overall cost.

XOS begins by analysing the total cost of ownership of a company’s office output infrastructure. The results of this assessment are crystallised into a simple ‘per page’ printing cost. This cost is influenced by the quantity of different device manufacturers and types of consumables, multiple forms of contracts, service level agreements and billing process for each supplier, and the ability of staff to maintain the organisation’s devices among other factors.

In December 2003, analyst house IDC remarked, “Xerox is believed to be the most experienced vendor when it comes to paid office assessments, having done at least 400 covering more than 30,000 personnel. Xerox provides a consultative assessment to reveal opportunities for cost reductions…boasts the use of six sigma, with the ability to focus on improving business processes and document workflow - in addition to the more classic components of an assessment…”

Armed with all these facts and figures, Xerox’s experienced consultants advise the organisation on how to drive down its costs. Once the organisation has decided on the course of action to take, Xerox then takes over responsibility to meet these objectives by managing the organisation’s fleet of devices, throughout the IMACD (Install, Move, Add, Change, Dispose) process and the rationalisation of the devices over a period of time. Rationalisation allows the customer to reach an optimised state where there is the right number of devices to fully support the business and drive cost and productivity gains.

The customer decides with Xerox the optimised state but Xerox then owns the execution. Installation of new devices is controlled by XOS, and existing devices are tagged and monitored physically and on the network. These initial steps in the XOS implementation alone usually save the customer organisation up to 25 per cent in costs, and regular detailed management reports confirm how well the new arrangement is performing.

XOS also improves productivity and adds value to the organisation’s print production by assuming responsibility for the upkeep of the customer organisation’s devices, whether it is a Xerox product or otherwise. This means that the customer doesn’t compromise its existing investment but, by managing all existing contracts, Xerox provides the customer with a single point of contact for billing, administration, and problem resolution for all devices. Xerox manages all of the assets on behalf of the customer, negotiates service level agreements with device suppliers, and ensures they keep to them. Over time, Xerox itself assumes responsibility for the management of repairs, technology upgrades, and every other IMACD possibility. Xerox also reaps economies of scale that the customer organisation cannot, by purchasing consumables in bulk and therefore at a discount.

All processes required to support the output fleet are managed from a dedicated customer help desk facility at Xerox Global Services’ site in Ballycoolin, Ireland. Xerox personnel can deal with queries such as how to install new printer drivers onto PCs or the network, or general maintenance and repair queries. This ensures that personnel in the customer organisation are able to make full use of every device’s functionality, and can concentrate on what they do best: their jobs.

XOS offers the customer very significant cost savings. Xerox Global Services is confident enough to sign a contract committing to save the organisation around 25 per cent of their total costs of ownership annually from the bottom line.

This market is a growth opportunity for Xerox, and one where Xerox Global Services has a proven track record.

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Xerox Global Services: Media Backgrounder

Xerox Global Services is one of three business groups within Xerox Europe, and is the closest of these groups to traditional consultancy, concentrating more on services than products or technologies per se. The other groups are the Production Systems Group (PSG) and Xerox Office Group (XOG).

Xerox is the global leader in document management, offering the widest array of products, services and solutions in the industry. The Xerox Global Services vision is to be the world’s leading innovator in the outsourcing of document activity, and in the transformation of organisations’ document-intensive business processes. Xerox Global Services works with its customers to deliver cost savings and efficiency, by managing and improving their document intensive business processes - everyday processes such as customer communications, billing, training, or records management.

Xerox Global Services was created at the beginning of 2004 via the merger of Xerox Business Services (XBS) and Business Innovation Services (formerly XISS). This enables Xerox to have one services business for Europe with a single, stronger value proposition for its customers. Xerox Global Services is also better able to meet the demands of large and complex deals, to defend Xerox from competitors, and to consolidate all the necessary resources and expertise required to succeed.

Xerox Global Services now operates in 17 European countries. It works closely with its fellow business groups, adapting new technology from Xerox Research Centre Europe (Xerox’s sole European R&D facility) for use ‘in the field’, and sourcing the most appropriate devices and functionality from the XOG and PSG business groups to suit the needs of its customers. Its heritage in documents has made it the market leader in document outsourcing. In addition, Xerox Global Services is one of the best suppliers at delivering against its service level agreements (SLAs) - a statement corroborated by analyst house IDC .

Using these attributes, Xerox Global Services intends to grow its client base in 2004, as well as contributing to the success of XOG and PSG by promoting sales through its outsourcing and consultancy projects. Xerox Global Services will continue to grow in numbers and expertise through the transfer of personnel from customer organisations in large outsourcing contracts.

Ultimately, Xerox Global Services’ “raison d’être” is to help organisations make their document processes more efficient and effective. Even today, many European companies still perceive documents as something made of paper and with four corners (established by the IDC study commissioned by Xerox Global Services in 2003, “Documents – The Life Blood of Your Business?”)

