Fuji Xerox, the biggest supplier of multifunction office printers and document management systems in Asia Pacific, plans to launch its “cloud” business in mainland China’s major cities later this year, as the company starts to sharpen its focus on more sophisticated products and services in the world’s second-largest economy. The Tokyo-based company is also looking to enter the mainland’s fast-growing market for 3D printers, according to Fuji Xerox executive vice-president Masataka Jo, who is also president of the firm’s Greater China operations. “What we are trying to do is create a sustainable business model in China by enhancing our solutions development capability there,” Jo said in an interview. “So our strategy will increasingly focus on the higher end of the market.” In November, Hong Kong became one of the first markets outside of Japan where Fuji Xerox launched its new cloud services package known as “Smart Work Gateway”. Cloud services enable companies to buy, lease or sell software and other digital resources online, just like electricity from a power grid. These operations are hosted and managed in so-called data centres. The Fuji Xerox package combines a new “smart” multifunction device with technical support, apps-based automated document workflow and XpressGateway, an online hub that allows users to upload content to multiple cloud storage services – including Box, Google Drive and Dropbox – and print directly from those sites. “Hong Kong is one of the most profitable markets for Fuji Xerox as more than 50 per cent of its revenue now come from services,” Jo said. He pointed out that introducing Fuji Xerox cloud services on the mainland may require the firm to engage with a local third-party service provider, such as Alibaba Cloud, China Telecom or Neusoft Corp. Alibaba Cloud is a subsidiary of New York-listed Alibaba Group, which owns the. According to a Forrester Research report, the largest public cloud platforms on the mainland as of the fourth quarter of 2016 were Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft. “As a foreign company, we may need a data centre located in China to provide local cloud services,” Jo said.
