Following up on my December article on the Top 10 Stories of 2013, there\u2019s nothing like starting the New Year off right with a discussion on the Top 10 Trends of 2014. You may notice that some of these trends mirror some of the Top 10 stories of the previous year; however, a trend can be ongoing and there\u2019s a couple that will no doubt continue to impact the office technology and imaging industry in the coming year. Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n
This is a place that everybody in the industry from the hardware manufacturers to services and solutions providers is focusing on.\u00a0 Mobile apps are proliferating to meet the end user\u2019s needs for anywhere, anytime access and that\u2019s good news in general, although there are some challenges surrounding mobile apps. \u201cIt\u2019s going to get more confusing before it gets better,\u201d predicts Brian Bissett, editor of The MFP Report. \u201cThat\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing; the range of options and approaches are proliferating which makes for confusion. On the flip side it requires that vendors get back to marketing so that if you\u2019ve got three different [mobile applications\/solutions], the user understands when to use one and not the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
This next trend is tied closely to mobility, but not exclusively. When discussing apps, Bissett emphasizes that this is more than just terminology, particularly when it comes to new capabilities running inside or on an MFP. \u00a0To date, Kyocera and Konica Minolta seem to be the most prolific in the applications arena among the OEMs. Bissett is less enamored with some of Konica Minolta\u2019s applications because he views those as more of \u201cGee whiz, look what we can do\u201d as opposed to apps that people are actually asking for. An example of one of those is an app that displays weather report information at the MFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cKonica Minolta seems to come up with things and see if they stick while Kyocera\u2019s at least have some business practicality,\u201d opines Bissett. \u201cThis also shifts the role back to apps as things that the vendors want to develop rather than being developed by third parties.\u201d As a result he wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see some of the OEMs shift the focus away from software partnering and take more of a do-it yourself approach when it comes to app development.<\/p>\n
Wherever one turns in the office technology segment, everyone seems to be on board with this trend.\u00a0 No wonder vendors and dealers are spreading their wings and looking for other opportunities. Bob Sostilio, president of Sostilio & Associates, points out that papermakers have been reporting a decline in the sale of office papers in the U.S. since 1999. \u201cInternational Paper alone reduced its North American capacity by 150 billion sheets of 8.5\u00a0\u00d7\u00a011-inch uncoated cut-sheet paper from late 2008 through early 2010 and in September 2013 announced closure of another plant that will remove 82 billion pages (950,000 tons) of uncoated free-sheet paper from the market in 2014,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
While printed output within the corporate environment is on the decline, Sostilio sees revenue growth coming from high-speed digital printing and color because of the growing number of pages printed with some color.<\/p>\n
Color is an area where vendors like Toshiba continue to see strong growth with color system sales up 14 percent year over year from 2012. \u201cColor now represents 42 percent of our unit shipments, which are up 37 percent from the same time last year,\u201d noted new Toshiba America Business Solutions President Scott Maccabe at the company\u2019s recent dealer meeting.<\/p>\n
Expect those percentages to grow across the industry. Bill Melo, TABS\u2019 vice president of marketing, services & solutions, is adamant that dealers have to push color over monochrome devices. \u201cWe ship 40 percent of our products in color; it has to get over 50 percent. If the number of pages are going down the value of the page has to go up.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can probably count the number of BTA type dealers who are selling 3D printers on one maybe two hands, but with Konica Minolta\u2019s recent announcement that it is planning to partner with 3D printer manufacturer 3D Systems, expect to see more activity in the channel for this product segment. Add to that HP\u2019s announcement that they are also entering the 3D space, albeit focused largely at the lower end of the market with more consumer level products. The dealers who are currently offering these products to prospects and customers are the first on their block with this technology, which gives them a modest advantage. That advantage won\u2019t last for long as other dealers across the country are getting primed to pick up on this uncharted product territory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2014 3D is going to get real hot,\u201d predicts Keith Kmetz, an analyst with IDC who says he\u2019s been fielding a lot of questions from dealers of late about how they can go after this market opportunity. Validating Kmetz\u2019s prediction was a well-attended session on 3D printers at Konica Minolta\u2019s November dealer meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dealer channel is very thirsty about better understanding this market, how they can make money, and so forth,\u201d opines Kmetz. \u201cIt introduces a whole new realm of printing that is not of the conventional nature and not subject to the maturity we see in the traditional print marketplace. Our numbers showing exponential growth market of 3D printing has a lot of folks excited about the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether you\u2019re talking Dropbox, Googledocs, Evernote or some other cloud service, these are new destinations for storing documents rather than the traditional ECM document management repositories. Expect to see the cloud become an even bigger presence within the channel, or at least, a key component of new products, solutions, and services introductions in the coming year. At Sharp\u2019s recent dealer meeting they introduced Cloud Portal Office, a software solution that allows mobile workers to share information and the organization to maintain control and security over the documents being shared.<\/p>\n
