01732 759725 42 VOX POP As yet another year draws to a close, here’s a selection of some of the channel’s key industry players’ thoughts on what 2022 will hold for the print and IT sectors Print predictions: part one Mike Barron, Managing Director, SYNAXON UK “I believe 2022 will be a genuinely exciting year and one that will be very good for the channel. As we put the pandemic firmly behind us, I think we will see a return to much more interaction, engagement, and co-operation between channel businesses. “The last 21 months have underlined the fact that we are, all of us – vendors, distributors, partners, and end-user customers – in it together, and that we all need to collaborate closely to get the best results. At SYNAXON UK, we are particularly looking forward to driving more interaction and use of our EGIS aggregation platform and firmly establishing it as the number-one stock checking and ordering platform in the channel. We’re also looking forward to stepping up our activity with MSP partners and helping them to grow and develop their business even more. “In terms of technology trends, cybersecurity is obviously a huge and vitally important trend. Managed services – including managed print – will continue to develop, and we are also going to see a continued shift towards cloud and hybrid infrastructures. The adoption of faster comms technologies – full fibre connectivity and 5G will also be an important trend. “We need to remember though, that many end-user customers will still be playing ‘catch-up’ with respect to the plans that they made two years ago. As the supply chain problems and constraints start to ease, there will be a big wave of investment in new products and upgrades. It could be a bumper year for the channel.” www.synaxon.co.uk Chris Bates, Business Unit Manager, Print & Supplies, Tech Data UK&I “With respect to print, we see two major trends gathering pace in 2022. First of all, managed print services will become much more prevalent. As businesses start to adapt to hybrid working practices, they will need to find a simple and effective way to manage the devices they deploy in people’s homes. Our OpenMPS service has been launched to address this need and the wider growth in managed print. This will be a major opportunity for partners in 2022. “The second big trend we see is the acceleration of refillable ink tank printers. These are eco-friendly, hasslefree and offer great value. And not just for consumers, we see a huge growth in the SMB market for these efficient, economical devices. This is the fastestgrowing segment for print, I see no sign of this slowing down and we’ll be supporting partners in making the most of the opportunity. “In terms of challenges, the issues that the whole market has experienced over the past year with product supply might not subside in the short-term. Perhaps a bigger challenge will be recruitment and retention of talented people. I’d expect partners will need to rely even more on the services and support and the tools and processes that their trusted distribution partner can provide to help them drive sales, increase profitability, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction. We are ready to support our partners in doing all of that and getting back to real growth.” www.techdata.com Al Coyne, Commercial Director, Print, Exertis “I believe that in 2022 we will see increased focus around the impact we Mike Barron Chris Bates
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