The world of office communications is constantly changing and evolving, with new technologies and services arising to meet the changing needs of businesses. One such innovation is managed print services (MPS), a sector that is experiencing phenomenal growth. To illustrate the point, a recent Mordor Intelligence report revealed that the market size of MPS in 2023 was around $45.67 billion, and that’s expected to grow to $66.12 billion by 2029. These impressive numbers show that despite the work and business environment continuing to undergo rapid and often disruptive digital transformation, managed print services continue to fill important business needs for many companies.

MPS enables businesses to improve their operational efficiency by outsourcing the maintenance of their printer and copier devices, the management of the supplies needed for these devices, and even the management and storage of their printed (and digital) documents to specialist service providers. Outsourcing these aspects of the business to experts not only brings down costs and improves the efficiency of printing operations, but frees up employees to focus on higher priority activities.

The Not-So-Paperless Office

For most businesses and organizations, even in an increasingly digital world, life without paper documents is inconceivable. Whether needed for promotional materials, hard copies of contracts, meeting notes, or a myriad of other uses, paper remains a resource they simply can’t do without. As a result, according to a 2022 Quocirca study, 72% of businesses in North America still consider print important.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s when computers and digital technology first emerged, it was predicted that the office of the future would become a “paperless office” largely or even entirely free of paper. But perhaps counter-intuitively, the ongoing explosion of digital technology has instead led to an increase in the amount of paper used for printing and storing information by businesses, not less. This has in turn stimulated great advances in printer and copier technology in order to handle the growing demand, and the growth of comprehensive services to help companies adapt to and profit from these emerging technologies.

The Evolution of MPS

One innovation that continues to transform office productivity is managed print services. As the workplace, economy, and technology evolve, MPS providers also continue to evolve to satisfy their clients’ changing needs, offering an ever more powerful, useful, and sophisticated suite of services.

This ability to adapt and change with the times has always been a key reason why managed print services represent such a compelling option for so many businesses. Amy Weiss, the editorial director at The Imaging Channel, sums it up succinctly by stating that the growth of the industry has always been “more evolution than invention.”

How MPS Emerged

Managed print services first started appearing in the 1990s, when a new generation of printing and copying devices began to hit the shelves. These devices were much more intelligent than their predecessors, and combined multiple functions like scanning, copying and printing for the first time.

The previous iterations of printers and copiers had given a huge boost to business productivity by providing companies with the ability to print and copy in-house, among other things. However, these innovations often caused more problems than they solved. Issues such as broken/jammed printers or unexpectedly running out of ink or paper would cause major disruptions and costly downtime. These problems could leave untrained staff scratching their heads trying to figure out why the printer was on the blink, or require extra staff to bolster IT departments just to deal with printer maintenance and repairs.

This meant that the costs of maintenance and supply were unpredictable. And if you wanted to collect usage statistics in an effort to get a handle on these costs and disruptions, employees would have to be reassigned to undertake the laborious process of collecting, collating and analyzing the data manually.

This new generation of machines offered a solution to these problems in the form of remote and wireless monitoring, which introduced the possibility of comprehensive and highly efficient support by experts.

The Industry Emerges

In 2006, supply met demand with a firm handshake, as dealers in printers and copiers started offering managed print services to clients as a solution. Within just a few years, MPS had grown to such an extent that In 2009 the Managed Print Services Association (MPSA) was founded and the first managed print summit, one of the industry’s largest, was held.

Initially, the focus of MPS was on the maintenance and repair of the printer and copier machines. It remained a largely reactive service, sending technicians to replace consumables such as ink and toner, and repairing malfunctioning machines.

But as the software became more advanced, able to both provide more sophisticated usage and cost data and detect more issues before they happened, MPS providers started adding additional services to their offerings, including:

  • More proactive and preventative maintenance
  • Management of the supply and usage of consumables like ink and toner
  • Usage analysis
  • Security features
  • Print optimization consultancy

The Present

Throughout the 2010s, driven in part by the more predictable costs and improved productivity offered by these services, and in part by environmental sustainability concerns, the market for managed print services experienced rapid growth. Then, COVID-19 ushered in a shift to remote work and hybrid home/office work environments and accelerated the use of the cloud for document storage and collaboration.

As with so many other aspects of their operations, many companies have had to rethink their printing and copying requirements in order to optimize a workforce operating from a variety of locations and increasingly in the cloud.

Managed print services have, in turn, evolved to meet these needs by expanding their online e-commerce and support services, offering customized solutions, leveraging data to provide value to clients, and offering related Document Management services.

The Future

In the coming years, as emerging technologies like AI and IoT (the Internet of Things) become ever more powerful and pervasive, even more efficient solutions for automating and improving printing and document management will become available. Increasing use of AI should also enable MPS providers to offer an even broader range of valuable analytics to clients than they already do, providing the means to fine-tune operations and increase productivity even further.

A Proven MSP Partner

Elite Imaging Systems was founded over three decades ago, and has been a part of the evolution of MPS since the beginning. The company has stood the test of time, growing into a leading provider of managed print services and other office technology solutions, boosting productivity, cutting costs, and turbocharging communications for over 1,500 clients.

If you are looking for a proven managed print services partner to take care of your business printing requirements in Troy, Detroit, or Flint areas securely, cost-effectively, and with the expertise to future-proof your business, contact Elite Imaging Systems today.