The challenge of cloud-based repositories, according to Bissett, is figuring out how to scan the information and store it in these repositories as well as how to access that information from the device, how to print directly from those, and how to tighten the nexus between mobile device and cloud repository and scanning and output device. \u201cThis is the new solutions focus to be addressed,\u201d states Bissett. He feels that Ricoh has done a little more than most other vendors here, but it\u2019s not as if they\u2019re leaving the competition in the dust. \u201cIt\u2019s sort of virgin territory and there isn\u2019t an established leader,\u201d adds Bissett.<\/p>\n
IDC\u2019s Kmetz identifies business process workflows, which is tied into the cloud and mobility and anytime, anywhere access, as a services trend that will continue to pick up steam in 2014. \u201cIt\u2019s driving efficiency,\u201d he says. \u201cIt started with managed print, but that\u2019s evolving, and part of this is transitioning paper-based workflows into more efficient digital workflows. A dealer needs to recognize that traditionally they\u2019ve enjoyed many years of machines, supplies, break-fix maintenance of documents that spit out of printers and MFPs, and they\u2019ll continue to enjoy that, but the machines are going down in unit shipments and there\u2019s a decline in page volumes, which means if unit shipments are declining the installed base is right behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result he says dealers need to target more growth opportunities and help customers to be more cost efficient as well as drive productivity. \u201cProvide managed services\u2014managed print, managed IT, managed documents\u2014it\u2019s all part of the evolution taking place, leading to the consideration of how I\u2019m going to bring software solutions and services that cater to information requirements of businesses,\u201d adds Kmetz. \u201cEverybody is talking about services led, that\u2019s going to port down to the dealer community as well because of the manufacturers like Ricoh, Konica Minolta, HP, and Xerox talking about being services led.\u201d<\/p>\n
He contends that the truly savvy dealers with a long-term view of their business are looking at ways to transform their dealerships into a services led business that ties into business information along with the product offerings that cater to that.<\/p>\n
Tom Callinan of Strategy Development identified this as a trend for last year and he\u2019s sticking by that opinion again this year. \u201cThe strong dealers get stronger and the weak get weaker,\u201d he says. \u201cLarge dealers are growing organic revenues at low double digits while smaller dealers and direct operations are shrinking. An illustration of the latter is Ricoh direct effectively getting out of the small account business and turning those accounts over to its dealer base.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scan and print go together like, well, milk and cookies, hot dogs and mustard, Bogart and Bacall, you get the picture. \u201cYou have both Nuance and NSi now saying both are equally important and related to the other,\u201d says Bissett. \u201cAnd you have people like Canon and Ricoh with their own software where they\u2019re tying together different pieces, so the idea of going one place for your scan solution and one for your print is going away.\u201d That\u2019s an interesting trend and as it continues to develop, it\u2019s likely that more OEMs will follow Canon and Ricoh\u2019s leads by combining the two.<\/p>\n
This may be wishful thinking in an industry where young folks aren\u2019t exactly chomping at the bit to sell copiers, or those who start on this career path end up figuring out fast that this isn\u2019t for them. With the emergence of managed services, IT services, managed print, along with mobility and the cloud, this industry may no longer be the domain of old dinosaurs anymore. I\u2019m going out on a limb and predicting that the industry will see an influx of young talent, particularly in dealerships where management has come to the realization that they\u2019ve got to do something to make the industry more appealing to younger people as a way to secure their business\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
Vertical market opportunities have always been the norm in the office technology business, but it seems that more dealers such as Centric Business Systems in Owing Mills, MD, Marco in St. Cloud, MN, and Meritich in Cleveland, OH to name just a select few, are finding big–and I do mean big–opportunities with healthcare clients. With an aging population it\u2019s only natural that healthcare organizations will be bolstering their infrastructures, and that means more opportunities for selling an array of hardware, solutions, and services for the dealer channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following up on my December article on the Top 10 Stories of 2013, there\u2019s nothing like starting the New Year off right with a discussion on the Top 10 Trends of 2014. You may notice that some of these trends mirror some of the Top 10 stories of the previous year; however, a trend can be ongoing and there\u2019s a couple that will no doubt continue to impact the office technology and imaging industry in the coming year. Let\u2019s take a look. The Industry Further Embraces the Mobile World This is a place that everybody in the industry from the hardware manufacturers to services and solutions providers is focusing on.