‘Digital Transformation’ is fast becoming standard phrase for our end-customers. It is important to reflect on what this means for the print industry. After all we have moved from analogue to digital products and services some time ago. Business end-customers themselves are not fully aware of how things have changed over the past few years because, for the most part, it’s been a natural transition. It’s occurred in other areas of their lives, where capex has been replaced by opex without them even thinking about their new ways of consuming products in those terms. For us, vendors and for our print channel partners, however, some major adjustments have been made to service the new requirements.

What we’re witnessing today in the print industry is the start of a major shift led by end-customers which is unlike anything we’ve seen before. Some managed print service providers are ahead of the pack transitioning from their sole hardware printer and consumables offerings to a whole range of managed services delivering for the end-customer the connected digital workplace.

To understand these changes and how channel partners can adapt and take advantage of the current trends, we recently hosted a workshop bringing three fantastic speakers: Mitchell Filby, author of the book ‘Rest in Print - From office printing to the rise of managed services’, Josh Watts, a print industry insider and Principal at Watts Commercial Lawyers, and Louella Fernandes, a market analyst from Quocirca. In this post, I’ll cover some of the insights from Mitchell’s talk. I will cover Josh’s and Louella’s perspectives in subsequent blogs.

The next iteration of our industry, according to Mitchell Filby

With the acceleration of technology in multiple fronts and the remote customer interfaces to which businesses have had to evolve in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the clearest shifts in the market has been the surge of subscription-based services. Today, four out of five companies say their customers are changing the way they access services, and across nearly every industry, businesses are transforming pricing and packaging strategies to meet this shift in consumption. As Mitchell Filby says, the force of the subscription economy is unstoppable!

And while the subscription economy has only accelerated over the last few years, the print industry itself has only just started to move away from a consumption-based pricing model and towards a predictable, flat rate subscription model. According to Mitchell, the consumption-based model is still appropriate and it’s still effective for some clients. However, customers are growingly attracted to the convenience of flat-rate subscriptions and partners should be aware of the pent-up demand.

From Mitchell’s view, other important characteristics of this new model for the print industry is that it is end-customer led and outcome oriented, as opposed to what he calls the ‘transitional model’ of managed services, predominant since the mid-2020s, which has been provider led.

Mitchell says other industries have already moved into this new paradigm, including x-ray machines, aircraft engine manufacturers, mining logistics, coffee machines, the list goes on. In all these industries there are examples of companies who have moved from a consumption-based service to a subscription-based service, with variances in their pricing models, but the shift is clear. Led by end-customers, the print industry will inevitably move in the same direction.

According to our industry expert, Mitchell Filby: “channel partners can evolve and adapt their thinking in response to these new requirements from customers or ignore the signs and do what they’ve always done. However, doing what they have always done, may not work for much longer.”

In the coming weeks, we’ll cover some of the insights offered by Josh Watts from Watt Commercial Lawyers.

 

Anthony Toope is the Channel Marketing Manager for Australia and New Zealand at Lexmark. With over 20 years’ experience marketing technology products across Consumer Electronics, IT and Print he has a wealth of knowledge and expertise. At Lexmark, Anthony supports Channel partners and their ability to market products and services to small and medium-sized businesses. In addition, he is an expert in cloud-based managed print services (MPS) and thrives in helping partners understand the current demands and dynamics in the market.