Description

Xerox Corporation is a $15.7 billion technology and services enterprise that helps businesses deploy smart document management strategies and find better ways to work. Its intent is to constantly lead with innovative technologies, products and solutions that customers can depend upon to improve business results.

Xerox provides the document industry's broadest portfolio of offerings. Digital systems include color and black-and-white printing and publishing systems, digital presses and "book factories," multifunction devices, laser and solid ink network printers, copiers and fax machines. Xerox's services expertise is unmatched and includes helping businesses develop online document archives, analyzing how employees can most efficiently share documents and knowledge in the office and operating in-house print shops or mailrooms. Xerox also offers associated software, support and supplies such as toner, paper and ink.

Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, Xerox is No.130 among the Fortune 500 and has 61,100 employees worldwide, including 35,600 in the United States (December 2003). The company's operations are guided by customer-focused and employee-centered core values -- such as social responsibility, diversity and quality -- augmented by a passion for innovation, speed and adaptability.

Xerox Brasil, in operation for 38 years, is the third largest subsidiary of the Xerox Corporation. They have distributed several salespeople and professional staff throughout the country to staff the factories in Bahia and Amazon and two customer service centers. In addition, the Center of System Development located in Vitria is recognized as one of the best Xerox software centers worldwide with CMM Level 3 certification to support the company's many services.

Visit Summary

After a wonderful reception of local snacks and coffee, Xerox Brasil introduced the class to its operations. They sell paper, supplies, printers and services to one of the ten biggest economies in the world. With branches in seven major cities, Xerox works to satisfy all printing and document needs of the companies operating in a country that is number seven in the world for quality of life. While many of the products they sell are imported, they do also manufacture many machines and goods for sale in all of Latin America. In Brazil Xerox is a strong name brand with 53% of the market-share for office products and 85% for high-volume printing. To complement their business initiatives, the company executes a great deal of social work in the favelas (Portuguese for slum) and with non-governmental organizations; at the same time, coaching as many as 1800 graphic design students each year.

According to Xerox, the Document Lifecycle is still very simple - create, print and copy, then distribute. Xerox is hoping to generate new business by showing companies how to add value through document reuse and ensuring the security of the files. In addition, documents still represent a hidden cost for many companies and Xerox tries to assist them by increasing efficiency and restructuring document spending to generate as much as 40% savings. Using the Lean Six Sigma methodology (starting in March 2004), their consultants perform an office assessment looking at how much money is spent on documents and how to improve the bottlenecks. If needed, they can also perform asset management services as well. Other services include Xerox expert technicians running the machine itself for the purchasing company; document, content and imaging services; and personalized communication services like data acquisition, design, production and distribution.

Xerox Corporation invested $1 Billion USD in Research and Development during 2002. Subsequently, Brazil saw 35 new products introduced to the market in 2003. In terms of products, color is the key driver for revenue growth in Brazil with Xerox capturing 50% market-share on multi-function printers but only 3% on single function printers. The new DocuColor iGen3 printer is the latest product that Xerox Brasil expects to be a large performer giving customers a way to print many different data streams onto multiple kinds of media (print/web/electronic). The idea of on-demand printing is also very big with a product like Print-on-Demand Book Factory doing away with the idea of maintaining any unused inventory.

When discussing their use of technology, Xerox Brasil focused on their outsourcing relationship with EDS. Many of their internal information systems are handled entirely by EDS so that Xerox remains focused on its core competencies. Technology is a tool to help them do their job better, but it is not considered strategic to the future. Of course, the outsourcing agreement between Xerox and EDS began at the corporate level more than 10 years ago so the way Xerox views their IT should not be surprising. They have become accustomed to EDS being a part of their functional team and are quite happy with the relationship overall. Since most of the class had previously read a case study about the tumultuous start to this huge outsourcing contract, it was very interesting to learn that the effect on a field office such as Xerox Brasil was ultimately negligible in the day-to-day operations.

Related Links

http://www.xerox.com/index/ptbr.html