Future bright for business printing

Great opportunities are still out there for revenue and profit from business printing sales, says Bill Allan

Bill Allan: Print solutions offer a ray of hope

When the economy was healthier, organisations wanted the latest and greatest products with the most features and functions – regardless of whether they really added value.

In 2009, we expect more of a back to basics approach. Companies will seek resilient, reliable solutions and value for money.

With this renewed emphasis on cost-effectiveness, users will increasingly appreciate the benefits of bringing print applications in-house and eliminating expensive outsourcing.

Vendor support needs to encompass product training, sharing market experience and expertise and providing professional after-sales service and financial support.

In fact, rather than cutting credit terms for channel partners, vendors should actually look to extend them if they want a sustainable partnership long term and ensure that resellers maximise sales.

Vendors and resellers will also need to innovate – and not only in 2009 – delivering packaged solutions tailored for specific verticals.

To ensure customers maximise their printing assets and use all relevant features productively, resellers must focus on close communication with their clients, demonstrating product and service benefits, particularly efficiency and cost savings.

We believe colour printing will continue to grow as a proportion of the overall print solutions market.

The move to colour involves both large enterprises and small businesses and is key to the overall migration from outsourced to in-house printing.

The flexibility and ease-of-use delivered by many colour printing solutions is enabling businesses to get more impact from marketing and promotional materials and even standard office documents.

In the past, businesses were deterred from colour because of the cost.

Yet cost savings that can be achieved by bringing printing in-house more than justify the expense of purchasing a colour printer.

Also, with a managed print approach, businesses can get more control over their output.

They can track who gets access to each colour device, how many colour pages are printed or what the costs have been over a given period.

Legislation like the Data Protection Act and Sarbanes-Oxley means secure printing should become increasingly popular.

It is already seen as critical in sectors such as defence, police, healthcare, law and accountancy, where information is often particularly sensitive – although all businesses should be aware of the dangers of leaving confidential information unprotected.

Print resellers that have prepared themselves properly for the latest economic conditions and are ready to work hard can still look forward with optimism.

Businesses want to save money and be more productive and efficient. A high-quality in-house printing solution can help them.

Even in sectors so far worst hit by the recession, such as finance and retail, we are seeing more interest in in-house printing solutions.

Bill Allan is sales director at Oki Printing Solutions