eseller
.co.uk
Print.ITReseller 17
PrintIT Reseller:
How is the printer
industry at the start of 2014? Is it in
a better place now that the global
economy is recovering?
EdCrowley:
Yes and no. Inmanyways
the industry is going throughwhat is called
a secular decline. It’s amature industry:
people are buying printers as replacement
devices, not as brand new installs.They
are also increasingly looking at using
MPS (managed print services) outsourcing
tomanage devicesmore effectively and
to give better deployment ratios along
the lines of 6-8 employees per device
rather than two employees per device in
unmanaged environments. So there’s a lot
of pressure to consolidate and right-size
the fleet.Then there’s the pressure on
printing in general, from iPads, cloud-based
computing and the arrival of Generation
Y in theworkplace.All these factors are
causing a decline in printed pages.We
have seen some rebound as the economy
improves globally, but not enough to
offset the overall trend of people printing
less.That’swhy firms like Xerox, Lexmark
andRicoh are very focused on shifting to
services, software and other value added
areas, as opposed to just print and copy.
PrintIT Reseller
:
AsWestern European
andUS economies recover,will
people becomemore relaxed about
printingorwill there be continued
pressure to reduce print volumes and
cut costs?
Crowley:
We think therewill be continued
pressure.With the recession, all of a
sudden people realised howmuch they
were spending on printing. Itmoved from
being something under the radar that
people didn’t think about to people saying
‘I know I’m spending toomuch on printing.
I don’t know howmuch, but I know it’s
toomuch’.We do a lot of workwithCIOs
andwe have seen that change in all sizes
of organisation.They are definitely focused
on cost.
PrintIT Reseller:
WillMPS continue
tobe the bestway to achieve cost
reductiongoals or couldbusinesses
exploit the capabilities of today’s
hardware anddevicemanagement
software anddo it themselves?
Crowley:
That’s a really interesting
question. I thinkwe are going to see an
evolution, in part.Therewill continue to be
a lot of firms that outsource their printing
q&a
Aheadof theTransformGlobalMPS conference takingplace in Louisville,
Kentucky on June 2-4,
PrintIT Reseller
asks PhotizoGroupCEO EdCrowley
about trends inmanagedprint services andwhat theymean for the channel
Thisyear’smodel
and imaging through theMPS route
because quite simply they don’t want to be
experts atmanaging fleets – that’s just not
something theywant to invest technology,
time or resources in. However, I thinkwe
will also see growth in the number of firms
that say ‘You knowwhat, I canmanage this
myself, perhaps evenmore cost-effectively’.
Sowhile outsourcedMPSwill continue
to be the dominantmodel, therewill be
growth inwhat I call self-managedMPS.
PrintIT Reseller:
What is the current
MPS adoption rate in theUK/Western
Europe and howdo you expect it to
change in the next few years?Where
will the growthbe?
Crowley:
We still see an adoption rate
of below 30% across Europe as awhole,
withmoremature levels of adoption in the
UK,Netherlands,Germany and perhaps
France.Our projection is that therewill
be a compound annual growth rate of
greater than 10% across Europe and the
UK.Growthwill be driven by two things:
more small andmedium-sized businesses
will adoptMPS,whereas in the past it’s
been very strong in the enterprise space;
and you are going to see a lot ofMPS
growth in the channel, rather than direct
frommanufacturers.Therewill be some
growth in enterprise accounts, but it will
be less about new accounts andmore
about account penetration,winning the
entire account – not just the country or the
headquarters, but the entire account.
PrintIT Reseller:
Do theMPS needs of
SMBs differ from thoseof enterprises
or is it just a questionof scale?
Crowley:
No, they are different. Some
things are similar: both have a need for
remotemanagement and remote supplies
fulfilment, for efficient delivery.Where
Continued...
Then there’s
the pressure
onprinting
ingeneral,
from iPads,
cloud-based
computing
and the
arrival of
GenerationY...
EdCrowley: PhotizoGroupCEO