\u00a0 Mobile apps are proliferating to meet the end user\u2019s needs for anywhere, anytime access and that\u2019s good news in general, although there are some challenges surrounding mobile apps. \u201cIt\u2019s going to get more confusing before it gets better,\u201d predicts Brian Bissett, editor of The MFP Report. \u201cThat\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing; the range of options and approaches are proliferating which makes for confusion. On the flip side it requires that vendors get back to marketing so that if you\u2019ve got three different [mobile applications\/solutions], the user understands when to use one and not the other.\u201d The Emergence of Apps This next trend is tied closely to mobility, but not exclusively. When discussing apps, Bissett emphasizes that this is more than just terminology, particularly when it comes to new capabilities running inside or on an MFP. \u00a0To date, Kyocera and Konica Minolta seem to be the most prolific in the applications arena among the OEMs. Bissett is less enamored with some of Konica Minolta\u2019s applications because he views those as more of \u201cGee whiz, look what we can do\u201d as opposed to apps that people are actually asking for. An example of one of those is an app that displays weather report information at the MFP. \u201cKonica Minolta seems to come up with things and see if they stick while Kyocera\u2019s at least have some business practicality,\u201d opines Bissett. \u201cThis also shifts the role back to apps as things that the vendors want to develop rather than being developed by third parties.\u201d As a result he wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see some of the OEMs shift the focus away from software partnering and take more of a do-it yourself approach when it comes to app development. Page Volume Continues to Decline Wherever one turns in the office technology segment, everyone seems to be on board with this trend.\u00a0 No wonder vendors and dealers are spreading their wings and looking for other opportunities. Bob Sostilio, president of Sostilio & Associates, points out that papermakers have been reporting a decline in the sale of office papers in the U.S. since 1999. \u201cInternational Paper alone reduced its North American capacity by 150 billion sheets of 8.5\u00a0\u00d7\u00a011-inch uncoated cut-sheet paper from late 2008 through early 2010 and in September 2013 announced closure of another plant that will remove 82 billion pages (950,000 tons) of uncoated free-sheet paper from the market in 2014,\u201d he says. While printed output within the corporate environment is on the decline, Sostilio sees revenue growth coming from high-speed digital printing and color because of the growing number of pages printed with some color. Color is an area where vendors like Toshiba continue to see strong growth with color system sales up 14 percent year over year from 2012. \u201cColor now represents 42 percent of our unit shipments, which are up 37 percent from the same time last year,\u201d noted new Toshiba America Business Solutions President Scott Maccabe at the company\u2019s recent dealer meeting. Expect those percentages to grow across the industry. Bill Melo, TABS\u2019 vice president of marketing, services & solutions, is adamant that dealers have to push color over monochrome devices. \u201cWe ship 40 percent of our products in color; it has to get over 50 percent. If the number of pages are going down the value of the page has to go up.\u201d 3D Printers are Ready for Prime Dealer Channel Time You can probably count the number of BTA type dealers who are selling 3D printers on one maybe two hands, but with Konica Minolta\u2019s recent announcement that it is planning to partner with 3D printer manufacturer 3D Systems, expect to see more activity in the channel for this product segment. Add to that HP\u2019s announcement that they are also entering the 3D space, albeit focused largely at the lower end of the market with more consumer level products. The dealers who are currently offering these products to prospects and customers are the first on their block with this technology, which gives them a modest advantage. That advantage won\u2019t last for long as other dealers across the country are getting primed to pick up on this uncharted product territory. \u201cIn 2014 3D is going to get real hot,\u201d predicts Keith Kmetz, an analyst with IDC who says he\u2019s been fielding a lot of questions from dealers of late about how they can go after this market opportunity. Validating Kmetz\u2019s prediction was a well-attended session on 3D printers at Konica Minolta\u2019s November dealer meeting. \u201cThe dealer channel is very thirsty about better understanding this market, how they can make money, and so forth,\u201d opines Kmetz. \u201cIt introduces a whole new realm of printing that is not of the conventional nature and not subject to the maturity we see in the traditional print marketplace. Our numbers showing exponential growth market of 3D printing has a lot of folks excited about the opportunity.\u201d The Rapidly Emerging Role of the Cloud and Cloud-Based Repositories Whether you\u2019re talking Dropbox, Googledocs, Evernote or some other cloud service, these are new destinations for storing documents rather than the traditional ECM document management repositories. Expect to see the cloud become an even bigger presence within the channel, or at least, a key component of new products, solutions, and services introductions in the coming year. At Sharp\u2019s recent dealer meeting they introduced Cloud Portal Office, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1649,1814,1641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8978"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8980,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8978\/revisions\/8980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}