In reality, documents are hard or soft copies including faxes, e-mails, presentations, web pages, and even music or still/moving picture files. The study revealed that most organisations are unaware of the actual costs associated with these various types of documents - only 10 per cent of the 956 organisations interviewed could estimate how much they actually spent on documentation, yet 82 per cent state that documents are ‘crucial to the successful operation of their organisation’. With the average cost of documents to a company running at up to 15 per cent of its revenue, there is a significant market for Xerox Global Services to help organisations identify these costs and help manage and reduce them. As an example, Xerox Global Services can save a €100 million revenue organisation with a document spend of €2.1M over €420,000 in document costs alone. Xerox Global Services counts Lloyds TSB, Siemens, EDS, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Bouygues Telecom amongst its European customers.

Xerox Global Services delivers its services to customers via 180 sales personnel and 250 document consultants based in Europe, and employs approximately 4,000 people in total. All services can be delivered to customers on their own sites, but Xerox Global Services also has facilities around Europe where large projects can be completed away from the customer premises if preferred. Xerox Global Services is split into three lines of business: Document Outsourcing, Xerox Office Services (XOS), and Business Process Services (BPS).

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Xerox Global Services: Media Backgrounder (Business Process Services (BPS) Line of Business)

Xerox Global Services is split into three lines of business: Document Outsourcing; Xerox Office Services (XOS) and Business Process Services (BPS). The mission of Business Process Services is to help customers improve and manage their key document-related processes.

The definition of a document has changed. Research sponsored by Xerox and carried out by IDC in late 2003 shows that the definition of a “document” now encompasses far more than just paper. Increasingly faxes (83 per cent), e-mail (78 per cent), electronic files such as Word or PowerPoint (76 per cent), web pages (48 per cent), or multimedia files (46 per cent) are now considered as “documents.” Documents and the information they contain, in whatever format, play a critical role in how organisations manage their business; for many organisations, documents are the product (e.g. insurance policy), support the product (e.g. user manual) or support critical business processes (e.g. invoices in accounts payable). Hence the effectiveness of how documents are used is intrinsically connected to business success. BPS’s focus is on streamlining and automating clients’ document intensive business processes, based on the ‘new’ definitions of ‘the document.’

This is often achieved by converting paper to digital information, and BPS’s services are designed with this in mind, to resolve a specific customer issue, and deliver a clear return on investment. BPS works towards offering its five services as complete managed, outsourced, or hosted services to the client.

1/5 Imaging & Archive Services
Many businesses have a requirement to manage increasingly large volumes of document archives, particularly in industry sectors such as finance or pharmaceuticals - that have significant legislative compliance requirements. This service enables customers to capture documents as digital images and manage them within a business critical process, helps them to meet legislative and codes of conduct requirements, and improves the longevity and security of documents. It allows organisations to make critical documents widely available to all who need them, as well as to those who need to integrate them into other systems. Imaging and Archive Services also saves organisations significant amounts of money in physical storage, rent, heating, and lighting, as documents are stored electronically rather than physically.

2/5 Finance & Administration Services
Businesses depend on their “back-office” finance functions to optimise cashflow, both in and out of the company, and manage the cash required to deliver bottom line financial performance. For accounts payable, the speed at which invoices are paid and cash flow is managed can reduce the quantity of ‘late’ fees incurred. In accounts receivable, invoice disputes must be resolved rapidly to reduce the time wasted in collecting payment. In the logistics function, they need to effectively track and confirm goods deliveries, speeding up the invoicing process, and reducing the cash collection cycle. This service focuses on providing an outsourced service that supports accounts payable, accounts receivable, and logistics functions within an organisation. It manages the electronic capture, indexing, and storage of documents such as invoices, weigh bills, bills of loading and proof of delivery, to optimise back office performance.

3/5 Client Account Lifecycle Management
Businesses that depend on processing incoming customer documentation such as mortgage, insurance and credit card applications, contracts and correspondence, need to process those documents as quickly as possible in today’s competitive environment. At the same time, these businesses may need to comply with legislation that enforces transparency and accountability such as Sarbanes-Oxley and EU Directives on Corporate Compliance and Industry Regulations. This service enables organisations to process these types of documents digitally, therefore improving compliance, responsiveness to customer demands and reducing the complexity of processing client transactions.

4/5 Localisation Services
Many organisations experience the ongoing issue of having to translate crucial documents into multiple foreign languages quickly and accurately. This service uses high levels of automation to translate and validate up to 40 different languages at once. It provides customers with advice on authoring documents in those cases where technology cannot yet automate local variations, such as colloquialisms.

The service also improves translation accuracy and cost-effectiveness through translation memory and terminology management, ensuring that clients realise substantial cost reduction through content re-use, while increased translator efficiency means delivery times are substantially reduced. Localisation Services is a good example of where technology invented by Xerox Research Centre Europe is applied to a real-life business issue and become part of the expertise offered by Xerox Global Services.

5/5 Product Lifecycle Services
This service is targeted at organisations that have to produce documents or manuals to accompany their product, anything from a mobile phone to a car. It involves improving the organisation’s entire document supply chain by managing the content authoring and creation, localisation and translation, production and distribution of accompanying documents to wherever the product is being sold in multiple markets.

Up to 40 per cent reduction can be achieved in the time it takes to get a product manual from the point of creation to mass-production, including all validation, changes, review, pre-production and printing itself. This service can reduce wasted documentation, remove warehousing costs and make it quick and easy for customers to publish documents in different media on demand i.e. in hard copy, on the internet or via mobile devices.

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