Print.IT Reseller - issue 68

01732 759725 PRINT PREDICTIONS 46 ...continued merging of the traditional print world and IT services, something that we at Toshiba have been investing in with a number of key appointments and investments in the product and solutions portfolio. Finally, in this competitive market in which we operate, 2020 will continue to require the channel to demonstrate how it addresses the challenges that end-users face, providing solutions that clearly meet their needs. Importantly, these needs increasingly include ‘softer’ elements such as working with a partner that has strong ethical standards and CSR or environmental credentials. www.toshibatec.co.uk James Pittick, Director of B2B Indirect Sales, Canon n Automating paper-based workflows will become a higher business priority: Over the course of 2020, the industry will see a more prevalent shift to the digitisation of workflows, as these technologies and processes become more mainstream. Businesses will continue to look for experts who can consult on the available solutions and how they can help them deliver more efficiencies in their business by take their paper-based processes and automating or digitising them. Along with this, the blending of print and digital processes will further enhance the services that partners can offer to customers. n Print will become more relevant in a broader IT services proposition: Customer expectation will drive a need for partners to diversify their offering. Increasingly, customers are looking for partners who can advise them on a wide range of IT services and digital transformation more broadly. Print will be one element to a range of broader requirements, for example, printers integrating with collaboration tools and file sharing services. Partners who wish to grow in the year ahead, will need to become generalists across a range of technologies, rather than specialists. n Personalised print will become more prevalent: Higher quality, point of sale material will become more personalised in the mainstream print arena. We can see this happening already in the rise of personalised print services such as bespoke wallpaper and personalised wrapping paper on the high street. Personalisation is being driven by customer demand, but also innovation in the market where digitisation is complementing and advancing traditional print services. n New revenue opportunities will be created between high-end office and low-end print: The ‘overlap zone’ between high-end office print and low- end light production in professional print will create more opportunities for the channel. New printers on the market, such as Canon’s imagePRESS C165, will boost in-house print. Creative businesses and marketers will not necessarily require managed or outsourced print rooms to create high quality, bespoke creative outputs. This development in the print market will open up new revenue streams for partners, allowing them to offer a broader range of capabilities for creative industries. n Partners will need to build out their ecosystem and form alliances in 2020: The market is evolving at a rapid pace in terms of acquisitive activity, consolidation and customer choice. The partners who are slow to adapt, will run the risk of being left behind. For many partners, expanding or acquiring businesses might not be an option in this economic climate. To diversify, the channel will look to build out its ecosystem, with partners forming closer alliances with each other. For example, print specialists will look to partner with other businesses who are more experienced in IT services. www.canon.co.uk Dave Weston, Head of Channel Sales, OKI I predict challenging times ahead for print, margins are eroding, competition is fierce and economic uncertainty continues. However, OKI remains focused on finding those opportunities where we add value for our customers. This high profit method will take our resellers on a deep dive into the green ocean where it is less about price and more about the solutions being provided, in turn adding meaningful value for our end customers. www.oki.com Jeremy Spencer, Director of Marketing, Toshiba TEC In 2020, we expect to see accelerated adoption of process optimisation, with users capitalising on the major efficiency savings that can be delivered through intelligent document management and the digitisation of workflows. These efficiencies are ever more important given the fragility of the current business climate, with businesses looking at flexible finance models and subscription services over traditional capital expenditure which enables them to realise greater value within their organisations. Clearly this builds on the ongoing Dave Weston James Pittick Jeremy Spencer 2020 will continue to require the channel to demonstrate how it addresses the challenges that end- users face