Best Print Management Software for 2020

Print Management Software organizes all procedures that occur between printer hardware and the devices involving print jobs. These solutions are perfect for business organizations because they can be used to handle a range of printing tasks for huge networks of printers. For businesses, print management devices make sure that employees’ computers are appropriately connected to the company's printers. These solutions are usually deployed on one device, like a printer, that can handle the complete network from a single location. An expert form the IT team of an organization typically acts as the administrator of this software.

The Best Print Management Software not only enables users to print, it also makes sure that the overall process is as user-friendly as possible. These platforms can standardize print jobs based on color, size, and layout. They can also support organizations with the logistical aspect of printing, such as disclosing the cost of print jobs and managing updates to the printing systems. The Print management software should incorporate document formation software to print text-based documents.

Market Overview

The global print management market was priced at USD 1,344.5 million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 5,282.2 million by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.8% during 2020-2027. The print management software is meant to effectively manage and improve printing devices and related processes. It needs user verification while giving access to printers and other print services. This software also offers a broad range of value-added features to enhance the user experience, comprising regulatory compliance and information governance, network security, user authentication, data, and document security. The growth of the print management software market is attributed to the rising acceptance of this software across all enterprises of all sizes.

Companies using big data solutions are gradually implementing the best print management software to simplify their operations, lessen costs, and enhance workplace productivity. These software permit users to build digital files by scanning documents, hence enabling companies to handle, manage, and access their crucial documents in a safer way. The Print management also permits better collaboration among various divisions within an organization for analytical reasons. The software lets companies sort and establishes important documents more effectively via optical character recognition (OCR). They also offer improved security features to help protect valuable information from network violations. Therefore, the growing acceptance of big data solutions is one of the major trends in the print management market, that helps to drive its growth.

The Print Management solution allows businesses to integrate the administration of printing devices. It also facilitates organizations to lessen the cost of printing and aids them in supervising, maintaining, and managing an entire printer fleet through a single application interface. In Addition, the print management solution also helps mailing and distribution, fast printing, and offset printing. As this software presents centralized management, it lets the management of copiers, scanners, and desktop printers as well. The best Print management software is offered as a separate application as a part of managed print services. The software basically acts as a driver for the devices, in addition to providing improved management of networked devices or printers. Besides, print management providers also offer a broad range of value-added features, like, network security, data & document security, user authentication, regulatory compliance & information governance, etc. to improve user experience. Moreover, numerous third-party solution providers are offering print management solutions that can integrate with a broad range of printing devices and copiers.

The best print management software market can be segmented based on software type, business size, end-user catered, and geography. Based on software type, the market is further categorized into embedded software and stand-alone software. The stand-alone software division can be further classified into browser-based or cloud-based software and desktop-based or on-premise software.  Based on Enterprise size, the market is categorized as small and medium enterprises and large enterprises. In terms of end-user catered, the software can be categorized into BFSI, media and entertainment, government, healthcare, and others such as retail, logistics & transportation, and information technology (IT) & telecommunications. Based on geography, the print management software market can be classified into North America, Latin America, APAC, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. North America and Europe are likely to cover a huge market share in the global print management software market owing to the substantial implementation of print management solutions among end-user businesses in these regions. The print management market in APAC is expected to witness healthy growth owing to the increasing number of enterprises and high stress on the reduction of printing costs in the region.

The MicroQuadrant matrix by 360Quadrants offers exhaustive information about the best Print Management Software vendors. It offers a comprehensive summary explaining the inferences and analysis of how well each vendor performs within the predefined MicroQuadrant standards. The vendor evaluations are classified on 2 broad factors, i.e. Product Maturity and Company Maturity. The vendors have been evaluated based on parameters studied under Product Maturity and Company maturity. Parameters included under product maturity are key product offerings & services, features, product innovation, deployment model, pricing options, and support services. The parameters included under the company maturity are regional presence, industry verticals catered, partner ecosystem, and inorganic strategies like mergers & acquisitions, and joint ventures.

Visionary Leaders provide a strong product portfolio to their clients. These companies majorly invest in R&D to launch pioneering products in the best Print Management Software. These companies have a strong global presence and adopted several organic and inorganic strategies to achieve continuous and progressive growth in the Print Management market.

