What's The Score?

By Michele Masterson

Buoyed by excellent scores in quality and reliability, Xerox Corp. has taken the No. 1 slot overall in the Workgroup Color Printers category of the 2008 VARBusiness Annual Report Card survey for the second year in a row.

"This is really gratifying and it's not something we take for granted," said Gary Gilliam, vice president of channel operations for Xerox North America, which earned an overall score of 73.

Earlier this year, Xerox said it was intent on accelerating the adoption of color printing in office environments through new and improved technologies. To that end, the company's research in color printing represents about 50 percent of the $1.5 billion Xerox and its partner Fuji Xerox invest each year in research and development.

That investment seems to be paying off for Xerox resellers. The Norwalk, Conn.-based company ranked highest with a score of 81 in the product innovation subcategory, which includes quality and reliability, richness of product features/functionality and technical innovation.

"The quality of Xerox printers has always been outstanding," said Vincent DiSpigno, co-owner of Webistix, a Holbrook, N.Y.-based solution provider. "We're an Apple specialist; our customers are very demanding when it comes to color, so Xerox is a good fit."

Xerox also took top honors in the marketability criteria.

DiSpigno said that Xerox's equipment is not only a known name, but its high quality means there's no hard sells.

"Since we have so many satisfied Xerox customers, it's easy to sell additional printers to them rather than have to go out and get new customers," he said. As for the color printer market in general, Anne Mulcahy, Xerox chairman and CEO, believes that color printing adoption is accelerating.

In the first half of 2008, more than $25 billion color pages have been printed on Xerox systems, putting the company on pace for $50 billion color pages in 2008, a 25 percent increase from last year, according to Mulcahy. Color now represents half of Xerox's total equipment sales and 40 percent of total revenue, she said.

Xerox also scored as tops in the area of technical innovation.

As of the second quarter of 2008, the company launched 23 products, which included a refreshed product line and expanded offerings for the SMB marketplace. Those products include the Xerox 700 entry production color system and the DocuColor 5000 AP for midmarket production color printing.

In February, Xerox launched its lowest price color laser printer yet, the Phaser 6125, which retails for $349 and up. The product has been received well by partners, according to Gilliam.

"With color printers there is a unique problem in adoption," he said. "There's a preconceived idea that color is a lot more expensive than mono, and that's a barrier we've worked hard to change."

In terms of support for partners, Xerox generally scored high, but received lower ratings in the partnership subcategory overall, particularly in the revenue and profit potential area.

There are various reseller programs, including deal registration and postsales and presales support, Gilliam said.

DiSpigno, for one, is sold. "I think they have the best program out in the market, and it encompasses everything," he said. "Their field support and inside support are great."

Gilliam said Xerox would like to wrest the market leader position in the color printer category from Hewlett-Packard. To that end, he said, Xerox is committed to growing the channel. The company came in second to Lexmark in managing channel conflict. Conversely, HP came in last place in every criteria.

Channel changes are in the offing for Xerox with its announcement in mid-September that its North American operations will now be organized through two groups.