20
magazinei
businessinfomag.uk
Print
Infotrends has produced a new
report exploring developments in
office printing through the lens of
required versus optional printing
i.e. between documents that are
printed for storage or as part of a
business process (forms, documents
that need signatures, contracts and
invoices etc.) and documents that are
printed not because they have to be,
but because people prefer to work
with them in hard copy form (email,
travel documents, magazine articles,
photos, maps, presentations etc.).
Based on a web-based survey of
750 office workers in the US, UK, Brazil
and Spain, the report provides further
evidence of the decline in office printing
(-4.4% over the next 3 years in Europe
and -3.6% in the US), whilst also
highlighting the enduring popularity
of paper as a medium for recording,
processing and sharing data.
Infotrends Associate Director Andrew
Carroll said: “The office print market
in developed economies is entering a
phase of on-going gradual erosion.We
believe that print volume in the office
has peaked and that in the future it is
going to shrink, albeit at a relatively
low level. This survey very much reflects
our existing beliefs about where print
volumes are going to decline at the
greatest rate, and that is in larger
organisations. Smaller companies, we
think, will continue to see the most
persistent print. That is where the job
growth is and where print will continue
to be persistent.”
Required printing
Carroll says that the decline in print
volumes in larger organisations will
come principally from a reduction in
‘required’ printing, as organisations
adopt electronic workflows to increase
efficiency, reduce paper usage and
decrease costs.
“Very large organisations expect to
see their print volumes decline at the
greatest rate, and we think that aligns
quite well with initiatives like managed
print and document management
solutions that are having an impact at
that end of the market far more than in
smaller companies,” he said.
Infotrends Senior Consultant
Barbara Richards added: “As companies
continue to invest in electronic content
management and workflow efficiencies,
paper-based documents will continue to
erode in the workplace. In fact, 67% of
our survey respondents said that their
company had taken steps to simplify,
remove or automate their document-
related business operations or processes.
This number was a bit higher in
companies with 500+ employees.”
Across all respondents, the Top 5
reasons for a reduction in required
printing are: the introduction of
electronic workflows (40+%); the use of
Popularity of paper amongst younger workers slows decline of office print, new study shows
Why we keep printing
By far the
biggest reason
people still print
is for reviewing
and editing
electronic forms (30+%); a decrease in
hard copies needed for record keeping
(30+%); the introduction of electronic
document management solutions
(25+%); and because clients prefer to
receive information digitally (25+%).
Interestingly, in light of the debate
over distributed vs. centralised printing,
only a handful of respondents expect
print volumes to fall due to printers
being removed or placed further away
from users.
No millennial effect
Nor is there any evidence of a generation
gap in attitudes to paper. Andrew Carroll
points out that consistent responses
across all age-groups, including 18-29
year olds, challenge the received wisdom
that millennials will naturally default
to digital and accelerate the decline in
paper use.
“One of the most interesting
conclusions we’ve brought out of this
survey, which reinforces learnings
we’ve had from previous studies, is that
younger people seem to have an equal
if not slightly higher preference for using
paper. By far the biggest reason people
still print is for reviewing and editing
– people still prefer to do things on
paper. It’s reassuring for the industry to
know that a younger workforce doesn’t
necessarily equate to a lower preference
for paper.When we talk about persistent
print, the assumption shouldn’t
necessarily be that print is only going
to be persistent amongst the older age
group,” he said.
Resilient and stable
Optional print volumes, which might
be expected to decline more quickly
as companies control and monitor
printing, show surprising resilience and
stability. This suggests that people will
continue to print when a hard copy adds
something to the experience, such as
greater legibility, easy editing, improved
understanding or ease of sharing.
In Europe, the ratio between required
and optional printing is currently
57:43. Infotrends’ findings suggest it
likely to stay at this level.When asked
whether they thought optional print was
becoming a larger or smaller share, 22%
of European respondents said larger, 22%
said smaller and 57% said no change.
Other findings
n
The top three reasons to reduce paper usage are to
increase efficiency, reduce paper consumption and
decrease costs. Increasing productivity was in fourth
place, followed by environmental factors in fifth and
security in sixth.
n
Two-thirds (67%) of respondents say their company has
taken steps to remove, simplify or automate document-
related business processes.
n
On average, survey respondents spend 36 minutes
retrieving digital documents compared to 20 minutes for
paper documents.
n
Almost 40% of respondents say less than one quarter of
their business content remains on paper.
n
Workers spend 11% of their time travelling for business,
visiting customers or working in the field. Yet, just
4% of printing occurs in a mobile environment. This
suggests that vendors could do more to enable on-the-
go printing, especially as many workers will not print a
document if they can’t print it immediately.
