In the coming years, Xerox Corporation is more likely to be associated with business process outsourcing and document management, as the company looks towards India to cement its step away from its roots as a printer and copier firm.
The company is planning to scale up its nearly 10,000-strong employee base here in India, which is mainly focused on healthcare, human resources, transportation and customer care outsourcing.
“It goes something like this. In the first quarter of 2012, we realised that the revenue coming from our business process and IT services exceeded our product business revenue. We definitely project the same happening for India as outsourcing is a significant competency for us here,” said Sophie V. Vandebroek, Chief Technology Officer, Xerox Corporation, in an interaction with The Hindu here on Thursday.
“This doesn’t mean, however, that we are not going to focus on printers. As long as people wish to print, we will be there in that space. But just like newspapers, we too, must go digital,” she added.
Managed print services, where Xerox helps companies efficiently manage their printing requirements, has seen good growth in India, and is a space the company is eyeing.
“In the managed print services, we basically help clients cut down on costs by making them save electricity and so on while they print. While I don’t want to reveal names, we have some really great clients here in India which is making us take this seriously,” said Dr. Vandebroek.
The company recently moved its research and development centre to Bangalore, after initial hiccups took place here, which presently has 25 scientists.
“When we opened up a research centre in Chennai, we just couldn’t hire anybody. There is a serious lack of PhDs in computer science. By the end of this year, I’m looking at doubling the headcount to 50, and doubling again to a 100 scientists in the next three-to-four years,” she said.
The R&D centre is looking to push the envelope when it comes to BPO, with Xerox looking at crowdsourcing processing work to the semi-urban and rural areas of India soon.
