Cisco contracts Xerox managed print for global workforce

Xerox has signed a contract with Cisco to manage global print operations across more than 460 offices, making printing services easily accessible to employees working from different locations, using a variety of desktop and mobile devices.

As part of a new managed print services (MPS) strategy, Xerox will provide the Cisco workforce with more cost-effective ways to produce and manage documents, improving the efficiency of the print environment by 20%.

Using the Xerox Enterprise Print Services (EPS) platform to support a new cloud-based mobile print solution, Cisco will allow employees to securely print from any device, any time, anywhere without downloading software, mapping to a printer or booting up their laptops.

Xerox is represented in 26 African countries by Bytes Document Solutions, wholly owned by JSE-listed Altron.

“Xerox is helping evolve our print services to work the way our employees do. They don't sit at the same desk each day, using the same printer, but we need to make printing as simple as if they did,” says Sheila Jordan, VP, Communication and Collaboration, IT, Cisco. “The new print environment will help employees make cost-effective and environmentally sensitive printing decisions on a daily basis, and give them access to printed documents when they travel to another office, or even to a hotel.”

To meet corporate objectives for efficiency and cost control, Cisco will also use Xerox's print governance tools - automated “pop-up” guidelines on the computer screen to direct users to the best printing option based on price, energy efficiency and ink consumption.

Security is also a top priority for Cisco's MPS strategy, since many documents often involve sensitive financial or business information. To keep confidential documents secure, employees will swipe their badge to pick up print projects.

“This solution represents the future of MPS - combining managed print and cloud ITO services to work within a company's existing infrastructure, and support multiple locations and mobile technologies,” says Rabin Ram, MD Xerox division at Bytes Document Solutions. Cisco's workforce stays focused on business priorities because we're making sure they spend less time on print-related tasks in the office, and we're removing the barriers to printing while they are on the road.”

Xerox was positioned by Gartner in the Leaders' Quadrant in the 2010 Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services Worldwide, and recognised as a leader in IDC's Worldwide and US Outsourced Print and Document Services Forecast and Analysis2 and in IDC's 2010 MPS MarketScape report3. Xerox was also named a managed print services market leader in Quocirca's European Vendor “MPS Comes of Age” report 2010.