01732 759725 52 10 years · I00 issues As yet another year draws to a close, leading print OEMs, ISVs and channel services providers share their thoughts on what 2023 will hold for the print and IT sectors Print Predictions: part two Vaclav Muchna, CEO, Y Soft: “According to forecasts, 2023 will be the peak year in terms of employees returning to the office workspace. Traditionally, significantly more people work from the office in the Czech Republic than in Western Europe (around 45 per cent), but thanks to this it is possible to better predict domestic trends. While Western Europe expects a resumption of the drop in people working from home as soon as 2024 (when the percentage of those working from the office will peak at 55 per cent), we expect this trend a year or two later in the Czech Republic. From the point of view of local companies, the reason for this is both the greater requirement for employee control and also the greater conservatism of companies and their employees. “In the large cities of Western Europe, when daily commutes last two to three hours, home office as a benefit is seen in an eight to 10 per cent increase in salary, whilst in the Czech Republic it is less (due, amongst other things, to shorter commuting times). Even so, hybrid work from the office and other locations will drive the trend of dismantling print infrastructure and shifting print (and scan) management in the cloud. “From a technological standpoint, there will be a demand for cloud solutions which allow direct access of both printers and computers to the cloud, as well as the so-called Edge model, where branch offices will house a device to handle the storage of print jobs, thereby eliminating the necessity of sending documents to and from the cloud. “A further trend will, from the IT perspective, be digital equivalence, i.e., providing employees who move around outside the office space with the same productive environment as though they were in the office. VPNs and similar solutions will die out, while applications which can work from anywhere (and ideally on any device) thanks to the cloud will create a bright future. Investments into digital equivalence will be impacted by the growing recession, which will delay many investments by a year or two. “A larger trend is slowly beginning to make its mark in the area of ESG, especially as foreign clients are increasingly demanding ESG from their Czech (though not only Czech) suppliers. In the area of print, this will mean monitoring or even offsetting the carbon footprint associated with the operation of printing devices. “Apart from digital equivalence, there will also be a consumerisation of IT, i.e., a trend of simplifying IT work and purchasing services rather than software. The lack of (qualified) employees will further intensity this trend. “This volatile environment and growing recession will then force companies to give clear preference to pay-as-you-go models, which will allow them to respond in a more flexible fashion to the development of a real need for print/scan/copy. On the supply side there will be widespread reservations about such a model, but those who are able to offer such flexibility will possess a significant advantage. “In general, it can be said that the number of printed pages will continue to decline. The number of printers and copiers will experience a smaller decline, though a decline nonetheless. The trends of IT digital equivalence and IT consumerisation will prevail, which in turn will increase IT spending to provide a fully hybrid office model.” www.ysoft.com Steve Holmes, EMEA Regional Director & GM, PaperCut: “Arguably, the global energy crisis and economic challenges – not least those unravelling at home – have already set the template for at least the first quarters of 2023. On a more positive note, the agility born out of the pandemic period can play to its strengths once again as organisations navigate the turbulent times ahead. “With respect to opportunities in 2023, I think we’ll see migration to the cloud gather momentum, bringing with it benefits to both resellers and customers. Cloud adoption is already rising sharply, and there’s now a clear distinction now between cloud-first and cloudonly businesses. I believe that this will VOX POP Vaclav Muchna continued...
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