With another year behind us, it is always interesting to think about what might lie ahead for the imaging market in 2014. There is little doubt that the printing business will remain as challenging as ever in the coming year as alternative methods for information consumption continue to restrict the need for print. Concern about the future of printing will put much of the industry’s focus on two important areas: the transition to mobile and cloud solutions and the continued progression of managed print services (MPS).

Despite projections from most market research firms for continued growth in MPS, the overall market for contractual pages will tighten significantly in 2014. Competition among OEM providers and the industry at large is now at a fever pitch. Because MPS itself does not grow the market, everyone is scratching and clawing for a larger share of what is essentially a shrinking pool of pages. The problem, of course, is that the number of contractual pages is not growing fast enough to offset the decline in transactional pages.

The majority of enterprise businesses have either already made the move to MPS or have ruled it out completely.  Consequently, most large MPS deals today typically involve one OEM displacing a competitor so that pages already under contract simply shift from one vendor to another. Moving forward, vendors will need to produce greater value from their MPS offerings in order to drive incremental revenue, generate greater profits, and strengthen customer relationships.

As a result, document solutions and other software will play an expanded role in MPS engagements in 2014. Businesses—large enterprise accounts, in particular—will increasingly evaluate providers based on the strength of their software portfolio and the ability to address key issues such as document management, content management, workflow, security, and sustainability. A strong MPS cloud infrastructure will also become increasingly important—not only for delivering MPS software solutions but also to enable greater capabilities for channel providers.

As the MPS value proposition expands beyond the printed page, it will place greater importance on sophisticated and intelligent print-management solutions to help customers understand how print resources are allocated and used, as well as to influence end-user behavior. Many businesses today actually conduct their own internal assessments, either as a means for establishing the MPS baseline or to augment the initial device assessment. The ability to track usage by individual will be crucial in helping businesses make better decisions regarding ongoing improvements—not just in the print infrastructure but throughout the document environment.

SMB: The Low-Hanging Fruit

Meanwhile, the real growth opportunity for MPS lies in the small and medium-sized business (SMB) space. Of course, that has been the case for the last few years, but pushing MPS down-market has proven more challenging and taken longer than some might have expected. Will we see increased adoption of MPS among SMBs in 2014? That question is difficult to answer, but vendors are expected to continue to address the barriers to adoption.

One significant obstacle has been the need to develop a strong MPS channel. Today, the number of channel providers that have actually demonstrated core competencies for delivering MPS successfully is still relatively small and is comprised of many different players: office-equipment dealers, value-added resellers (VARs), retail providers, supplies resellers, managed service providers (MSPs), and hybrid dealers, just to name a few. If we are to see greater penetration of MPS in the SMB space in the coming year, the pool of providers will need to expand—both in terms of coverage and capability.   

The office-equipment channel has been slow to embrace MPS because of changes required to the existing business model. In 2014, expect to see equipment vendors get more involved by helping channel partners transform their business models with the introduction of tools, education programs, and hands-on training to address areas such as selling motion and compensation plans.

It also seems likely that basic MPS page-subscription programs will grow in popularity in 2014. These programs provide the channel with an effective way to enter the MPS market with little upfront investment in time and resources. They also offer a compelling solution to smaller businesses that are looking to reign in their printing costs without committing to a comprehensive MPS engagement.

It will be interesting to see how the MPS market evolves in 2014. Businesses are faced with numerous challenges and are dealing with issues such as the shift to mobility, workforce transformation, increased competitive pressures, and the transition from paper to digital. Many providers are helping organizations tackle these issues by building their MPS offerings around a core set of document solutions and services designed not only to help optimize the print infrastructure but also drive efficiencies in document workflow and business processes. Virtually all of the equipment OEMs have already embraced this strategy and are rapidly evolving their MPS programs to reflect a more solutions-oriented approach. The question is: will the imaging channel be able to follow that lead?

Robert Palmer is an independent market analyst and industry consultant. With more than 25 years of experience in the printing industry, he has covered technology and business sectors for prominent market-research firms such as Lyra Research and InfoTrends. Mr. Palmer is a popular speaker and presents regularly at industry conferences and trade events in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. He is also active in a variety imaging industry forums and currently serves on the board of directors for the Managed Print Services Association (MPSA).