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PREDICTIONS
20
Andy Milsom
Head of Training and Partner Development,
BNP Paribas
“For us, one of the biggest threats to
our business also presents a significant
opportunity to introduce leasing to markets
which have traditionally used cash for
IT investment. There’s no doubt that the
biggest driver for change has been the wider
adoption of the cloud and remote hosting.
Organisations who choose to outsource
their IT to be hosted remotely no longer
have a requirement to invest in physical
servers sited at their premises. As the market
continues to move in that direction, this
could potentially take business away from
leasing providers who might otherwise fund
that equipment.
“The opportunity, however, is that not
everyone is comfortable with the outsourced
option and there are many companies that
wish to adopt a cloud solution but retain
control over where the storage is housed.
For many, the capital outlay involved
in purchasing servers outright may be
prohibitive and it’s here where we see an
opportunity that lends itself to leasing; many
organisations will see the benefits of renting
as opposed to purchasing outright. This will
bring leasing back into play in more areas of
the business.
“Another trend that will continue
through next year is the need to better
engage with the Financial Director, who as
we’ve all seen is now the key decision-maker
in the print and IT arena. The sales cycle is
getting longer and it’s essential to ensure
you’re talking their language and engaging
with the finance specialist at a very early
stage.”
Phil Madders
Managing Director,
Print Audit Europe
“An ongoing challenge for dealers is the
continued depressed profitability from
the traditional click charge model; it is in
software solutions and, in particular, SaaS
(software as a service) where the potential
lies.
“Everyone has now adopted the mindset
that leading with solutions over hardware
is a win win – it allows resellers to build
an annuity and recurring revenue stream,
whilst simultaneously boosting their value to
clients’ business. At Print Audit Europe, we’re
constantly looking at ways in which we can
make life easier for our partners. That’s why
our Premier pricing model is totally flexible,
designed to support those dealers for whom
this is a new area, as well as those who
require the ability to seamlessly adjust the
number of licences they deploy as customer
requirements change.
“As an industry, we’ve evolved from
MPS into MDS, and I predict that this will
develop further next year. For this reason,
we’ve introduced a cloud-based document
management solution that will support
partners who are acting on this opportunity
to secure a new revenue stream.
“We are also seeing lots of convergence
and consolidation. Cost cutting is the key
driver for this and, again, it’s by leading
with solutions that save money, improve
productivity and increase efficiency that we
will all stay ahead of the curve.”
Gary Downey
Group Marketing Director,
Balreed
“Increasing competition and pressure on
margins due to commoditisation of the
managed print service market looks likely in
2015. MPS was a key differentiator for some
in the early years, but now, as knowledge of
the term – if not the meaning – is becoming
more common in buyers’ minds, more
suppliers are claiming to be an MPS provider
or actually beginning to develop those
capabilities.
“Inevitably, those who can’t
differentiate by service quality will drive
sales by price. Page costs have already
dropped dramatically and I expect the
all-encompassing MPS pricing model
PITR
asks a selection of industry experts what they believe will be
the major trends in print in 2015.
Print predictions 2015
to be under similar pressure in the New
Year. Forecasts of continued growth in the
MPS market are welcome, but this is still
attracting new entrants from other industries
and these are also likely to trade profitability
for incremental revenues.
“2014 has been a year of solid growth
for Balreed. The market has gathered
momentum as more organisations have
committed to and made the move to a
managed print infrastructure. What has been
really positive is the number who have gone
beyond hardware and services and looked
at their internal processes and workflows.
Discussions on how their organisations
work and where processes can be improved
and integrated within the new managed
infrastructure are becoming more frequent.
Efficiency and process are terms used by
more buying teams and I very much hope
this is something that accelerates in 2015.”
Aaron Anderson
IT Channel Marketing Manager,
KYOCERA Document Solutions
“Resellers should focus on service in 2015.
Many still tend to think of business as
transactional, thinking of the sale when what
they need to do is start extracting value for
the customer. Added to which, customers are
much more knowledgeable and very specific
about what they want. With changes in
how people actually work, for example with
the increasing use of tablets, customers are
still printing but they are printing in a very
different way, using cloud apps.
...the biggest
driver for
change has
been wider
adoption of
the cloud
and remote
hosting.
Andy Milsom,
Head of Training
and Partner
Development,
BNP Paribas
Phil Madders, Managing Director,
Print Audit Europe
Gary Downey, Group Marketing Director,
Balreed
