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AMI: Indian SMBs Adopting Managed Print Services

SMBs are increasingly feeling the importance of managed printing services: 18 percent of these SMBs are using managed printing and publishing services. India medium businesses (MBs or companies with 100 - 999 employees) are more inclined to use managed printing services than small business (SBs or companies with 1-99 employees). According to Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, many India SMBs are assessing their printing needs and researching how managed printing services might be able to help them meet these requirements.

"Organizations are using managed print services (MPS) to curtail hardcopy (printer, copier, MFP and fax) investments," says Priti Verma, Research Analyst for Research and Consultancy at AMI-Partners, Bangalore. "As more and more companies throughout the world become cognizant of the necessity to 'Go Green,' managed printing services help ensure considerable environmental benefits by right sizing the fleet and optimizing deployment,” she added.

"During the downturn, India SMBs could look at saving costs by shifting from CAPEX to OPEX models and assuring operational excellence. Printing solutions can be one of the major areas where this can be implemented," says Verma. "Managed print services can help India SMBs leverage cost reduction and simplify the management of their imaging and printing environment."

By outsourcing printing, India SMBs are increasingly using the services and technical expertise of printing vendors, and are able to utilize their manpower more effectively. Another advantage of balanced deployments is that organizations can manage their printing and imaging needs with tailor-made solutions which are also scalable for future growth.

"Organizations are usually not very accurate in estimating their document costs, and spend a substantial amount on printing infrastructure," says Verma. "We see that many India SMBs are planning to use print infrastructure management in the next twelve months in addition to form-management and production printing services."

Another interesting trend is that India SMBs are not really interested in using device management infrastructure or workflow management. They mainly gravitate toward printing done on a pay-per-page basis. To be sure, document-intensive industries are the key growth drivers of managed printing services. These industries would include government, education, healthcare and banking and financial services.