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PRINT.IT
11
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2012 promises to be another
year of growth for managed
print services as the need
for businesses to economise,
improve environmental
performance and introduce
paperless processes keeps
document workflows and
printing at the top of the
corporate agenda.
According to Photizo Group’s
2011 MPS Market Size, Share
and Forecast Study
, the
worldwide market for Managed
Print Services grew 27% in 2010,
in line with the group’s forecast
of a CAGR of 20% from 2010-15.
Latin America and Asia Pacific
are the fastest growing areas,
but as Photizo Group founder
and CEO Ed Crowley points out,
difficult economic conditions
mean that MPS continues to
attract new customers in mature
economies.
“The MPS growth premise
that the tough economic
climate is one of the main
drivers continues to hold true.
Companies are forced into
more effective cost measures,
while simultaneously increasing
productivity and efficiency. MPS
closes this value gap,” he said.
Photizo expects nearly half
of printing revenue to be under
MPS contract by 2014 and is
predicting a surge in average
revenue per device after 2013
due to more efficient deployment
and services revenue growth.
The promise of hard cost
savings of circa 30%, improved
machine uptime, fewer demands
on IT department resources,
just-in-time consumables
delivery and a smaller carbon
footprint due to reduced
paper consumption and the
deployment of more energy-
efficient devices are compelling
reasons to implement MPS.
In addition, a growing number
of businesses are taking MPS to
the next level – business process
optimisation (BPO).
The next level
Streamlining business processes
by switching from paper-based
to electronic workflows and
reducing the number of steps
in any process is a major focus
for MPS providers who must
Two worlds collide
Business process optimisation is the
way ahead for managed print services
Gartner has positioned Lexmark in the Leaders quadrant of the 2011 Magic Quadrant for MPS Worldwide.
Managed Print Services
continue to provide savings in
second and third generation
MPS engagements long after
the benefits of fleet optimisation
have been achieved.
Darren Cassidy, Vice
President Global Xerox Print
Services, points out that a
high percentage of successful
engagements already have
solutions that involve an
element of BPO. Speaking at
Photizo Group’s European MPS
conference held in Berlin last
October, he said: “It’s amazing
how fast the worlds of MPS and
BPO are colliding.”
In the same roundtable
discussion, Greg Wilson,
European MPS Strategy
Marketing Manager for Canon
Europe, explained how this was
a natural extension of the role
of MPS providers as document
consultants.
“MPS is a solid foundation
where your prove your delivery
capability and heritage around
print. Then you can extend it to
other areas,” he said. “MPS is a
fantastic foundation where we
prove our ability to do what we
say we’ll do before moving into
other areas in the document
space.”
While traditional MPS
engagements fit Darren
Cassidy’s description of an MPS
as “a race to manage pages”
(regardless of the make and
model of output device), the next
generation of MPS will have a
much broader remit and take
print vendors into new areas.
MPS Leaders
MPS market leaders Xerox and
HP have already invested heavily
to improve their ability to deliver
IT services and consultancy and
competitors such as Lexmark are
following their lead.
Last year Lexmark built on its
earlier acquisition of electronic
content management company
Perceptive Software by buying
Pallas Athena, a provider of
business process management,
document output management
and process mapping software,
a move that helped elevate
Lexmark from Challenger to
Leader status in the
Gartner
2011 Magic Quadrant for MPS
Worldwide
.
Gartner’s MPS Leaders,
which also include Xerox, HP,
Ricoh and Canon, are chosen for
their “completeness of vision”
and “ability to execute”. Key
attributes include a global reach;
the ability to meet the needs of
the largest enterprises; provision
of a range of additional services;
and “the understanding,
initiative and resources to
prepare for tomorrow’s MPS”.
In Partnership
Gartner Leaders are not the
only organisations capable
of transforming business
processes. MPS providers
that don’t yet have a global
reach or have chosen to focus
on medium-sized businesses
rather than global enterprises
are just as capable of helping
a business reduce its reliance
on paper-based processes and
drive productivity improvements,
whether they do so using their
own in-house tools and expertise
or in partnership with a third
party service provider.
MPS may still be “a race to
manage pages”, but that is just
the start. For MPS providers and
their customers what follows has
the potential to be much more
interesting and rewarding.
www.photizogroup.com