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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 (e.g. forms, documents
that need signatures, contracts and
invoices) and documents that are
printed not because they have to be,
but because people prefer to work
with them in hard copy form (e.g.
email, travel documents, articles,
photos, maps and presentations).
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
Popularity of paper amongst
younger workers slows
decline of office print, new
study shows
Why we print
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.
This is not inconsistent with greater
use of electronic processes and document
management as many people use paper
purely as a temporary medium. When
asked why they printed optional pages, ‘for
temporary reference’ was the joint second
most popular reason (along with ‘to give to
someone inside my organisation’), after ‘I
prefer to review or edit on paper’.
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.
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
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
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,
challenges 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
Other findings
n
The top three reasons to reduce paper usage are to increase
efficiency, reduce paper usage 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.
