VOX POP 01732 759725 46 staff working from home. This provides managers with a better overview of the business, as well as ensuring spend is justified.” www.ecisolutions.com Steve Holmes, EMEA Regional Director, PaperCut “There are some parallels between the pandemic and the preparations companies made for the GDPR. Both were drivers for change, causing organisations to look very closely at how they operate and function, and what needed to be done to optimise efficiency, productivity and security. The pandemic caused organisations to sharpen their post-GDPR focus even more. This means that organisations will enter 2022 leaner and more agile than before – in part driven by the added flexibility realised by moving core services and applications to the cloud – with employee wellbeing and sustainability taking centre stage. We believe 2022 has the potential to offer the channel close to hitherto unseen opportunities to support new and existing clients through this period of dramatic transformation. All of this will happen against a backdrop of evolving tech mega-trends, like 5G, the Internet of Things and Smart Cities. “Perhaps one of the biggest challenges when it comes to embracing the new opportunities is change management. Employees have been put through so much of late – from furlough, to working from home, adapting to video calls while missing out on the all-important social aspect of work – but there’s one more big push coming; asking them to think and adopt more sustainable ways of working. It’s important that they see the value in it and that they are supported in their efforts to do so. The channel’s role here is, first, to work with vendors who prioritise sustainability and, second, to work with their clients to encourage it. The challenge for the channel is whether it can show that it has changed its ways too and it is prepared to lead by example. More broadly speaking, the problems relating to the availability of raw materials and components like semi-conductors are being compounded by problems in the supply chain and the shortage of HGV drivers. The knock-on effect of this will continue to be felt into 2022. “There’s still a lot of post-COVID dust to settle, and given the turmoil of the last 18 months, 2022 may be a year where we embrace stability rather more change. However, around the edges, I think crypto currency and blockchain will feature prominently as tech to watch, along with the technologies that underpin the delivery of goods and services to our front doors – from food to furniture – as making that ‘last mile’ ever more costeffective and efficient is vital for online businesses selling physical products to customers.” www.papercut.com and the majority of businesses looking to make efficiency savings wherever possible. “As the market is still very much in recovery mode, many dealers are still looking for subscription or just-in-time delivery models to keep their costs low, and this is something that we’ve been supporting at ECI. Now, with the right systems in place, humans no longer have to worry about physically ordering supplies themselves, as the devices can automatically process these orders and send notifications when stocks get low. “With data security a hot topic, I believe we will see more and more businesses investing in technology that can protect their network. Our turnkey hosted printing service allows businesses to make their network printers available to those working remotely in a secure fashion and having listened to customers, this has given them real peace of mind. “From a logistical point of view, the ability to add jobs to a printing queue from home and then print when they are next in the office, is an increasingly sought after feature from MPS software providers. As well as the functionality to assign every employee and client with their own unique PIN number and generate different project codes. “Other visibility features such as ‘cost recover’ mode can help businesses keep a better eye on costs, tracking spend against each user's account – even with ...continued The channel’s role here is, first, to work with vendors who prioritise sustainability and, second, to work with their clients to encourage it. Steve Holmes Elise McFarlane
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