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2015 will be a challenging year 2/4

By Jean-Louis de la Salle

We saw in the former article that MPS is progressing but global adoption remains moderate, in France at least. Will “Print from my Mobile” change the equation?

Mobile printing should not be limited to a generic statement like I too often see in presentations, but should be segmented, as there are different mobility scenarios. This is longer to elaborate upon than just a page, so we will publish soon a more detailed article on mobility and printing.

 

However, I did not fully agree with the presenter on the need for printing while on the move. In a recent webcast, I addressed the multiple variations of mobile printing. In the presentation, the idea was rather simple: I use a smartphone and I want to print from it.

Frankly this is not going to happen in an easy fashion. There are too many Mobile OS, too many printer models to make this a simple solution for all. I believe it needs to be in a contained environment where mobile device and printer have been paired and equipped. This is exactly the opposite of the “freedom of choice” requested under the BYOD banner.

So simple technology and ease of use are here in conflict, and this is a real problem.

So apart for those clients with a serious business need, generating a hard driven project with specified equipment, it will not happen in the general office. There is hope that the new MOPRIA alliance will solve this, but this applies only to new devices, which are a minute percentage of existing fleets. The current economy is not favouring investment in new devices and certainly not for a “loose” requirement such as “I would like to print from my mobile”. Until the dust settles, I fear that frustrated users will have long forgotten the habit of printing.

Another data point was the study on Document Process market. France is a 2,2 Bill€ Market (so a 60% bigger opportunity than the BPS/MPS market) with high single digit growth. I do not see from my experience a significant difference in the level of automation between European countries so one could extend the reasoning.

Suddenly, the next chart in the presentation at the event struck me.

It compares the number of paper documents and e-documents used by an average employee today and in 2 years time.

Today this employee uses 60% paper based documents and in 2015 it will be 45%.

This, in just two years, is a massive shift.

2 reasons justify this still heavy use of paper: to respond to client requests and to keep a paper trace in the organisation.

I found it fascinating, as it is, in my view, not in theirs, the base for a MAJOR shock in the industry.

 

Read the next part of this article to understand why the maths just do not add up.

One Comment

  1. […] you read in the former article, Research tells us that employees use today 60% paper based documents and in 2015 it should […]

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This article was written on 11 Sep 2014, and is filled under Business Forecast, Managed Print Systems.

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