Technological Revolution Through Managed Print Services
While printing dozens of documents in a day at work, one may not realise that print-related costs can constitute as much as 3% of annual revenues for an organization. In fact, printing is the third-highest business operating expense, after rent and payroll. A Gartner Group study (2015) shows that around 90% of businesses do not have an idea about how many printers are in use and how much they are spending on print. A typical office worker could print up to 10,000 pages annually unintentionally costing you approximately 49,700 rupees.
The absence of a unified printer policy in a company is one of the key reasons for such high printing costs, making it compelling to adopt Managed Print Services (MPS). MPS enables centralizing, optimizing and managing all aspects of printing devices through a unified program offered by print providers. It encompasses all devices such as printers, scanners, faxes and copiers, under a single platform, enabling better savings, reduction in printer fleet and thereby, reduced paper waste. Thus, MPS ensures better cost management, elimination of excess devices and inventory, lowered print volumes and improved security by building in user authentication and activity tracking.
A Grand View Research, Inc., report suggests that the MPS market will reach $49.7 billion by 2025. Two of the key trends that will make MPS critical in this era of digitization are Cloud and Data analytics.
Cloud-based PMS
Organizations are increasingly moving towards cloud-based deployment of all enterprise software due to the cost and management benefits. MPS too will go the cloud way with 40% of the businesses opting for that, coupled with hybrid deployment mode in the next few years. Apart from remote management and access for clients, the cloud will also provide the benefit of faster service, reduced clutter and expansion to newer areas for service providers.
Big Data and Analytics
With access to Big Data and improved analytics solutions, businesses will be able to better understand usage patterns and optimize infrastructure. This will be key to developing unified printing strategies for organisations, which will be easy to implement and monitor, and consequently increasing efficiencies.
With smart devices becoming ubiquitous, the need for printing has reduced tremendously, and as workflows get automated, organizations will depend on MPS for improved ROI.
Automating Ordering
Printers are also coming with new technologies such as automated ordering so that the need is assessed by the supplier before accepting the order. This is because, many a time, people throw a toner or cartridge away seeing an alert message, not realizing that it still can go for some more time before it needs replacing. Another feature that is pocket and environment-friendly is that of enabling two-sided print. Professional and reliable vendors will, in fact, be able to provide greener alternatives which still address an organisation's printing needs. The CEOs, COOs, CTOs and leaders of the future should actively look into and demand such alternatives from their service providers.
Going Beyond Printing
MPS providers help clients with business process automation, document workflow, and information management. Apart from handling different types of print jobs, they also ensure secure printing and scanning, controlling all types/models of printers, and providing IT help desk support, technical service, maintenance and handling of all print requests.
MPS helps decrease an organization's environmental footprint by reducing the amount of paper and toner required, consuming less energy, generating fewer greenhouse gases and keeping waste out of landfills. It helps manage the volume and nature of printouts and monitor and manage the print devices in an environment. In a nutshell, MPS is revolutionizing the printing activity of organizations for improved efficiency and optimising costs, while benefiting the environment.
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