BUSINESS PRINTING
CONTINUED “Currently, those three, in the main, are probably in that order of priority, with cost first,” he says. “But I think it will change with productivity and environment becoming higher priorities in people’s buying criteria, and as a result, the cost will benefit as well, because what’s strange about our industry is often the most environmentally friendly solutions are actually the lower cost ones, which is different to many other industries.” Andy adds that he believes that there will be more focus on devices lasting longer in the field. There will be more focus from manufacturers on durability, but the fact that print volumes will continue to decline will also have an impact, meaning parts in printers will take longer to wear out. The increasing digitalisation of businesses, along with the continued use of hybrid working, will also influence the sector. “With the hybrid working model businesses are rationalised in their office space and that means we don’t store paper anymore, as, if paper documents are stored and people are working at home, it needs to be digitised because employees can’t just walk around to someone’s desk and ask them to sign an invoice off,” says Andy. “It must be a digital to ensure that the business runs smoothly.” Educators Andy adds that this is where resellers and the like need to take on a role of educator to customers. “We need to educate end users on what they can use devices for, how they can access information, even education around sustainability,” he says. “It’s our role to educate them that there are other ways out there. You scan something on a laser device, it warms up before you can scan it, even though you don’t print there is a cost from an environmental and energy cost
point of view. But with inkjet you don’t get that – it is a lot quicker.”
Future Andy is confident about the prospects for the print sector. “I’ve been in this industry 30 years and now is the most exciting time in the industry because it has changed, it is changing and that brings opportunity. I would be disappointed if we [Key Digital] don’t grow year-on-year. “People understand that the embedded applications in the device have become more important as well, because in the same way as that key user for changing the toner might not be in the office today, that expert on scanning, how to send documents etc may be working from home too, so devices have got to be simpler to use and I see that changing.” Andy adds that how companies like Key Digital support customers is changing as well. “We do far more support calls over web chat than we’ve ever done before,” he says. “We’re experimenting with some conversational AI now around that, but I just see that getting better and better. “That then changes the whole expectation on service levels from customers. People will talk about four-hour response time, first time fix, all this sort of stuff. If you fast forward five years, you’re going to be giving 24/7 support as you’ll have bots answering lots of common issues that people have because people are working differently. “The working day isn’t a nine to five in the office anymore, but people are still going to need support. We’re not going to people on help desk 24 hours a day, but we can programme bots to do a lot of the repetitive tickets, such as ‘how do I set this driver up? I’ve got a problem with that?’ All that sort of stuff. It’s not a big leap from where we are.”
What’s strange about our industry is often the most environmentally friendly solutions are actually the lower cost ones, which is different to many other industries. “
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