Staying ahead of the curve is crucial for business success. Over the past year we’ve found that many of our new clients never considered their printer fleet as a significant factor influencing their business goals.
Gordon Flesch Company (GFC) is a trusted Managed Print provider with decades of experience. We help organizations in a variety of industries to find opportunities for printer fleet consolidation while continuing to provide services for users.
In addition, we’re seeing that the Managed Print landscape is evolving rapidly, with significant trends shaping the future of how businesses work. From industry consolidation to introducing zero trust printing practices, GFC can help you make more informed decisions when planning your next print fleet refresh.
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Let’s take a look at some key trends that we’re watching. These are the ones that are forecasted to define office technology for the coming year:
First up, we'll look at how companies in this industry are joining forces and becoming bigger.
Consolidation has been a major trend in many industries, and that includes Managed Print. Larger office technology dealers and private equity firms have made strategic acquisitions in recent years and we expect this trend to continue. The basis of this trend has been driven by the need for companies to expand their market share, enhance their service offerings, achieve economies of scale and increase their recurring revenue.
The competitive landscape looks hungry for further expansion. Therefore, we expect that larger dealers will continue acquiring smaller, regional dealers to broaden their geographic reach and customer base. We’re also seeing private equity firms invest heavily in the office technology sector, as they are attracted by the steady cash flow and growth potential.
Market indicators have predicted that the drop in organizational print volume that we saw at the beginning of the pandemic, may be over. Recent data has shown that since offices have increasingly been going back to in-person work, printing and copying volumes for 2025 are forecasted to return to pre-pandemic levels. Due to these favorable factors, the future of office printing looks stable.
In 2025, we expect to see more in-person meetings, presentations and events. Even though digital solutions are still popular, printed documents are very handy to have in many professional settings.
In fact, some experts even think print volumes might increase a bit. In addition, we are expecting a steady demand for printed materials especially from legal, healthcare and education organizations – which tend to use a lot of printed materials.
We’ve seen significant hardware price increases in the Managed Print industry in recent years. Primarily, this has been driven by rising manufacturing costs. More recently, industry experts have predicted that this trend may continue into 2025.
This is why it’s more important than ever to accurately evaluate organizational printing needs with the help of a skilled Managed Print provider. Your provider’s team will have the industry knowledge necessary to bundle the hardware, software and service you’ll need to reach your organizational goals while keeping your budget in mind.
In addition, ask your Managed Print provider about additional value-added services such as in-house leasing (or financing) solutions to further streamline processes and enhance cost savings.
By using these strategies, you will be better equipped to manage the impact of possible industry-wide price increases.
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More frequently, businesses are choosing to migrate their printing infrastructure from on-premise servers to the cloud. This has encouraged workplace initiatives such as BYOD printing and has also reduced the need for dedicated, secured, environmentally-controlled physical space to house network printing servers.
This trend is expected to continue as it not only frees up floor space, but provides the opportunity for server redundancy.
Network security is a hot topic in every workplace. Since printers are often networked, it is more important than ever before to ensure the security of confidential documents and data.
The concept of zero trust printing is gaining in popularity as these controls increase security, reduce paper waste and provide an electronic record of who printed a project, which machine they used and what was printed. We’ve seen interest in zero trust printing from an increasing amount of organizations, especially those who frequently print documents with confidential information.
As things keep changing, staying informed and flexible is more important than ever before. Let’s embrace the evolution and partner together to turn these upcoming changes into growth opportunities.
Contact Gordon Flesch Company for a fresh, outside perspective of your print fleet. Don’t let the wrong technology hold your organization back from gaining a competitive advantage by improving workflows and efficiencies. Request a free business technology needs assessment, today!
