The market for managed print services (MPS) is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% to $1.5bn in the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) or APEJ region by 2016, according to a new report.
According to IDC’s Asia/Pacific Managed Print Services 2011-2016 Forecast and Analysis report, within the APEJ region, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) region are expected to continue to be the most valuable MPS market over the next few years, though emerging economies will achieve strong growth during the period.
IDC Asia/Pacific research manager Trevor Clarke said for print vendors and their channel partners operating in APEJ, it is clear that the traditional print business model must be supplanted with a services and software strategy, one that the company sees providingbetter margins and arguably tighter, longer relationships with clients, as is already happening in the developed markets in the region.
"However, the MPS maturity of each country in terms of adoption will remain fragmented in the short term and many opportunities will be in specific markets that host organizations with similar characteristics," Clarke said.
"Developed economies will lead the way with both the demand and supply side exhibiting mature approaches to managing their print and document environments.
"However, considerable opportunities also exist in the fast growing mega-cities across the region."
As emerging economies continue to focus on building out IT infrastructure and allocate spending to hardware, end-user indifference to print practices continues to delay MPS growth in the region, the report revealed.
According to the report, low labour costs could lead to little incentive to outsource, while skilled internal staff that can manage the print environment can be acquired easily.
"In contrast, large enterprises in many developed economies in particular are already shifting focus to workspace strategies with the support of external partners that include MPS in order to boost employee productivity and remain competitive with their peers," Clarke said.
"Pioneering organizations are taking a holistic approach that factors MPS into the workspace strategy and ensures this is tied to any mobility, cloud or social business and collaboration agenda.
"This kind of holistic approach will become more prevalent as enterprise business and IT decision makers start to look beyond siloed elements of their organization to see the bigger ecosystem and how it needs to flourish to create productive and innovative workspaces for employees."
