The printing solutions industry accelerates its evolution in 2021 due to changes in habits and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Jason cort, Sharp Europe's director of product planning and marketing explains why the news isn't all bad.
It’s no exaggeration to say that Covid-19 was a big part of people’s thoughts in 2020., and undoubtedly affected the thinking about the evolution of the printing industry. However, one thing is clear : the pandemic has accelerated all the trends mentioned in the forecasts for 2020. Whether in the general public or B2B sector, this change occurs at a higher rate, the great difficulty comes from the fact that this transformation takes place everywhere at the same time. Print volumes are now lower than before. Even though a resurgence in popularity is well anticipated, the activity will never return to the levels previously reached. Indeed, by looking at why people print less, we find the question of costs, but also and above all the evolution in their behavior. These changes are linked to the fact that professionals are working more and more from home, and not at the office. They do not have a printer or, more likely, realized they could get by without a printer. Anyway, this change caused a drop in impressions, and this trend could very well continue in 2021.
New way of working
Working from home has also given rise to a need for comfort and practical solutions.. Processes traditionally managed on paper are therefore now digitized. For that, companies had to implement appropriate processes to compensate for the lack of a centralized workplace. After carrying out a makeshift digital transformation in 2020, organizations should continue to accelerate the implementation of these new ways of working. Today's work environment also calls into question the need for certain types of equipment. Whether it is related to teleworking or the reduction of their surfaces, companies are starting to wonder if they really need large A3 printers, or if a more modest solution for working groups would not be better suited. More than a question of volume, it will be mainly for manufacturers to review the type of equipment they will have to offer.
Cloud printing
Digital transformation is a trend that many people are very familiar with, and which should continue beyond the next twelve months. Customers increasingly rely on the cloud, at the expense of traditional IT infrastructures. Fewer and fewer of them are hosting their print servers on site.. In the actual context, the ability of cloud services to support a massively distributed workforce with ease is also essential. This also applies to the printing industry. Based on the Internet Print Protocol standard (IPP) and unveiled in a limited launch this year, the Universal Print offering enabled Microsoft to offer its printing service in the cloud. This gives IT managers the freedom to manage local print servers and install printer drivers.. In 2021, the dedicated environment should be increasingly virtualized in the cloud, and we will have to make sure to adapt to this change as well. The underlying trend is less about the volume of impressions created and more about how dedicated services and solutions will be delivered to the customer.
Beyond printing
One of the clear consequences of Covid-19 on the printing solutions market in 2020 was the contraction in budgets spent.
This phenomenon has occurred at a rate exceeding all predictive capabilities. Manufacturers and distributors (especially distributors of office equipment) specialists in the field of printing have therefore seen their room for maneuver reduced this year. It is necessary for industry players to transform to expand the scope of their activities. Safety will undoubtedly be one of the major themes of the coming year. This parameter has found itself at the center of concerns this year, companies that have had to push all of their employees to work from home. Even putting aside the software, employees also need support with the equipment they use to work. Suppliers must therefore offer non-invasive IT support offers. It is undeniable that providers capable of offering a complete service (including printing solutions and the full range of support services) can keep their place. This is the reason why it is predictable that the most important suppliers (those who will know how to develop the most effectively) will benefit from favorable dynamics in 2021. We can therefore reasonably expect the pace of acquisitions to accelerate in 2021, typically driven by manufacturers of printing solutions seeking to broaden their scope by acquiring companies in other sectors, whether they are IT service providers or application developers. This phenomenon started in 2020, and the trend will continue throughout next year.
