“The channel certification and people’s database management project is a major new initiative for us,” explained Maurits Aalders, European Channel Marketing Manager, Office Group, Xerox Europe. “Our channel support processes have been very ad-hoc in the past and we’ve been very limited in what we can do on an international scale. With the decision to really push our people certification in the channel, we needed a method of effectively managing our programme across Europe, which is why we have rolled out Jobpartners’ solutions.”

One of the main goals of the programme is to encourage Xerox’s channel staff to achieve certification, enabling them to advise customers on a larger range of Xerox products, as well as satisfy the growing demand for services-led fixed cost-per-page contracts with PagePack. Upon successful completion of various learning modules, individuals are awarded Xerox certification. Training includes learning about Xerox products, services, selling processes and channel management processes via e-Learning and face-to-face training modules.

ActivePlanner, which has been designed to enable the management of employee development, is tightly integrated with Xerox’s e-Learning system and is used by the company to manage the certification scheme across Europe. Using ActivePlanner, Xerox’s managers can quickly and easily check on each channel partner’s employee numbers and attrition status, as well as view the progress of each individual’s learning path throughout Europe.

ActiveCenter is used to store information on each individual and each channel partner such as how many people are in each organisation, their job role, what skills they have, and above all if they are certified. This enables Xerox to create a consolidated view of its sales channel and internal staff.

“The information on our partners and people across Europe used to be stored in a number of systems which made it very difficult and very time consuming to run a Europe-wide report,” explained  Aalders. “ActiveCenter will help us to manage our sales channel distribution capacity and people certification programme much more efficiently by enabling us to create a central store of information. This means we can gain an instant snapshot of our people and partners which will help us to drive our business forward. We also hope to improve the productivity of our managers, as they now have all the information they need at their fingertips rather than having to access multiple systems.”

ActiveCenter and ActivePlanner is available in seven languages, including English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

As well as rolling out ActiveCenter and ActivePlanner, Xerox has renewed its contract to use Jobpartners’ ActiveRecruiter for a further three years. ActiveRecruiter has been successfully used by Xerox for several years to streamline recruitment for the company’s network of exclusive channel partners, known as concessionaires. The solution, which has been implemented in 15 countries in Europe, has helped Xerox to create a talent pool, reduce recruitment costs and enhance its employer brand.

“Having worked with Jobpartners for several years, we are confident that the company has an excellent understanding of our business needs. The success we’ve enjoyed with Jobpartners’ ActiveRecruiter has given us the confidence to roll out ActiveCenter and ActivePlanner. Both solutions fit exactly with what we want to achieve with the channel certification and people database management programme,” concluded Aalders.