Introduction

Xerox has long defined the modern work experience and is doing it again today with automation. Having streamlined and simplified its internal processes with UiPath automation, the global giant is now leveraging this success to power a radical transformation at the heart of its business—by delivering RPA-as-a-Service to its own customers around the world. Reinvention has always been at the heart of the Xerox story: 50 years before launching the first photocopier, the company was founded as a manufacturer of photographic paper and equipment. And while a significant share of its revenues continues to come from its core printing business, the Xerox of today is just as well-known for its wide range of business solutions and services—automation included. So how did one of the world’s best-known printer manufacturers make the transition into the automation arena? Necessity, in this case, really did prove to be the mother of all inventions, according to the company’s Chief Digital Officer, Steve Miller. “On literally my first day, our Chief Revenue Officer sat down with me and explained that if we couldn’t improve the way that we were invoicing some of our biggest customers—if we couldn’t automate that process we could risk them not renewing with us,” says Miller. “So right away, we had a very, very good reason to accelerate our automation initiatives.” While the challenge to simplify Xerox invoicing may have been a steep one, Miller and his team automated the process using the UiPath Platform; thereby eliminating the need for manual invoice creation altogether. Though solving this challenge turned out to be a major milestone on Xerox’s automation journey, it wasn’t its first step. The company had been engaged with UiPath since 2016 to automate processes successfully across Supply Chain, Contact Centre, HR and Finance departments.  

Right off the bat, UiPath and Xerox collaborated heavily on some complex, high value use cases. Those initial wins quickly changed the narrative about the value of automation within Xerox.

– Steve Miller, Chief Digital Officer at Xerox

Other initiatives soon followed, including a series of automation bootcamps that helped to raise the profile of automation within the company and created new opportunities for innovators across the business to get involved. That, in combination with the set-up of a Global Automation Centre of Excellence fostered an environment in which learning and experimenting with automation is actively encouraged. Xerox now has a thriving citizen developer community, with members of the organisation meeting weekly to discuss best practices, share automation ideas, and get support from subject matter experts. This enthusiasm has contributed to the development of more complex automations across the business, including customer service and sales enablement. Here, robots are providing on-demand reports to Xerox Account and Service Delivery Managers about equipment in the field – enabling them to have quick, insightful conversations with customers about billing, renewals and more. The robots also manage the customer supply replenishment process and handle Service Desk integrations tasks. All further streamlining and enhancing customer experience and engagement. The success of these programs clearly demonstrated the huge value in automation to Xerox’s executive committee. At the same time, they weren’t the only ones paying attention. Many of Xerox’s customers saw that something was afoot, and they weren’t shy about saying so.  

Our customers saw us becoming more agile, and they started to ask ‘okay, you’ve transformed your business, so how can you help us?’ That’s really what brought us our initial commercial success. We had customers trying to tackle very similar problems to the ones that we’d solved with UiPath.

– Steve Miller, Chief Digital Officer, Xerox

Those conversations proved to be a foundational moment for Xerox. And, with a growing number of automation-related requests coming in from its large enterprise and small and medium-sized business customers, Xerox moved ahead with a commercial automation practice of its own. This new RPA as a Service offering was transformational – creating completely a new line of business and a significant additional revenue stream for Xerox. One that continues to flourish. “We’d gained so much experience from automating what were very complex application environments within Xerox that it gave us the confidence to push ahead with that opportunity,” says Miller. “Working with UiPath gave us a great platform from which we could leverage some of the tools that we’d built for internal use and offer them to our customers. And because we had so many of the pieces already in place, we were able to bring that solution to market in a matter of months.” Xerox’s library of bots has been converted into a catalogue, enabling its customers to quickly and easily explore potential automation opportunities within their own business. Applications stretch from Claims Automation and Deal Pricing in finance through to Email Campaigns in marketing and Stock Tracking in customer service. Operations, sales, admin, legal, and support professionals are similarly well-served. And if customers aren’t able to find what they need from within the existing list, Xerox can create new, custom bots tailored to the client’s specific requirements. “We’ve created an end-to-end automation solution for our customers, and UiPath was integral to our ability to do that,” says Miller. “We were able to combine the bots we’d created through UiPath with our own experiences of pain points and problems. What we have now is a solution that is highly transferable across multiple industries and functions, and businesses both big and small.” Looking ahead, UiPath is helping Xerox refine and expand its automation program both internally and externally. The companies are working together to leverage Xerox’s own deep expertise in AI gained through its Palo Alto Research Center, the renowned scientific research and Open Innovation company based in Silicon Valley, and are taking advantage of the advanced AI features available in the UiPath Platform, to embrace what’s truly possible for Xerox and its customers.  

We measure automation performance in a few ways. We look at ROI, and we’ll look at increases in productivity too. But there’s something else, and that’s whether it’s making our people’s days better. No-one likes doing manual work, a lot of heavy lifting—so success means helping them shake off that burden too.

– Steve Miller, Chief Digital Officer, Xerox