Tablets and Print: Underappreciated Cannibalization Story
This past Valentine’s Day, Morgan Stanley released a 96-page study titled “Tablet Demand and Disruption – Mobile Users Come of Age.” The study was dated February 14, 2011, so the report is technically a year old. Most of the content is around the development and distribution of tablets globally and their disruptive effect on different technologies. There are only three pages dedicated to the impact of tablets on print, but the findings are stunning. One particular line caught my eye: “Tablet impact on pages printed is the most underappreciated cannibalization story.”
The most “underappreciated cannibalization.” We are eating ourselves alive, and we don’t even know it. Well, some of us don’t. I do. You do. It’s the muckety-mucks up top that don’t have the eyes to see.
The report is exhaustive and presents an accurate view of the tablet market as it unfolded in 2011. Indeed, when the numbers were in error, the miscalculation was on the plus side – more tablets sold than predicted.
Until very recently, the facts around paper consumption, printing at home or the office and the paperless movement were muted and debatable. Yet we see the results all around us. Our OEMs are stumbling through the MpS maze, confused and terribly vexed. Our fellow dealers are equally befuddled and most likely on their third MpS director. Still, some are fooling themselves into believing the recession will end and everything will go back to normal.
This is not the case. The writing is on the wall; the business is never coming back. Managed print services reduces the clicks and MIF. The economic environment is forcing us all to do more with less – less printing. The consumerization of IT is leaving print behind, and the MpS motion is skipping over the reduction of print and landing on the elimination of print/presenting documents on a screen.
So what do you do?
Push harder. Get as many machines and customers as you can, because this is truly the last land grab; when the music stops, people go home. The idea is to act with urgency without looking desperate and to keep your eyes open for new opportunities. I am not trying to scare anyone, but I won’t advocate ignorance or inaction. If, for some strange reason, you’re not already in MpS, get cracking – today. Reach out to your toner vendor and deepen your partnership. Look to new partners, bigger providers or folks you didn’t consider before. Things change, don’t they?
However, if you are in MpS, keep selling and supporting your brand of MpS. Keep doing what you do and do it well. Pivot off your strength into other areas. If your crew delivers toner, think about document destruction or delivering water. I am not kidding.
Seriously look into managed services – coffee services, waste management, records management and managed IT services. You’ve got nothing to lose. Well, that isn’t 100 percent correct; you could lose everything.
Before you do, take a serious deep-dive look into your existing systems – holistically. Our industry has excellent consultants who are very good in certain areas – business, finance, sales. But few imaging experts can look at the entire operation through a managed services prism, so be inquisitive and discerning.
If you offer a more advanced MpS, engage an outside expert to look at everything. If you’re building up a practice and have been through one or two multiple-week mentoring programs, now is a great time to look deeper into all your systems and evaluate the effectiveness of past expansions into MpS.
Get a good, honest, deep look at your operations, then make a choice.
There is one more thing.
In the spirit of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” have you ever considered reselling tablets in addition to copiers, printers, toner and supplies? If office supplies people can sell MpS, why can’t you provide tablets?
I’m just saying…
Posted on 02/21/2012