Xerox takes on IT services

Xerox, like IBM and HP, has repositioned itself as a service company, which now gets nearly 50% of its revenue from services, rather than hardware, reports The Wall Street Journal Online.

Xerox's $6.4 billion purchase of data powerhouse Affiliated Computer Services, has resulted in the company more than doubling its potential markets, from $132 billion to $500 billion.

Xerox's new businesses have expanded into performing and processing background checks on a company's new employees to billing E-ZPass electronic toll collections to a driver's credit card.

Bharti Airtel has become the first mobile operator in India to get a licence from the Reserve Bank of India to start mobile payment services, states The Hindu Business Line.

This service will allow Airtel subscribers to exchange physical cash for virtual money, which can be stored on mobile phones to pay for goods and services.

The company has termed the service as a 'semi-closed wallet', which means the financial services platform may be opened to third-party vendors as well.

The majority of consumers go to their mobile provider's Web site to pay a bill, according to Fiserv, says Connected Planet.

The results of Fiserv's '2010 billing household survey', which collected answers from more than 2 000 consumers, showed that users are more likely to go to an operator Web site to check a bill or make a payment than buy a new product.

“Mobile operators make product and services the most prevalent part of their pages when clearly payment should be more prevalent,” says Eric Leiserson, senior research analyst with Fiserv Biller Solutions said, adding that 46% of the consumers surveyed go to the sites to review their bills.