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MPS
20
Organisations
are waking
up to the
potential
security
risks that
moving to a
shared MFP
environment
poses.
...continued
How important are the following drivers to your
organisation in motivating a move to a managed
print service?
such as enterprise resource planning (ERP),
so that paper invoices or expense receipts,
for instance, can be scanned and routed
directly to an accounts application from the
MFP interface panel.
Quocirca’s survey revealed that, overall,
37% of organisations have a well-defined
strategy that maximises the benefits of
smart MFPs, with 50% indicating that they
understand the value of smart MFPs and are
starting to exploit them. Notably, 46% of
MPS users have a well-defined MFP strategy,
compared to just 14% of those that are yet
to begin their MPS engagement.
Those using MPS are already reaping
the benefits in their paper and digital
workflow integration. Larger enterprises
(3,000+ employees) are faring best, with
87% indicating that their organisations
are effective or very effective, compared to
65% of smaller enterprises (1,000-3,000
employees). Organisations using a fully
outsourced model are likely to be most
satisfied – 50% rated their ability as very
effective, compared to 26% of those with a
hybrid model.
Business process optimisation expertise
is a key success criterion for effectively
automating paper dependent processes.
Clearly, those organisations using a
fully outsourced approach are reaping
the benefits of accessing the skills and
expertise of a third party MPS provider.
There is a direct correlation between MPS
usage and confidence in paper to digital
workflow integration – 77% of MPS users
indicate high confidence levels, compared
to 56% of those planning MPS.
There are some industry variations;
whilst financial services are the most
confident, government and professional
services lag behind. By region, just
48% of UK respondents believed their
organisations were effectively integrating
paper and digital workflow compared to
84% of US respondents.
MPS is certainly helping organisations
tackle the paper trail, and as more
organisations move to the business process
optimisation stages of their engagements,
Quocirca expects to see even greater
confidence in this area.
Closing the print security gap
Overall, 65% of respondents indicated
that their organisations plan to increase
expenditure on IT security. This is
encouraging for the MPS market, as there
is still a significant opportunity to enhance
the security of what is often the weakest
link – the print environment. Whilst
enterprises report document security as
a top driver for moving to MPS, there is
still a significant opportunity to close the
print security gap. Information, whether
it resides on paper or in electronic form,
represents a vast array of customer insight,
employee knowledge, business intelligence
and innovation. Left unsecured, this
information can pose a huge legal and
reputational risk.
Organisations are waking up to the
potential security risks that moving to a
shared MFP environment poses. However,
there are regional variations; whilst 40%
of UK respondents indicated they were
concerned with data loss through unclaimed
output, this rose to 56% in the US.
Overall, 70% reported at least one data
loss in the past year, with losses being
slightly more prevalent in organisations
with over 3,000 employees. The US shows
the highest level of data loss, with 82%
reporting paper-related data losses,
compared to 42% of UK respondents.
However, the picture could be worse in the
UK, as 16% don’t know the level of data
loss in their organisations. By vertical, the
highest incidence of data loss was reported
in the government sector, with only 20%
indicating no data loss, compared to 40%
of financial service respondents.
Security audits
This all points to the need for full
document security audits and the
implementation of secure print solutions.
In total, 40% of organisations have
completed a security assessment, with a
further 46% indicating that an audit was
underway. Organisations in the US and
France are most likely to have completed a
security assessment, reflecting the higher
priority attributed to document security.
Overall, 74% of organisations have
deployed are or planning to implement
secure print solutions (i.e. pull printing).
Those using MPS are most likely to have
deployed pull printing – 42% compared to
just 14% of those not currently using MPS.
Despite a lower incidence of data loss, UK
respondents have deployed pull printing
at the same levels as other regions. There
is a variation by industry, with financial
services leading in their deployment and
the government sector lagging behind.
Encouragingly, 77% of organisations
feel that MPS has delivered on its goal
to enhance document security. Quocirca
believes that security assessments and
solutions are now a core requirement
for any MPS engagement. Buyers should
closely evaluate not only the detail of any
security assessment, but also the hardware
and software technology to ensure that
document security is robust across the
entire printer fleet.
Innovation through analytics
Driven by the need to gain greater
insight from the wealth of structured and
unstructured data collected across an
enterprise, the market for big data analytics
continues to grow. Quocirca’s survey
revealed that overall, 45% of organisations
using MPS plan to increase expenditure in
this area.
As MPS moves up the value chain
and becomes more focused on delivering
strategic business impact, analytics
promises to be the next key differentiator
amongst leading MPS providers. Through
running large-scale engagements, they
are recognising that there is a wealth of
insight that can be uncovered about their
customers’ businesses. Most providers offer
standardised reporting or ad hoc reports,
but these often only describe the current
or historical situation. The most advanced
providers, such as Xerox and Lexmark,
have developed expertise in the area of
predictive analytics.
Gaining insight into the future through
predictive analytics, predictive modelling
and forecasting and optimisation enables
organisations to understand what could
happen in the future and anticipate likely
scenarios so they can plan more effectively.
In the most effective engagements, providers
apply their domain and industry expertise to
enhance operational delivery through pre-
defined service level agreements (SLAs) and
key performance indicators (KPIs).
Through predictive analytics, proactive
service is enabled and device uptime and
availability improved. Through deeper
analysis of workflows, recommendations
can also be made with respect to workflow
optimisation. Quocirca believes that
leveraging analytics supported by strong
industry expertise will be key to driving
new levels of insight and innovation
across MPS engagements in the long term.
Additionally, as printers and smart MFPs
become a connected part of the internet of
things (IoT) landscape, using data collected
by these devices offers vendors further
opportunities to improve efficiency, develop
new products and services and innovate.
© Quocirca 2015
- 6 -
Figure 1. How important are the following drivers to yo r organisation in motivating a move to a managed print service?
3.73
3.77
3.87
3.88
3.88
3.89
3.91
3.99
4.02
4.05
3.30 3.40 3.50 3.60 3.70 3.80 3.90 4.00 4.1
Reduce IT burden
Procurement of commercial print
Reduce hardware costs
Improve workflow
Reduce environmental impact
Reduce paper usage
Gain predictable costs
Improve service quality
Reduce consumables costs
Enhance security
Total
