A new study by IT industry association CompTIA shows that managed print service providers are feeling optimistic about their future growth prospects.
According to CompTIA’s Trends in Managed Services study, some 86 per cent of managed print services (MPS) expect to see their businesses growth over the next year, and one-third of them expect their growth to exceed 10 per cent.
The death of print appears to remain exaggerated as, while aggregate print volumes are slowly declining, CompTIA reports 98 per cent of U.S. workers printed at least once during the past quarter and over half of firms claimed “moderate to very high” print volumes.
CompTIA puts the penetration rage of MPS at about 36 per cent, and is much higher in companies with more than 500 employees. About half of end user companies claimed familiarity with MPS, with awareness notable higher on the IT side of the house than on the business side.
“This confirms the importance of selling beyond the IT department,” said Tim Herbert, vice-president, research and market intelligence with CompTIA, in a statement. “Securing buy-in across the organization is likely to result in a greater long-term commitment to managed print. This may open doors to more advanced opportunities, such as document management and business process automation.”
Drilling down into the responses from MPS users, 84 per cent said they were satisfied with the experience with the top attributes of a top-rated MPS experience listed as consistency and reliability of service, quality of customer service, freeing up staff time, reporting and visibility, speed of service and support, reduction in waste and ROI / cost savings.
The study included both Canadian and U.S. business executives with decision-making responsibility around print services.