Swamini Kulkarni
Organizations and businesses have been trying to reduce the cost of operation, improve efficiency, and improve security. Managed print services (MPS) help in achieving these objectives with innvoative print management.
Market players operating in the MPS industry have adopted various strategies such as new product launches, mergers, and collaborations to gain major share and competitive edge. Lexmark has launched cloud print infrastructure for simplification of printing processes for organizations.
Moreover, SCC has merged with M2 to enhance their capabilities and gain a consolidated market presence. HP also made a move in which it will make MPS accounts accessible to partners in the print premier channel program in the U.S.
The MPS industry is booming with these strategies. According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global market for managed print services is expected to reach $59.70 billion by 2025. Following are some of the activities taking place in the industry:
Lexmark CPI to eliminate complexities in printing:
New product launch is another crucial strategy implemented by market players to gain major market share in the global industry. Lexmark, the world’s leading imaging solutions provider, revealed the launch of Lexmark Cloud Print Infrastructure (CPI).
This is a technologically advanced solution that utilizes IoT and cloud for managed print services. This new solution enables access to secure print environment with the help of a subscription service. In this service, users need to pay for print capacity instead of buying and maintaining physical infrastructure on their own.
This approach helps the IT departments in reducing the overall costs along with gaining the enhanced experience. Moreover, the flexible subscription pricing options enables efficient management of time and billings.
Allen Waugerman, the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, said that Lexmark CPI simplifies the way customers approach print. Customers do not need to take care of printing infrastructure; they only need to care about the printing capacity. This solution simplifies the print management with the help of IT management and user support.
Lexmark’s data-based Print Fleet Design offers customers a connected and standardized fleet of devices. The hardware deployment plans address security protections, current use patterns, and future print requirements. This fleet is owned by Lexmark, which offers flexibility in expense accounting.
In addition, cloud print management helps customers in eliminating physical infrastructure along with offering support to print environment. The documents are moved to Lexmark Cloud, the user needs to authenticate at the printer, and prints can be taken.
Merger of SCC with M2:
Mergers & acquisitions are among crucial strategies adopted by market players to capitalize opportunities. SCC has merged with M2, a leading managed print services firm to capitalize on new market opportunities.
This merger ensures the entry of SCC into the managed print & document services (MPDS) industry. With initial acquisition in February 2014, there have been significant milestones such as opening of new headquarters in Manchester along with acquisition of Hobs On-Site. SCC outlined that the combination of resources offers consolidated market presence.
James Rigby, the CEO at SCC, stated that the shared capabilities enabled a considerable impact on delivery capabilities. He added that the right time to merge M2 into SCC has come and the company intends to grow into the MPDS industry. This industry has converged with IT from past few years and the recent trends would offer more opportunities in the industry.
HP’s fantastic move:
HP announced that it will make its MPS accounts accessible to partners in the print premier channel program in the U.S. Grad Rosenbaum, the Vice President and General Manager of solutions in the Americas at HP, outlined that the company decided to pull back the coverage from thousands of accounts and reinvest to support its U.S. premium partners.
As there is a small base of partners in the company’s premium channel program, it will emphasize less on direct MPS engagements and more on attracting new partners. The accounts for the U.S. print premier channel partners will be available as the contracts with the company ends. This implies that the shift will take place gradually over few years.
Rosenbaum outlined that HP will hire for different roles including workflow specialists, reseller reps, and security specialists for offering support to their premier partners. A dedicated HP lead account manager will serve a huge portion of accounts along with the channel lead. This shift involves A3 and A4 product lines.
As the time progresses, HP intends to provide MPS to the biggest enterprises only. The market is expected to adapt quickly to MPS, however, the company will not have a massive install base. Pat Russell, CEO of ImageNet, a premium partner of HP, opined that the move of HP is fantastic. This move enables them to collaborate and add more value to their customers. He outlined that they are stronger as a collaborative force than when they are competitors.
Wow, it’s amazing to know that managed print services are actually booming lately. I’m thinking about hiring that kind of service for when I start my own marketing agency someday. That way, I can make sure that resources spent on ink and paper would be managed efficiently.