By Terry Antinora, Vice President, Office and Solutions Business Group, Xerox
All great partnerships are an evolution that take time and commitment to develop. We have been working with Staples for nearly 20 years as a retail location for our customers to purchase Xerox printing solutions. We also provide a fleet of Xerox production devices to support their Print & Marketing Service Centers across the country. Our services help customers and small businesses work better and be more productive.
Today, we’re continuing to serve customers in new, innovative ways with the introduction of the Staples self-serve kiosk. The new kiosk, built by Staples, Xerox and EFI, gives customers greater control over their time and production through independent scanning, printing, emailing or faxing.
The Staples self-serve kiosk is a custom-built device for Staples in-store customers and is unlike anything else on the market. It offers the printing capabilities of the Xerox WorkCentre 7800 Series Multifunction Printer (MFP) and a new Android-based, easy-to-use interface that runs on a standard tablet attached to the MFP. Payment, usage and receipt functionality works seamlessly at the device and also includes the option to scan in coupons or a Staples customer loyalty card during a transaction.
This level of innovation doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, it took nearly two years to bring this device to market. But through the persistence of committed partners with a shared vision we created a breakthrough product that helps customers be more productive. Countless setbacks, surprises and disappointments make innovation difficult but also rewarding. Each partner brought a unique passion to development that helped to overcome every obstacle and bring an industry-defining product to market.
In August, nearly 3,000 devices were placed in Staples stores across the country, and although the new self-service fleet is less than three months old, Staples is already seeing a positive response from customers and associates. Jose Bernal, Vice President of Production and Operations for Staples said, “The growth of traditional services like printing and copying has exceeded our expectations and new services like scanning and emailing are growing at a surprising clip.”
The development team recently received the Staples Innovation Award at the annual Staples Supplier Summit. The Innovation Award is given to projects that are breakthrough technologies that significantly improve Staples workflows and the customer experience. The development team was awarded the honor for their unlimited commitment to the successful execution of a bold vision.
The Staples self-serve kiosk was a labor of love and we’re proud of what we have built together. If partnerships are an evolution, innovation is a journey that we are honored to walk with Staples and EFI.
Congratulations on the innovation award Xerox !
On behalf of EFI, it was great to work with Xerox and Staples on this project.
_Toby
Senior Vice President, EFI
On behalf of Xerox, thank you Toby and the entire EFI team for your partnership in delivering this innovative solution to Staples and its customers.
Terry
And on behalf of a Xerox retiree, who loves his Beaufort, SC Staples store, congratulations. Can’t wait to use it. Many years ago I worked in the initial “Association Marketing” organization where we established co-operatives.
Thank you Rod for both your past contributions to Xerox as well as your current allegiance to Staples in their Beaufort, SC store. I manage the Xerox/Staples relationship and we’re proud of our partnership and the innovation and effort that went into the development of this solution. We look forward to your feedback when you have a chance to visit the store again.
Regards,
Matt Mielbye
Strategic Account General Manager, Xerox
Inviatemi offerte promozionali dei fotocopiatori A3 e A4 color e dei rispettivi prezzi dei toner bianco e nero e a colori, nonchè i nominativi dei vostri rivenditori di zona. Grazie e saluti. Gaetano Carleo
Hi Xerox Team, great job… This is a solution only to Staples?.. Is threre the possibility of implement this Xerox elf-serve kiosk for other Xerox Customers with similar business to Staples in other country?
Regards
Luis Arturo
(Responding on behalf of Terry Antinora, VP/GM, Workplace Solutions)
Luis, thank you for your positive comments and interest in the Staples self-serve device. We certainly are very proud of our partnership with Staples and the resulting offering. Regarding your question, this particular solution is a custom-built device for Staples’ in-store customers in their U.S. stores. However, we are always looking at ways to leverage our innovative technology to help small businesses and mobile workers be more productive and transform the way work gets done.
Great solution guys, well done. I know how hard you work to deliver great solutions for Staples – this one certainly looks like a winner!
These copiers are a major FAIL! They don’t read USB drives from Macs. (Remember Macs? Built by the biggest computer company in the world? Or is that the biggest COMPANY in the world – period!?) Even if you format the USB for a Windows machine using EXfat, these brain-dead copiers won’t read the USB stick! How mentally-challenged does an engineer have to be not to anticipate that someone with a Mac might try to print copies?
This entire project is a FAILURE because it doesn’t take REALITY into account!
So Xerox, wise up. Stop patting yourself on the back and go find some REAL software engineers who can fix your project.
Hello, Michael. Thank you for sharing your concern. I elevated your comment to one of the engineers on the kiosk team, and here is his response:
“Xerox Kiosks do support FAT/FAT32 USB format which is supported by MACs, in addition to Windows and Linux. This seemed to satisfy most of our users. But recently we have been getting more feedback, in addition to yours, to add support for more formats. As a result we are in the process of investigating what is required to add other formats such as exFAT and HFS+ in follow on releases.”