MFPS
Demand more
Demands for MFPs continues to grow, but what customers demand of them is changing – including an increasing move to the cloud – and this provides resellers with opportunities to capitalise on.
As the lockdowns of the pandemic become a fading memory, gradually more people are returning to the office. Recruitment company Hays reported in October last year that 43% of office workers had returned to the office, with 39% maintaining hybrid arrangements. One byproduct of this return is that more businesses are now looking to buy multifunction printers (MFPs) for the office. Russell Pirie, regional sales director at Ricoh UK, says that demand for MFPs in the UK has steadily grown. “This resurgence is a result of shifting work patterns, as more businesses have employees returning to the office,” he says. “The ‘new way of working’, characterised by a hybrid model with office presence typically occurring on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, has necessitated increased access to office technology to support productivity and collaboration. “All sectors of the market are showing great signs of recovery and as more employees come into the office, businesses can benefit from having robust multifunction printers on hand to improve efficiency and workflow.” Peter Dresser, product marketing manager at Kyocera Document Solutions UK, notes that the demand for A4 colour MFPs in the UK and Ireland has increased by 32.1% year on year and the A3 colour MFP market has grown by 12.2% for the same period. He says there are several reasons for this increase. “End users are looking to replace aging devices after ‘sweating’ these
assets during the economic uncertainty brought about by the COVID pandemic,” he says. “In addition, end users want the very latest technology, particularly focusing on updated security features.” He adds that customers also want technology that incorporates energy saving and environmental features and are likely to be focusing on the carbon neutrality of devices and manufacturers. “It is difficult to say which specific sectors are buying new devices as it seems to be common through all verticals,” he adds. Arjan Paulussen, managing director Lexmark UK, Western Europe and English-speaking Africa, agrees that demand for MFPs is growing is across most, if not all, industries. “Clearly, there will always be applications for which a single function printer is more suited, many of these where print forms an integral and critical part of the value chain, like printing of bills of lading within a logistics company,” he says. “The main drivers for the proliferation of MFPs are decentralisation and digitisation, with modern work environments being more decentralised and heterogeneous than ever – this trend started before COVID due to digitisation and has been further intensified by the pandemic. Multifunctional devices form the basis of digitisation. They are the interface between paper-based and digital document management processes and, in combination with the cloud, make hybrid working possible in the first place.” Cloud influence Arjan adds that cloud technology is high on the agenda for many businesses, and MFPs have an important role in the general move by businesses of all sectors to the cloud. “Customers expect the same level of print quality, security and service on every device, in every network environment and at every location,” he says. “MFPs support a robust security offering for endpoint protections and system hardening. “Cloud technology offers flexible solutions
Russell Pirie regional sales director
ricoh.co.uk
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