Features

Increasingly manufacturers are complaining of heightened challenges in the form of unhealthy competition, reduced turnovers and profits, recession and many more. No longer is it becoming feasible to merely produce goods and sell them to the highest bidder. The twenty first century manufacturer will have to value add to his services to create a niche for himself and give him added advantages to outperform competitors.

Training programmes for better utilization of machinery, different applications on existing machines, offering consultancy services in business management are being explored as ancillary services to core offerings.

Canon and Xerox have started hosting business consultancy programmes in the Middle East region.

Xerox ME has been conducting a 'Partnering for Success' programme, which has been organising events for two and half years. The manufacturer has worked with more than 20 organisations across the Middle East.

Dan Smith, head of integrated marketing for the Middle East and Africa region of Xerox's Developing Markets Operations says, "XL works very much hands-on, in real business situations invariably in-factory or in-field. In terms of 'attendance', XLMEA's work has minimal focus on classroom style training, we in fact attend the customer's factories/ sales offices and points of activity."

Participants at these workshops said:

Faisal Iqbal � general manager Digital Office, Dubai:

Following the global economic crisis we identified a need for a new direction into other markets and sectors; we wanted to move into higher value/ higher quality products and services.

With the local market crash in construction, hospitality and retail we faced increasingly high competition and considerably lower profitability and opportunity against what we had seen previously in the UAE.

As our technology provider, Xerox Emirates provided us with consultancy from XLMEA who carried out a Business Process Assessment and provided us a detailed report, recommendations and action plan.

The Assessment gave us a useful insight into where our business was in relation to where we wanted to go; it identified pre-press, print and finishing upgrades as well as the process, skills and focus changes we would need to consider.

In October 2010 we made extensive investment in print and finishing technology and we also significantly strengthened digital office's plant, personnel and infrastructure. Ongoing XL is working with us with sales and production support and we are now a realizing month-on-month increase in high-value colour output from Agency clients in particular.

In March we produced a piece to facilitate an entry into the Dubai Lynx Award for Brand Excellence; our client was successful and extremely grateful for a piece that featured high-quality print and speciality finishing provided by digital office.

Incidentally, this was our first submission into an awards event and something we expect to be doing more of in the future.

David Moujaes � 4Films Printing Group � Shwaikh, Kuwait City: Having been one of the early adopters of digital technology in Kuwait 4Films invested in the DC700 machine to add higher quality commercial colour output to our extensive range of packaging, publishing and point-of-sales applications.

The machine provided a missing link in our service offering and moved us away from simply proofing as we had mainly done before.

Our technology provider Alamana Industries provided 11 days bundled post-sales support from XL inclusive with the deal and scheduled it to meet our busy schedule. XL provided sales and production support that was invaluable in helping us build volume at the earliest opportunity.

Having given digital and solution sales training they then created agency-sector interest and lead generation by accompanying my team on sales calls.

Additionally they demonstrated innovative finishing techniques on some of the special materials we held in stock before providing a full cost model that integrated with our MIS.

Having set specific and progressive monthly volume targets for us I am delighted to say that we are already exceeding Xerox's recommended average machine usage and have filled 50% of the press output capacity within 3 months.

Additionally new customers are contributing around 20% of this digital growth and our investment showing incredible returns far greater than even 4Films could have forecast.

Dan Smith concludes, "In developing the digital readiness assessment (DRA) for MEA deployment, XL received broad acclaim across the global Xerox community for business excellence; the DRA for prospective and new customers is part of an extensive Xerox ProfitAccelerator toolkit which supports print customers across a full spectrum of business development requirements."