2018 has been the year of digital transformation, with organisations of all sizes either implementing or planning projects in every area from customer service operations to workforce management. Every business process is being assessed and within this, print management has also experienced a shift, according to leading enterprise office solution provider, Y Soft Corporation, which believes that 2019 will see digital transformation projects disrupt print management even further.
“In 2019, businesses will increasingly focus on technology and processes that allow them to be more productive and secure,” says James Turner, Regional Sales Manager at Y Soft, who notes the following key predictions for the year ahead:
Cloud adoption
“As businesses increasingly focus on technology and processes that allow them to be more efficient, productive and secure, failure to implement cloud printing as part of this philosophy, risks organisations unable to use IT resources for more productive projects. Managing print services in the cloud is essential if organisations want to take advantage of cloud services to run their business efficiently.”
Reseller agility
“As the industry faces challenges ahead in addressing the inevitable digital disruption, resellers need to demonstrate the agility and vision to be at the forefront of meeting customer’s needs. Customers are looking for solutions that help them in their digital transformation and this can include business processes beyond the traditional print and capture areas. Resellers should look to expand their offerings and partner with solution providers who can offer attractive, new revenue opportunities.”
One integrated supplier
“As digital transformation initiatives continue to develop, and businesses look for ways of ensuring an efficient, smooth-running office of the future, organisations will want to use one supplier for multiple document management solutions – as this provides a simpler support model. To do so, companies will start to look at ‘one-stop shops’ that offer comprehensive solutions – both print management & document capture with software and hardware support – through one OEM vendor.”
Artificial intelligence
“The potential disruption that AI brings to the print industry is significant. AI is often currently used in predictive maintenance as well as paper to digital workflows; however, there is a scope to develop these further by enhancing existing products and services. One of the benefits and drivers towards the adoption of AI is the enhanced security measures of defence against security threats. By using AI to enhance security measures, the decision-making process will become streamlined and improved as the automated system can detect and stop attacks quickly, while learning and adapting by using data.”
Heightened security
“This year it seemed we were hearing of a new data breach every day and as such, businesses have become more conscious of the various touchpoints throughout the organisation, such as printers that require both external firewalls and strong internal authentication. As enterprise workflow solutions are typically embedded as part of the MFD’s set of features and communicate to third-party systems, the security of the entire system must be considered. Therefore, it is important for close collaboration between an enterprise solution provider, the MFD service provider and an organisation’s IT department.
