PrintExpo 2017, a three-day event from 18-20 August, was recently concluded at the Chennai Trade Centre, Nandambakkam, Chennai. With the widest range of machines, equipment, consumables and products on display, PrintExpo is the region’s largest print technology show.
Indian Printer & Publisher met Balaji Rajagopalan, executive director – technology, channels and international relations, Xerox at the company’s stand to get a brief on their product display and to understand how Xerox positions itself in the highly competitive market in the country.
On display at its stand were Xerox’s all new digital press line-up—Xerox Versant 3100 (for the mid- to high-end market), Xerox Versant 180 (for the mid-end market), and Xerox C70 (targeted at the entry-level market). The all-new Versant series promises to be more robust and comes with over 500 unique modifications to ensure greater reliability and better print quality, as per Rajagopalan. The machines come with in-line calibration, consume less power and feature full HD display with 1024 shades of color. While the Versant 3100 offers a speed of 100 ppm on stocks and specialty media from 52–350 gsm, Versant 180 is a powerful production press printing at 80 ppm. The third variant, Versant C70, prints at speeds up to 70 ppm color and 75 ppm black-and-white.
The three variants in the series are powered by the all new touch-display EFI Fiery RIP that offers a phenomenal advantage from the point of workflow automation and makes the workflow simpler, faster and smoother.
Eureka service and EFI Fiery RIP
As a company, Xerox has always relied on its servicing, and Rajagopalan did not mince words when he said that service offering is the one area that gives Xerox the required competitive edge. He said, “Over the years, machines have become more and more modular. Nevertheless, these machines still need service on a regular basis, whether it is preventive maintenance or other similar services. It is in this segment that we score above the rest. The reason is we operate by not just sending the engineer to the customer but the kind of system, process and knowledge base we have is something that others don’t.”
Xerox has a 20-year-old knowledge base called Eureka. Working with current mobile handsets and tablets, Xerox’s customer service engineers can document and clear service calls, search for parts, retrieve optimized routing and perform other tasks. Used in tandem with mobile devices, the Eureka tool provides a searchable database for quick problem-specific results at the point of need.
Talking about the competition that Xerox faces in the current environment, Rajagopalan shared, “Everybody is a competition to us, right from Ricoh to Canon to Konica Minolta, but what differentiates us is the kind of products we have brought to the market—from low end to high end, including inkjet—along with the simplification of workflow that we offer with Fiery in the front-end. Fiery in the digital space is like Apple in the mobile space. While others offer Fiery as an option, we have it embedded in our Versant series.”
Xerox is growing faster than the competitive market in both office and production categories, capturing around 33.7% market share with business growth year-on-year, as per an IDC MarketScape 2015 Q4 report.
On Xerox’s latest offering, Rajagopalan was firm when he said, “We offer not only quality but also value for customers in terms of costs. We have always believed in offering nothing but the BEST.”