Dynamic Differentiators have a wide network of channel partners and resellers to improve the deployment of their solutions. By implementing the strong organic and inorganic business strategies, dynamic differentiators have been continuously generating positive revenue growth in the best Print Management Software.

Innovators in the Print Management solution space provide innovative solutions and they also have an extensive range of product offerings. By offering niche and customized software requirements to the clients, the innovators have been at the forefront in deploying their solutions.

The emerging vendors in the best Print Management Software space offer customized and focused Print Management Software to their clients. Emerging players always adopt new ways of working to drive business outcomes in the market.

What are the major drivers in the Print Management Market?

The increase in the cost of papers, ink, toner, and prints for businesses across the world is mainly driving the requirement for the print management software. As per the “U.S. & European Managed Print Services Study” declared in InfoTrends, businesses can save nearly 30% of printing by using print management solutions. Moreover, the growing demand for real-time data on printer fleet and efficient management and development of the printing process by businesses via print management software are projected to boost the growth of the global market. Furthermore, increasing the importance of enterprises and government on the safeguarding of trees and a decrease in the use of paper is expected to improve the implementation of print management solutions. Additionally, the ROI offered by the print management software is expected to push businesses toward the implementation of the software. Though, the absence of awareness about the product, particularly in the developing economies, is expected to restrain the growth of the print management market.

There have also been compatibility concerns associated with the software and hardware related to these solutions, which is an additional crucial hurdle in the broad adoption of print management software. However, an increasing number of businesses in the world and their increasing stress on the decrease of printing cost, mostly in emerging economies, like, India, South Africa, Brazil, and  China are expected to offer profitable opportunities for the print management solutions market in the long-term.

Though, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the production of smartphones and digital cameras has witnessed a sharp decline in European countries. The retail & e-commerce business is likely to be under pressure in 2020, and it would need time to become stable.

All these factors are likely to have a major impact on print management market growth.

What are the key benefits of Print Management Software?

Print management software are meant to support organizations to take full management of their print environment. They help lessen cost and promote sensible printing behaviors while safeguarding unauthorized document access.

With features that comprise queuing, print release, usage report, and print tracking, etc. print management solution enables enterprises to take full management of how, where, and what is being printed decreasing or simplifying maintenance.

It is crucial to note that print management solutions are diverse since they offer different ranges of features tackling a variety of print requirements.

Although it is a known fact that no “one size fits all.” given a variety of business needs, there are yet basic qualities one must look at while choosing a good print management solution.

It is significant to emphasize that knowledge which print management services you require and why you require them is the initial step to select a print management solution.

1. Reduces costs - Print management software lets you find processes that are not developed properly within your organization. This helps you to reduce the number of prints and subsequently the costs on paper, ink, and toner, etc.

2. Helps accounting departments - Print management software keeps a complete record of who does what, when, where, and how. This enables you to recognize needless expenses and thus solve these challenges. Papers, documents, and printers can cause continuous investments of money and it is at times hard to decide where in the process overuse occurs.

3. Environment-friendly- As discussed above, the best print management software helps you to lessen the amount of paper used in a business. Thus, implementing such a program is also helps in caring for the environment. It ultimately helps you to lower your carbon footprint by efficient consumption of these products.

4. Improves document security - With a good Print Management software, you can provide confidential information access to authorized persons only. For instance, crucial files can only be printed by the individual who created them, which is authenticated via an identification process. Access to these crucial documents may also be monitored by using passwords or other security methods.

5. Facilitates employee tasks - A good Print Management Solution enables you to make workflows more effective which will prevent employees from wasting time. The application of this solution will enhance certain processes, like, print queue, double-sided or economic copying, this will let workers devote more time towards their roles and less to solving this type of task.

6. Adjusts to any type of Organization - Any industry verticals regardless of the type of organization and the method of function can adopt a print management solution. The print solution can adapt to both a Multinational, SME environment, Educational sector, or in a Marketing organization. It can adapt to various company employee sizes and all types of the organizational hierarchy.

7. Enhance device Usage - A good Print Management solution helps to lower device maintenance costs. For instance, it can avoid a personal color laser printer from being accountable for producing a thousand black and white documents. This will lower maintenance costs and let more time for you to buy new machines. Being enhanced they will also work better and be more consistent.

