Bell Canada said Tuesday it has extended a document services agreement with Xerox Canada for five years.
The deal was originally struck in 1995 and involves approximately
15 services in 14 different Bell locations, including printing, scanning, graphic design, mass e-mails, courier services and project management. The value of contract extension was not disclosed.
“”Within our infrastructure, because they know us so well, they’re able to say, ‘This is a more effective way of communicating that message,'”” said Larry Anderson, associate director of strategic relationships, Bell Canada. “”That’s the sort of thing we expect from them because they are truly part of our infrastructure. We ask them basically to think like and act like Bell employees.””
Xerox, which until recently used the slogan “”the Document Company,”” is primarily responsible for nuts and bolts-type management associated with printing and document management for Bell’s employee-facing services. Through the contract, Xerox may aid Bell in printing materials circulated to Bell employees and manage intranet services like booking conference rooms. Related services that Xerox does not handle are subcontracted out.
Xerox’s input into actual content is limited, but may aid in graphic design decisions or suggest cost-saving measures, said Anderson. “”They will come to us with some ideas.””
“”Let’s say you want to prepare for a leadership meeting or something, we would be involved in helping them create the right message and the right documents,”” said Rod Turgeon, vice-president of eastern operations in Xerox Canada’s Montreal office.
When the original deal was struck 10 years ago, a number of Bell employees moved over to Xerox and Xerox maintains personnel at each of the Bell sites it services.
“”They’re a strong culture, just like us,”” said Turgeon. “”I think we’re aligned from a customer-set standpoint. Every month we survey our users. . . . We bring forward new initiatives and new mandates to reduce cost. Every day . . . we try to bring a new perspective on what we do on-site.””
The level of service has evolved over the length of the contract to reflect changes in technology and corporate culture, said Anderson. In the future, Xerox’s responsibilities may be expanded to involve a larger share of Bell’s document management.
“”I wouldn’t say it’s a big initiative now, but it’s definitely something they want to look at and they’re pursuing some options with our technology people,”” said Anderson.””It’s the next logical step from a lot of the site services that they provide us today.””
Additional services could include knowledge management and storage solutions, but that has yet to be determined, he said, adding that there are other providers in the market and future services would likely be determined through a competitive process.
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