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PRINT.IT
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MFPs
Canon has just completed
the first phase of an Insight
report into office printing
based on 729 interviews in 19
countries. Phase 2 based on
1,500 interviews and 50 in-
depth interviews is due to be
released in January 2013.
An edited selection of
preliminary findings shown to
PrintIT
at the launch of Canon’s
new MFPs (see right) reveal an
office printing culture in flux, in
which users are printing less
yet still value the ability to do
so; and in which they no longer
see an MFP as an essential
item of business equipment, but
still expect their usage of such
devices to increase.
Three out of four respondents
(74%) say they are making an
attempt to cut the amount of
paper they use and half say they
already print less than they used
to. Even so, 83% of respondents
admit to printing every day.
And while two thirds of
respondents claim they would be
able to work without access to
printers, scanners and copiers,
83% believe that in the future
they will be using printers and
MFDs as much as, or more than,
today.
This is partly due to increased
scanning activity – over half of
The changing role
of the MFP
Preliminary findings of end user research due to be released
next year highlight an office printing culture in flux
respondents say they scan more
than they did three years ago,
with 44% scanning every day –
but not exclusively so.
Office workers clearly still
value the printed page, with
half regarding the production
of good-looking, high quality
documents as a key success
factor in business. More than
half of those questioned (55%)
say that they print less but what
they do print has more value;
and one third say they share
the documents they print with
clients.
Challenge
The challenge for MFP vendors
like Canon is to give customers
the tools needed to satisfy their
desire for lower print costs,
whilst at the same developing
MFP capabilities and solutions
that drive up print volumes.
This can be done by maximising
existing printing opportunities
(e.g. by making it easier to print
from mobile devices and the
cloud); by bringing in-house
print jobs that would once have
been outsourced; and, most
interestingly, by developing
applications that create a desire
and need to print.
A good example of the latter
is Canon’s iW Desktop Quick
Printing Tool which office workers
can use to preview documents,
create PDFs and apply finishing
templates. More advanced
features include the ability to
combine material from different
applications (e.g. PDFs, Word,
Powerpoint and Excel) in a single
PDF; re-order pages by drag and
drop; edit copy; and personalise
documents with logos and
names and addresses through
simple variable data printing.
Based on its analysis of
97,000 MFPs, Canon claims
that customers in Japan who are
using this powerful, easy-to-use
desktop tool have increased
print volumes by 19%.
Print volumes may be
declining, but Canon’s research
shows that the demand for
print is still strong and that the
evolving capabilities of print
devices and related solutions
will keep MFPs at the heart of
business processes.
www.canon.co.uk
The mobile
generation
The new generation of
Canon imageRUNNER
MFPs is designed to
meet the evolving
print needs of today’s
office workers.
Canon has announced a new
generation imageRUNNER
Advance platform covering
six MFP series and 20 colour
and mono devices with print
speeds ranging from 20
to 105 pages per minute.
Reflecting changes in the
workplace that have occurred
since the iR Advance
platform was launched in
October 2009, the Generation
2.0 devices offer improved
security, cost control,
productivity and cloud/mobile
integration.
End user research by Canon
shows that today’s workers are
becoming more mobile, with
43% saying they see the value
in mobile printing and more
than half (51%) expressing
a desire to send scanned
documents to cloud apps. At
the same time, businesses
want to control print costs and
improve document security
– more than three quarters
(78%) of workers say that they
sometimes print sensitive
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