Xerox, Office Depot Strike MFP Point-Of-Sale Deal

"Xerox has installed AutoPay, a solution from Equitrac, a Xerox Alliance Partner, on some of its MFPs. Office Depot customers can swipe credit cards, store purchasing cards and gift cards. The solution automatically estimates the cost of the job, verifies there are sufficient funds on the card, applies Office Depot Worklife Rewards loyalty points and prints a receipt when the job is complete"

By Michele Masterson, ChannelWeb

11:25 AM EDT Thu. Apr. 16, 2009

Taking care of business, Office Depot (NYSE:ODP) Thursday said its customers will now be able to print and pay for copies directly from certain Xerox (NYSE:XRX) MFPs in its 1,1000 U.S. stores.

Xerox has installed AutoPay, a solution from Equitrac, a Xerox Alliance Partner, on some of its MFPs. Office Depot customers can swipe credit cards, store purchasing cards and gift cards. The solution automatically estimates the cost of the job, verifies there are sufficient funds on the card, applies Office Depot Worklife Rewards loyalty points and prints a receipt when the job is complete.

AutoPay integrates Xerox Secure Access Unified ID system card readers with Equitrac software for secure payments from the device. The solution works on the Xerox WorkCentre 5655, and on its WorkCentre 7655 printers.

Xerox and Office Depot have a 20-year partnership, which includes staffing its retail stores with Xerox Certified Print Specialists.

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I hope Office Depot doesn't apply the same "margin enhancement program" here as it did for all the government and non-profits around the country.

LOL! I found this - I like Xerox, I like the Phaser, alot. But this is Funny

The best line of this little video is "...save...the Chewbaca's..."

Interview: Printing in the SMB market - Lexmark

In an interview with Kevin Goffi, Lexmark international vice-president and general manager of worldwide SMB and printing solutions, Matthew Sainsbury, at ARN, asks abut Lexmark and Managed Print Services.

Here are three questions, the complete interview is here.

Managed print services is an area generating a lot of interest. How is Lexmark involved with its partner in this space?

KG: We’re involved on a couple of levels, and it really depends on the maturity level of the partner. Some partners are more leading edge, and have already developed the capability to do managed print services. In that case, they’re not really looking at us for expertise – they are after a hardware and supply model that will fi t into the type of solutions they’re creating for end users. At a grander level, we will work with partners to help them understand the business – we have a managed print services offering that we do for very large enterprises and have been doing for a number of years. We believe we understand business well, and we will work with partners to educate them on it.

To what extent do you see managed print services penetrating into the SMB market over the next year?

KG: We see it as becoming significant, and it’s directly coupled with the economy. I see this as an opportunity for partners. If an SMB is looking to upgrade technology, in many cases they might put that decision off until they see how the economic situation pans out. I’m seeing great partners and customers moving more quickly when there’s a managed print services offering than a pure hardware acquisition.

Security in the SMB space around printing – is it much of an issue?

KG: It’s a similar discussion to environmental sustainability. The difference between an enterprise and an SMB is that typically an enterprise is going to have a strict security profi le that they implement through their IT department. SMBs, especially at the smaller end of town, may not have their own IT department or person looking after that. They will generally look to their IT reseller to help provide that. The desire is there, but the SMB’s ability to implement that is not going to be at the same level as an enterprise – and again that’s an area I see as an opportunity for our resellers\