Print.IT Reseller - issue 47

01732 759725 40 VOX POP example, IDC has predicted that the overall business inkjet market is expected to grow 10.2 per cent (CAGR) by 2020, and inkjet is expected to account for 34 per cent of the total European business printer market by 2019. “Epson’s share in the business inkjet market has risen to 40 per cent in 2017 Q1 (IDC, Quarterly market report, Q1 2017), and we are taking steps to ensure that figure continues to rise. Having already invested € 400 million in new inkjet production facilities in Japan and other markets (and with plans to invest a further € 185 million over the next three years), our investment and belief in this exciting technology is clear. “Epson believes that inkjet printing as a technology will eventually help redefine the phrase ‘business as usual’, and we stand behind it as a means of changing our workplaces, and enhancing the way we all do business in the near future.” www.epson.co.uk Chris Strammiello, Worldwide Marketing and Global Alliances Director, Nuance Document Imaging Division “Those print evergreens – security and running costs – will be front of mind in 2018. A combination of factors like GDPR will push security to the top of the print agenda. What we will also see from a security perspective in the new year is an increase in the information constantly transmitted between systems, people and organisations. “This will result in the evolution of smart systems that automatically understand the content of the data to ensure information is only seen by and sent to the right people. The combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing is poised to radically change how paper and born- digital documents are securely accessed and shared to help protect personal information and other valuable data. “Meanwhile, from an efficiency perspective, the growing dependency on data analytics across all operations means businesses will start to apply a forensic approach to print costs in order to reduce them further.” www.nuance.co.uk Michael Burke, Managing Director, Purpose Software “Following on from 2017, a year in which we have seen extensive merger and acquisition activity, it is likely that we will see further consolidation in the coming year. Organisations operating in the managed services and print reseller industry will be expanding their product portfolios through the acquisition of companies offering complementary products and skills, enabling them to address new business areas such as cloud services, managed services, managed network services, security and more. “However, resellers trying to assimilate these new technologies and skillsets into their business operations will face major challenges as they discover that their legacy service management software, whilst designed specifically for the copier industry, will not support such diversification. The integration issues associated with linking separate CRM, accounting and other business software applications will present a major barrier to ...continued Chris Strammiello Michael Burke Resellers trying to assimilate these new technologies and skillsets into their business operations will face major challenges