The Big are getting Bigger: Xerox 's Largest Acqusition Ever, Affiliated Computer Services: Who?

"We don’t see the world going paperless." Burns on CNBC.

Xerox announced, today, it will purchase Affiliated Computer Services creating a $22 billion global enterprise for document technology and business process management.

The deal is initially valued at $6.4 billion.

Affiliated Computer Services is what's called a "BPO" or "Business Process Outsourcing" provider.

ACS Started in 1988 as a provider to the banking industry. Today, ACS is 23rd on the VAR 500 and boasts recurring revenue of around $5 billion and 74,000 world-wide employees.

"Our recurring revenue model has allowed us to generate healthy growth. The growth potential with this deal will generate solid returns and provide employees the opportunities to expand their expertise," said Lynn Blodgett, president and CEO of ACS.

Indeed, Ursula stressed this new business group will bring "a significant boost to our profitable annuity stream".

The revenue Xerox generates from services will triple from $3.5 billion in 2008 to an estimated $10 billion in 2010.

ACS has nothing to do with copiers, printers, and output devices - it's all process outsourcing and resides in the the realm of EDS and Perot Systems.

Xerox is moving from the Third stage, Enhancing the Business Process into the Fourth stage of MPS, Managing the entire Ecosystem.

Also, ACS has the largest position in MediCaid and health care field.

So now the field is complete - HP/EDS, DELL/Perot, Xerox/ACS and Ricoh/IBM.

There is a very good interview from CNBC, here. Check it out.

Xerox Sells IT Outsourcing

During a Friday announcement, French IT company Atos SE revealed it is purchasing Xerox's IT outsourcing business in a deal reportedly valued at $1.05 billion in cash.

From an October 2009 statement regarding the ACS acquisition:

"...Xerox executives say the IT outsourcing portion of the ACS buy is integral to expanding the company's BPO offerings. "The lines between document outsourcing, BPO and ITO are blurring," says Paul Hartley, Xerox's vice president of corporate business strategy. "In fact, a robust IT infrastructure is paramount if it is to serve as the backbone of a BPO operation."

“Atos is a company with whom we’ve had a long relationship in several capacities. Selling the ITO business to Atos gives our clients around the globe an expanded, world-class suite of IT capabilities that complement Xerox’s industry leading BPO and document outsourcing solutions.” said Ursula Burns, Xerox’s chairman and CEO. “This transaction is another step in our ongoing portfolio management strategy and increases our focus on those areas where we can deliver the most value and expertise to our clients”.

What does this mean?

For the trenches, not much.  In a larger sense, Xerox is now able to focus on document based BPO and Document Outsourcing.  Xerox ITO services is was part of the ACS acquisition back in 2009:

The deal looks to be good for both Xerox and Atos; opening the US IT outsourcing market to Atos and allowing Xerox to collaborate with Atos and present Document BPO services to current clients.




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ACS, A Xerox Company, Helps Michigan Lower Costs, Improve Services

See Your Future, Be Your Future - From "paper food vouchers...to EBT magnetic stripe card..."

I noticed this press release, illustrating, once again, the IT integrators and MSP's will be in "our" space.

And, of course, reminding us all that print is dying.

08/07/2010 15:30

The FINANCIAL -- The State of Michigan’s program that provides Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefits is saving more than 25 percent in processing costs by moving from paper-based food vouchers to an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) system provided by Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS), A Xerox Company (NYSE: XRX).

Michigan’s WIC program provides nutritious foods and nutrition education for approximately half the infants born in the state. Moving to EBT, the state went from issuing more than 10 million paper food vouchers annually to providing recipients with an EBT magnetic stripe card for use at point-of-service terminals at retailers.

The Top Six Managed Print Services Organizations of 2012

Photizo, Supplies Network, Xerox, Great America, MWAi,  & Lyra 

Photizo - They get it right and have been there from the beginning.

Before Gartner ever considered an MPS Quadrant, Photizo was there.

Back then Gartner didn't give a lick.

IDC, didn't know MPS.

Back then, half of our "esteemed" instructors carpet bagged on dealer fear.

When the consultants of the day were espousing the similarity of  MpS to color and poo-pooing MpS as "just another marketing scheme..." Photizo tagged the name "Hybrid Dealer" - of course, they copied the phrase.

That's what Copiers Do.

While others were 'find and replacing' the word 'copier' for 'MPS', Photizo published the Three Adoption Stages of MpS.

And just as others enveloped those three into their MPS talk-track, Photizo added even more stages, resulting in the above chart.

They've gotten it.  They've been on it from day one.

Now some in our ecosystem confuse me with them, promoting me as a Photizo employee or worse, their hatchet-man.  Don't get me wrong, I have no problem being a GunSlinger, but I choose both my allies and my targets - nobody tells me where the Red Dot lands.

Truly, if back in the day anybody else was saying what Photizo was saying, I would acknowledge them as well.  

"...Sooner or later, One has to take sides, if one is to remain human..."

So we make our choices and we stick with the plan.  I chose Photizo because they've been right there on the same page as I, seeing the same things I have in the field from Genesis.  And sometimes, they make people uncomfortable - awe, poor baby...

