Inkjet & Digital Printing

Cost savings keep Managed Print Services adoption on track through recession

Friday 19. February 2010 - New research from Quocirca shows that MPS is delivering cost savings above expectations but document security still remains an issue.

Research results announced today reveal that managed print services (MPS) remain popular in large and medium-sized enterprises despite the recession. Over 90 per cent of respondents state that they will continue with original plans to deploy MPS in their organisations. The MPS end-user survey, co-sponsored by Xerox and undertaken by research and analysis company Quocirca, shows that 70 per cent of organisations saw management of their print infrastructure as a strategic imperative. Cost savings are the key driver for MPS adoption. 25 per cent of respondents say that MPS is delivering cost savings above expectations, and a further 60 per cent say they were satisfied with the savings achieved.

The survey was undertaken across the UK, Germany, France and the US in 200 organisations across five vertical industry sectors: financial services; pharmaceutical; public sector; retail; and telecoms and IT. The questionnaire was designed to capture both non-MPS and MPS users with a quota defined for a 50 per cent split between MPS and potential MPS users.

Whilst cost saving is the main MPS attraction, document security is still of concern with over 50 per cent of respondents raising document security as a barrier to MPS adoption. “This could be due to the lack of awareness of the capabilities that MPS offers to improve the security of document processes,” said Louella Fernandes Principal Analyst at Quocirca. “It may also be due to the perception that remote monitoring poses security risks. However, remote monitoring itself does not cause security vulnerabilities. So this suggests that there is a lack of understanding on how an MPS operates and how a secure environment can be maintained.”

Commenting on the results, Shaun Pantling, director and general manager of Xerox Global Services, Europe said: “The economic downturn doesn’t seem to have had a major impact on corporate MPS plans, which we believe is a direct result of MPS clearly delivering on promises to bring cost savings. Unmanaged print environments expose organisations to both spiralling print costs and a higher security risk, so it is unsurprising that these are the most pressing concerns. Most large organisations are worried about the security of confidential or sensitive information, particularly where there are multiple shared devices. These are exactly the concerns that Xerox addresses with a range of smart scanning and secure printing solutions.”

Further findings include:
Organisations with over 5,000 employees are more likely to view printing as strategic
The finance and government sectors place a higher strategic importance on managing their print infrastructures than other industries
Cost reduction is the most pressing concern for all organisations across all regions. Document security comes second but there are strong regional variations with this being a particular issue in France and Germany
Cost savings expectations are typically between 10-40 per cent but vary by vertical sector and organisational size
Cost saving expectations are significantly higher in Germany than in other countries
German organisations also place the highest importance on secure printing solutions suggesting that they may be further along the maturity curve for MPS than other countries
The ability to guarantee cost savings was rated the most important capability with approximately 50 per cent of respondents rating this as very important. Consolidated billing (#2) and proactive supplies management (#3) were also rated highly. Multivendor management came in at #6 with nearly 80 per cent rating it as either important or very important
The financial sector demonstrates much higher print costs, with 65 per cent of respondents believing printing to account for more than 10 per cent of their budget. With its higher reliance on printed output, controlling print costs is vital for this sector
Cost issues are seen as key challenges particularly for government and finance, while document security is the highest concern amongst pharmaceutical respondents
Over 90 per cent of organisations who have outsourced to an MPS channel provider are satisfied with the level of service they are receiving
Satisfaction levels are much higher for those using either a fully outsourced or out-tasked approach to MPS compared to a basic MPS model
Those using fully outsourced MPS, experience a much lower proportion of IT support calls relating to print.