The development of digitalisation is very fast and all branches must respond to its progress, including the printing sector. Traditional firms which want to maintain their positions also in 2019 must adapt their machinery as well as offered services just to current requirements of the market. What are the trends in the printing sector for this year?
Various working technologies will start to use artificial intelligence for facilitation of individual tasks. Already in 2018 it was possible to clarify some basic abilities of voice recognition for intelligent printers and multifunctional devices, for example at the Xerox and HP companies. This year it is possible to expect further improvements, which should depend, to a large extent, on partnerships with such companies as Google and Amazon. The strong trend of digitalisation or the development towards intelligent workplaces are, however, not the only trends. The printed and digital world will get more and more interconnected and will place a greater emphasis on safety as well.
Convergency of printing and digitalisation
Interconnection of printing and digitalisation increases demand for integrated processing of documents. In spite of fast introduction of digital and mobile technologies, many companies continue to depend, to a certain extent, on printing and according to many statistical researches it seems that this situation will persist still for several years. And just this persisting trend in the use of printing materials is an opportunity for MPS providers in the offer of integrated services in the field of paper and digital workflows.
In the opinion of the Quocirca company, Xerox has become a leader in the area of MPS services, thanks to its ConnectKey platform, which is able to transform paper into a digital form with the help of applications easily and quickly. Therefore, Xerox is able to help companies to achieve a better use of the existing investments in printing services and to provide them with consultancy facilitating the most effective setup of work processes.
Expertise in the field of IT services and further cloud expansion
According to research performed by the Quocirca company and published in the Print 2025 Report, companies will definitely prefer IT service providers to traditional print suppliers by 2025. If companies want to keep their positions in a natural way or thanks to partnership with experienced suppliers of IT services, they will have to extend the range of offered products, services and security within the framework of the services provided at a general level. Printing service management with the help of cloud systems will become still more important and almost predominant in the years to come. Its use reduces printing costs as well as the load associated with administration of more servers. It makes it possible to improve cooperation with customers with the help of a flexible and inexpensive access to printing services. This way it improves also the access of the firms providing printing services to small and medium-size enterprises (SMB) as clients. Several companies have already taken a step in this direction. Among these companies it is necessary to mention Lexmark, Xerox and Ricoh together with Y Soft and they are committed to further extend their offers.