8. Organize the entire device network - This functionality is vital in big companies where, apart from printers, there are also photocopiers. A good Print Management Software lets all teams to be handled and used efficiently together across large networks.

Why should you use Print Management Solution for your business?

The ever-transforming nature of the printing business makes it essential to enhance your processes if you intend to compete with other businesses in the industry.

With the quick launch of new print industry tools, consumers have become familiar to superior-quality, low-cost jobs with fast turnaround.

To fulfill these expectations, your production needs to be as effective and structured as possible. This will obviously put your labor expenses to better use as well as lower expenses following from costly human errors.

The money saved from the print management solution will let you extend more competitive pricing and gain more business. Since the software is meant to improve your print business, you can manage more of these businesses and get them done faster with workflow automation.

Thus, a print management solution enables you to gain a huge competitive advantage and is one of the finest things you can do to make sure success for your business.

What are the key features of Print Management Software?

Determining which print management solution you will select is one of the most crucial decisions you have to make. To make an informed decision about which solution to go with, you must make yourself acquainted with the features of a print management solution and determine which are the most vital to you.

Below are some important features to consider-

1. Print Estimating – Precise print estimating is the core of a successful printing business. Undervaluing job costs can cause low estimates cutting into your profits. While overvaluing costs can cause non-competitive bids which will eventually result in lost business.

 

Therefore, it is crucial to select a print management software that can swiftly and precisely decide how much a job will cost to produce to make reasonable bids without the risk of moving too low and losing money.

2. Production Planning and Job Tracking – A good print system can plan new jobs for you as they are entered. It is vital that the software can match new jobs into your production plan without overlapping earlier planned jobs. Then the system enables you to simply track the job through production till it is completed.

3. Material and Inventory Management - One of the major factors affecting your job costs is the materials being used. Efficient print management solutions can keep track of your materials supply, notify you when you require to refill, and even decide the optimum nesting patterns to make the most effective use of your substrate.

Ensure that you understand a system’s capability for material handling when seeing it for your personal shop.

4. Invoicing and Accounting – Payment collection can become monotonous when it is something you need to manually keep records of.

When your business expands to a particular size, spending time on tedious tasks like making invoices will get in the way of other tasks that are essential to boost sales and offering the quick service your customers hope for.

Be sure that your print management solution will enable you to automate the procedure for generating and sending out invoices and updating your A/R in real-time. This is a vast time-saver and should not be underestimated.

Other Factors to Consider

Apart from the features a software can make, there are other essential factors to make when trying to decide the best platform for your business. Here are a few of the crucial factors to look at:

Integrations

The achievement you have with executing a management system for your business will mainly depend on how good it integrates with other software that you use.

The entire point of using a print management solution in the first place is to be as effective as possible, which is accomplished majorly by limiting touchpoints.

It is definitely a challenge if you need to enter the same information multiple times because your solution is unable to communicate with other programs you are using to operate your business.

When you are assessing your options, note down the various software systems being used in your business. For instance, note down any Web2Print software solutions or accounting systems that you have executed.

Ensure to take the time to enquire sales representatives if their software has all the essential integrations. Finally, you want to do is spend a couple of months setting up your new system only to find out that it will not work for you!

Supported Pricing Methods

As discussed above, precise estimating of your print jobs is one of the most helpful features that a print management system will bring to the table.

You need to be cautious to choose a system that can help the pricing methods you implement at your business. Most solutions you come around will support simple pricing methods i.e. area-based or unit-based pricing.

If you are constantly assessing large volume or complex jobs for your clients, it is expected that you will require a system that supports cost-based estimating.

Not all solution providers offer this feature, so ensure that a system suits your estimating requirements before buying.

Customization and Setup Time

There are different products, workflows, departments, pricing methods, and each product or approach needs a different setup. A software that is custom-built during the setup process offers you the chance to execute a solution intended with your own business processes in mind.

Customization and setup time are grouped together as they directly impact each other.

Usually, software customized to your own business needs a more involved setup process, and vice versa. You must decide what matters you more and your business: a quicker setup process or an extremely customized business management approach.

What are the current trends in Print Management Software?

