Xerox is honing its channel strategy to reach small and medium-size businesses.
The document-services company made major inroads with partners in 2017, hiring a longtime Brocade and Tech Data channel sales leader to head its global channel strategy. Xerox also bolstered its channel program in December with the addition of two new partners. The company says it sees an increasing demand for managed print services.
We spoke to Darren Cassidy, president of the U.S. Channels unit for Xerox, about what his company hopes to accomplish in 2018.
We have edited the transcript for clarity.
Xerox’s Darren Cassidy
Channel Partners: What is Xerox’s channel strategy and how has its business model changed over the last year?
Darren Cassidy: The small-and-medium-size business (SMB) market is highly lucrative and rapidly growing. With 75 percent of office technology sales to SMBs made through indirect channels, Xerox is thoughtfully and aggressively expanding its partner program — particularly in recruiting multi-brand dealers. At the same time, we’re transforming the way we work with our mono-brand channel, enabling Xerox agents to be more agile and compete better — all backed by our marquee Xerox brand, and sales and service expertise.
In 2017, we signed several dozen high-potential channel partners around the globe. We also began moving tens of thousands of direct accounts to our partners to help Xerox capture a larger share of the SMB market.
CP: What are your predictions for the channel in 2018?