One Has to Take Sides
The Quiet American — MOVIECLIPS.com

DOTC, TheDeathOfTheChannel - More From 2011 Global MPS Conference

I am a big fan of those ad-hoc meetings around the watering hole, in the lounge or on the bus to Harley Davidson.

You never know who may end up sitting next to on the bus ride over.

This year some of the offline talk revolved around the OEMs - indeed, we had Xerox, HP, Ricoh, and Canon all on one stage fielding questions.  I don't think this has ever happened before.

One conversation that struck me was about 'control' or better yet, the lack of control the OEMs have relative to just 2 years ago.  Control over the industry, over the channel, over the customer.

I detected a bit of anxiety, bitterness.  Granted, the relationship between dealer and OEM has always been strained, right?  And over the years, we've all heard the common complaints, the same gripes  -

• "manufacturers quotas are unrealistic and they keep changing"
• "they are shifting their warehousing cost to us"
• "why is your service rate so high"
• "how can I compete when your toner pricing is so high?"
• "CBS vs. the Canon dealer"
• "RBS vs. the Ricoh dealer"
• "direct vs. the dealer'
• "Are they redefining an Enterprise Level Account, again?"
• "thank goodness for back-end and MDF..."

But this time it was different.  This time, as I listened, waftng through the angst was something different.  A bad smell.

Difficult to pinpoint. But then it hit me. It was the stench of fear.

You see, these self-proclaimed 'independents', were not simply complaining, they were scared.  For a second, I felt badly as they seemed to prefer ignorance over fear.

In the end, all I felt was pity.

Managed Print Services: Who Can Get Out of the Hardware Business First? Xerox or HP?

IBM beat them both but this article regarding Xerox's re-branding into a Business Process Management company tells me Xerox is hitting this hard.

State of California Shuns HP in Favor of ACS - EDS Fallout?

At first the announcement by California Department of Health Care Services, stating it intends to award a $1.4 billion, 10-year contract to Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services, may not seem to fall within the MPS wheelhouse.

Under terms of the proposed contract, Affiliated Computer Services would process claims for 7 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries, starting early next year.

What makes this interesting to me is the fact that Affiliated Computer Services, ACS, has recently been purchased by Xerox.

And the current provider, for the last 18 years, was not HP but EDS - HP inherited the account when it purchased EDS.

Get use to this battle - HP and Xerox fighting over a "service", not hardware.

Still think I'm crazy about the "Death of the Copier"??

This could possibly effect some 2,000 jobs here in California.

Besides all the Xerox vs. HP intrigue, why is it that my state officials can possibly justify risking thousand's of jobs by not utilizing a Californian company?

I guess MPS is not the only place where logic sometimes does not prevail.

More here.

And here.

Greg's Top 12 of 2012 - The End of the World as We Know It...Well, not Really...

For you, dear reader, my personal top 12 for 2012.

A list of what I see happening in the coming year, for us, our industry, and our world.

In a moment of pure randomness, a stream of consciousness, my off-the-cuff opinion - feel free to disagree:

12. Content

Content is everything. And it grows.  Not simply printed content, Tweets, cable/digital TV, cellphone calls, dead-emails, texts, sexts, DropBox, utility bills - bumper stickers, ATM transactions: Everything.

And there is the DarkContent/DarkMatter - the "metadata" - the stuff we can't forget because we've never seen it. For example, if you are running FourSquare, your every step is recorded, not just the cute 'check-ins'.  Your movement is recorded and filed off into the great Rift that is DarkConent.  Same with your NetFlix orders and cable TV viewing patterns, your Visa spends, and the digital footprint that follows your every search, view, post, comment, and click.

All there, all Dark and unseen.  Collective.

The Age of Content is engaged, 2012 will reveal more.

11. Social Everything

Everybody is touching everyone, everywhere - Twitter is going to kill news collectors and email; and not a printer in sight.  DropBox/BoxNet makes sharing large, exchange-choking files a snap.  Tablets will be faster, . PDFs will download instantly(almost) and the screen will be the new 'paper'.

10. Less Copiers

That's right, less 11x17, less off the glass copying.  'Nuff said...

Managed Print Services is Dead - "...alas poor MPS-Guy...I knew thee well..."

12/2010

I love it.

Just as everyone figures out how to spell MPS, industry pundits kill it.

Photizo called heavy growth rates in MPS Engagements through 2015 - of course, this was back in the "olden days" - 2009!

Last year at Lyra, consultants and statisticians explained that we will never return to the same levels of units (copier) sold, pre-2009.

Do you get that? Does anyone?

Why yes, some do...some have all along. HP buys EDS, and Xerox takes ACS.

Why paint MPS all black? Why kill MPS after just three short years? Why blacken the Sun?

I've said it before. Change releases fear and fear motivates.

Contrary to what the Imaging Intelligentsia bloviate, we are not witnessing the beginning of the End Managed Print Services - we are seeing the last gasp of "Print Services"(it's the "M" - stupid)

Two informational items were released this month: