Future Predictions for Printers

Expanding mobile and cloud printing options

Although cloud and mobile printing and scanning are relatively new innovations, we anticipate that these technologies will advance and become commonplace in offices. The rise in mobile workforces will be the driving reason behind this. Many firms are already introducing mobile use for business processes now, soon this will be the norm.

According to the Office of National Statistics, 50% of UK employees work remotely. As this practice spreads in the next years and technology advances to make remote work more convenient, we predict that the proportion of remote workers will dramatically rise by 2030.

Cloud-based MPS will be even more prevalent, enabling your mobile workforce to print from and scan to portable devices and allowing print tasks to be submitted to a single virtual print server rather than several on-premise servers. Along with boosting productivity, this also reduces reliance on internal servers.

Further merging of print and digital

Although the use of digital and mobile technologies will increase, many firms will continue to rely on print. The development of digital and mobile technology will support rather than replace enterprises’ printing and scanning requirements. In fact, we anticipate that during the coming ten years, the print and digital worlds will converge even more.

According to the current Global Print 2025 report by Quocirca, 64% of firms feel that printing would still be crucial to their day-to-day operations in 2025. Beyond 2025, we anticipate that printing and scanning will continue to be crucial to organizations, with MPS suppliers providing more integrated services for paper and digital workflow.

Increased print security and control

Businesses will be able to attain new levels of print control and print security with the aid of evolving print software. Businesses will continue to benefit from critical insight into their print expenses and assistance in making the best use of their resources from print control software programs like PaperCut MF.

Businesses’ top priorities will still be network and data security, and printer security will receive the same attention as other office technologies like PCs, laptops, smartphones, and tablets.

Businesses will also put more emphasis on print security as the Internet of Things (IoT) develops to protect themselves from cyberattacks and data leaks. To reduce risks and stop unauthorized access, we anticipate seeing more user authentication, access control and pull printing. We anticipate that companies will search for an MPS provider that excels at print security.

Working with artificial intelligence

Many offices today use artificial intelligence (AI), but we predict that it will be far more prevalent. With the advent of AI technologies like Alexa for Business, intelligent printers that offer voice-activated printing, print reminders, and the ability to add printing and scanning chores to your to-do list will become more prevalent.

Naturally, as AI develops, so will the number of intelligent printing and scanning tools that support the modern, mobile workplace and workforce.

Not only will technology evolve, but software and security solutions will also grow in number, and service providers will adjust their service offerings to be appropriate for the smart workplace.

We can help you manage your workplace printing and scanning more effectively and in the long run. We assist companies all over South Africa in ensuring that their offices are utilizing mobile and cloud technologies to their fullest potential to provide a safe document environment.