PRINT.IT
3
ISSN 2055-3099 (Print) ISSN 2055-3102 (Online)
THE PRINT & DOCUMENT WORKFLOW MAGAZINE
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PrintIT
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@printitmag
ISSN 2055-3099 (Print) ISSN 2055-3102 (Online)
05
Bulletin
The high cost of ‘clunky’ business processes
16
Cover Story
Develop joins the Premier League of
imaging brands
19
MFPs
HP aims to change how the world prints
21
Analysis
Louella Fernandes makes the case for
business inkjets
22
Q&A
PrintIT
talks to Rob Clark about Epson’s
successful push into the office market
24
Future Tech
Why robots are nothing
to fear
26
What’s New
New print products and
initiatives
28
Innovation
Toshiba TEC’s new and
improved eco copier
30
GDPR
KYOCERA Document Solutions
warns of public sector security
blindspot
32
Voice Recognition
What needs to happen before
enterprises put their trust in
speech
35
Opinion
Why new
generation
large format
graphics arts
printers are a
game-changer
ISSUE 47
Comment
Editor:
James Goulding
07803 087228 •
Advertising Director:
Ethan White
01732 759725 •
Publishing Director:
Neil Trim
01732 759725 •
Group Sales Manager:
Martin Jenner-Hall
07824 552116 •
Social Media and Web Editor:
John Peters
07711 204011
•
Art Director:
NIck Pledge
07767 615983
•
Editorial Assistant:
Tayla Ansell
01962 843434
•
Advertising Executive:
James Trim
01732 759725
•
PRINT.IT
is published by Kingswood Media Ltd., Amherst House,
22 London Road, Sevenoaks TN13 2BT
•
Tel: 01732 759725
No part of PRINT.IT can be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher.
© 2017 Kingswood Media Ltd.
Production Design: Sandtiger Media ·
The paper used in this magazine is obtained from manufacturers who operate within
internationally recognized standards and which is sourced from sustainable, properly managed
forestation.
COMMENT
The latest quarterly productivity bulletin from the Office
of National Statistics (ONS) tells a familiar tale, with UK
labour productivity, measured by output by hour, falling 0.1%
between Q1 (January to March) and Q2 (April to June). UK
manufacturing performed particularly badly, seeing a 1.3%
fall in productivity, compared to a rise of 0.2% in the services
sector. Our news pages this month highlight some of the
main causes of this persistent problem and some possible
solutions. In the first category
are time-consuming ‘clunky’
business processes cited in a
new report by Tungsten Network
(page 5); lack of investment in
new technology, highlighted in
surveys from SugarCRM and Xero
(pages 9 and 14); and poor staff
training, epitomised by the lack of
basic IT skills amongst UK office
workers (page 11). In the second
category are new technologies like
wearables and artificial intelligence
(AI) that businesses across a range
of industry sectors are introducing to streamline workflows,
principally by removing paper from their operations. New
research by ServiceNow indicates that businesses that do
invest in solutions like artificial intelligence and machine
learning to streamline decision-making and accuracy are six
times more likely to experience revenue growth of more than
15% than companies with low levels of automation.
How the office might change as a result of these new
technologies is touched upon in separate articles on
robots (page 24) and speech recognition (page 32). In
the former, Volker Spanier, head of robotics at Epson
Europe, notes the rise of the co-bot – collaborative
robots designed to work alongside humans. As he
points out, greater physical co-operation between
man and machine is creating new opportunities
in manufacturing and service industries such as
healthcare and hospitality. What this means for the
office environment is less certain. ‘Meet your new
colleague the co-bot’ is much more likely to be heard
in a factory or field than an office, but that doesn’t mean white
collar workers are immune from the coming revolution. As the
research and advisory firm Information Services Group (ISG)
demonstrated so clearly in the man vs. machine head-to-head
at September’s inaugural ISG Automation Summit – Europe
(see page 14), developments in artificial intelligence will enable
computers to complete many of today’s tedious administrative
processes much more efficiently than humans. Throw in the
ability of speech recognition technologies to transform how
we interact with machines and it is clear that a productivity
revolution in offices is within reach.
James Goulding
,
Editor
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