Untroubled Print Run

A typical office environment sees massive pile-up of printed sheets at the
printer with most of it lying unclaimed at the end of the day. Not an uncommon
sight in most Indian offices, but the surprise element here is that a majority
of Indian companies fail to realize that the mounting printer bills are a direct
result of such wastage. However, the situation is set to change thanks to the
global economic recession sweeping most economies including India: companies are
now increasingly looking at all possible options for reducing costs.

A Springboard Research on the managed print services (MPS) market in the Asia
Pacific (excluding Japan) region forecasts the regional market to grow from $392
mn in 2007 to $825 mn in 2011 with countries like Australia and New Zealand
dominating the MPS market, cornering over 25% of the market and expanding at a
CAGR of 19.3% during the forecast period. Sanchit Vir Gogia, senior research
analyst for services at Springboard Research agrees that the robust growth
indicate not just a vibrant MPS marketplace but also the emergence of MPS as the
best growth bet for the print hardware vendors in the region, who have seen a
decline of hardware sales amidst the economic slowdown. HP Indias recently
launched campaign Make it Count is focused on enabling companies in printing
cost savings and energy use savings.

The Indian market, however, currently lags behind China and ASEAN in the
overall market size but is projected to be the fastest growing market for MPS in
the region. Springboard Research expects the Indian market to increase from $31
mn in 2007 to $70 mn by 2011. Whats more, Indias market for MPS offerings is
expected to be at least double that of countries such as New Zealand, Hong Kong,
and the Philippines. While India is definitely the fastest growing of all APEJ
regions, it does not represent the largest MPS market opportunity, and in terms
of maturity, is considered to be in a nascent stage of adoption, says Gogia.

The enterprise printing infrastructure includes printers from multiple vendors which increases the operations cost Nitin Hiranandani, director, enterprise sales & services, IPG, HP India	More and more companies now want to optimize their print infrastructure by using networked printers to save power and space Alok Bharadwaj, senior vice president, Canon India

Driving MPS Adoption

For those not aware of what MPS stands for, it is an initiative that
enterprises use to streamline their printing environment, optimize device fleet
and most importantly, reduce overall costs associated with the enterprise print
strategy. With printing being looked at as a strategic area that can keep pace
with operational day-to-day demands; more and more companies now want to
optimize their print infrastructure by using networked printers to save power
and space. Also, some organizations are going green and want to save paper,
recycle and dispose some of the hazardous components of printers, toners and PCs
to safeguard the environment, says Alok Bharadwaj, senior vice president, Canon
India.

Even as the Indian market continues to be at a nascent stage of adoption, a
growing majority of Indian enterprises are now looking towards MPS to help them
create a worry- free printing environment; the offering however is yet to
reach the stage where it can be considered a must have service by enterprises.

In India, lower TCO continues to be the primary driver for the adoption of
MPS. With the current economic scenario enterprises are looking to reduce
costs, to move from capex to opex. When one looks at the cost, which
incidentally no one used to look at earlier, one can see the printing
infrastructure, and then the need stems to optimize the printing
infrastructure, says Nitin Hiranandani, director, enterprise sales and
services, IPG, HP India.

Enterprises are increasingly feeling the need to streamline their printing
environment considering that there are too many departments involved in
procuring printers and consumables. The enterprise printing infrastructure
includes printers from a variety of vendors. This results in a dramatic increase
in operational costs, thereby ramping up the effective cost of ownership, says
Hiranandani.

The other reasons furthering the use of MPS in India include the need to
focus on core business activities (and not non-core IT activities) and no
commitment to pay upfront to purchase printers and use flexible payment models
like pay-per-page. Not being locked in to a specific printing device and
access to latest technology when the print environment has been outsourced is
another reason driving the demand for MPS in India.

Purushottam K, joint CEO, WeP Solutions believes that the growth of the
Indian market too has been one of the contributing factors for the adoption of
MPS. Growth in the Indian economy has driven business out of the stronghold of
the major metros and is now spreading in tier-2 and -3 cities of India. And for
enterprises who have minimum print requirements but have widespread network, an
expert is required to manage the network instead of the company being hassled by
network management and infrastructure issues.

Hindrances in Adoption

While India continues to be a high-growth market, unfortunately most
enterprises in India still view MPS as an alternative way to procure printers
giving the strategic long-term benefits of the offering a miss. Clearly, there
is still a lot of uncertainty regarding the benefits of MPS engagements.

Vendors need to promote a fuller gamut of MPS benefits that appeal to both CIOs and business decision makers Sanchit Vir Gogia, senior research analyst, services, Springboard Research	When we enforce security printing, every user who goes to the printer to collect a printout can no longer just walk up to the printer and do that Mark Petit, executive director, Xerox Global Services

Weve also observed that enterprises in India tend to perceive MPS as an
expensive and complex outsourced service. Clearly, vendors need to promote a
fuller gamut of MPS benefits that appeal to both CIOs and line of business (LoB)
decision makers. The need to educate enterprises and change current perceptions
of MPS is paramount, says Gogia.

Gogia goes on to add that even though the key vendors are offering MPS, they
are chiefly catering to the enterprise segment and their offerings are yet to
make a significant impact on the SMB space.

Escalating printing costs and a lack of understanding of technologies are
forcing firms to look for alternative solutions to cut costs in document
production. IDC estimates that companies spend up to 10% of their revenues on
document production, management and distribution, analysts peg the typical
return on investment in managed printing environment by outsourcing print
management to vendors is in the range of 30% across verticals, says Bharadwaj.

Moreover, there is a different procurement mindset at work in the Indian
market. Historically one would find that the vendor offering the cheapest
printing infrastructure was chosen resulting in an office full of printing
equipments from different vendors, says Mark Petit, executive director, Xerox
Global Services, Xerox India.

Are we Ready?

In India the concept of MPS is still in its infancy and end-user response is
relatively lukewarm. Issues like customer concerns over perceived lack of
document privacy are being sorted out. Almost all vendors in the space are
promising complete document privacy by way of inserting password or
identification in the software. When we enforce security printing, every user
who goes to the printer to collect a printout can no longer just walk up to the
printer and do that. He has to use his swipe card for access to his printout
which until then is stored in the printer, says Petit.

MPS is more common in industrial printing, especially in printing intensive
industries like BFSI and telecom, with demand being generated from other
verticals like retail, public sector, healthcare and education too. The key
difference here is the growing demand for customized solutions that exclusively
cater to the requirements of the particular company. Interestingly, some large
organizations in India have also shown a willingness to pay a premium to vendors
that offer customization.

Managed print services aim to take control of all or some of the print
environment and achieve an optimum and balanced mix of printing and imaging
equipment, efficient network controls and improved workflows. Through
consolidation of existing equipment, management of supplies and remote print
management, businesses can reduce costs, improve productivity for IT, end-users,
procurement and facilities. The benefits of a managed print environment are
manifoldno capital and operational expenditure, pay-per-use model, keeping a
tab on printing costs and whos printing what and helping support environmental
targets through more efficient printing practices.

Stuti Das

stutid@cybermedia.co.in