1. IoT momentum will power print security spend

IoT-type security exposures on printers will become a more frequent attack vector as cyber-threats that use IoT devices demonstrate no sign of subsiding. Safeguarding today’s print environment is tough due to its complexity, especially with mixed fleets conceding outdated old and new devices. GDPR has propelled some enhancements in print security, but there is still some absence of awareness of the possible IoT security risks over printers and smart MFPs.

Attackers are not only looking for the secret information that is stored on print devices but also to utilize them as network access points in a similar way like other IoT-type devices are being misused. Owing to many MPS providers patch, maintain, and manage print devices via the cloud, security will become vital. Automated, cloud-distributed, patch management ensures that discovered weaknesses, which suppliers are most prone to know about first, are fixed as soon as possible.

Print producers must expand their security review and monitoring services, in addition to partnering with traditional IT security vendors, especially in threat intelligence. This will be crucial to ensure that print security is also treated with a similar priority as the rest of the IT infrastructure. Though HP has put a stake in the ground when it comes to print security, 2020 will see competitors, especially the managed print service (MPS) providers, develop their print security products and services.

2. Continued print and digital merging

Print and digital merging will drive growing demand for integrated document workflow in 2020.

In Spite Of the fast acceptance of digital and mobile technologies, many business organizations rely on print to some amount. As per Quocirca’s Global Print, 2025 study, nearly 64% of enterprises consider that printing will be important to their day-to-day business even by 2025. This is partially owing to a current requirement for physical signatures, and acknowledgment of paper communications from suppliers, along with the likings of customers and employees. This is entirely a substantial opportunity for MPS providers to carry a clear plan around the combined paper and digital workflow services.

One of the major providers, Xerox has taken a command here with its ConnectKey platform and, if it can push engagement with its channel to build workflow apps that support bridge the paper to the digital divide, it will benefit enterprises make better use of current Smart MFP investments. As businesses seek advice with digital initiatives, MPS providers that hold the digital workflow skills to push effectiveness and productivity improvements, will be best placed to succeed.

3. Cloud MPS comes of age

Cloud-distributed MPS will become more renowned, decreasing the obligations related to managing print. On-premise print management is expensive. For instance, moving management to the cloud allows print jobs to be presented to a virtual print server, instead of several on-premise servers. Some vendors have already taken steps in this direction such as Xerox, Lexmark, and Ricoh who have all recently declared cloud-based print services. For example, Lexmark’s cloud service presents a hybrid option that makes sure print jobs are kept inside the firewall, offering customers the effectiveness of cloud services while reducing security worries. ISVs are also improving their cloud-based offerings like Y Soft’s SafeQ solution which can be utilized in both personal and hybrid cloud deployments.

Cloud services extend channel partners, exploring to enhance profitability and deepen customer relationships, an adaptable and cost-effective approach to MPS, and access to the SMB market. 2020 will certainly see more MPS providers offer their traditional offerings to the Cloud.

4. The big data opportunity will remain untapped

The potential of big data analytics will not provide in the short term.

Even Though the big-data prospect has huge potential for the print industry, the majority of manufacturers have yet to benefit from this. While some prominent MPS vendors do use analytics to enhance printing practices, by understanding what is scanned or printed by whom and where this could be taken to a different level.

Companies could use all this data to acquire customer insights and market and provide new services. But print management analytics tools are frequently not meant for the big-data analysis required, and many MPS providers are short of the necessary business intelligence analysis skills.

Developing big data and predictive analytics will need new expertise and competencies. This must be developed through a big-data talent acquisition strategy, propelled either organically or through new cooperative partnerships. One supplier that is already making paces in this space is Ricoh, which already offers complete analytics services to improve design smart workplaces, that integrate additional collaboration and communication services such as interactive whiteboards, virtual meeting rooms, and video conferencing.

5. IT services expertise will be vital

According to Quocirca’s Print 2025 research, businesses will support IT, service providers, over conventional print suppliers by 2025. Channel partners must develop their IT expertise either organically or by associating with experienced IT service providers, offering access to a wider product portfolio, for instance, extending print security as part of a complete managed security service offering. For producers or large channel businesses, acquiring IT providers can be an efficient way of achieving the specialized sales and support expertise necessary. Some makers involving Kyocera, Ricoh, Sharp, Konica, and Minolta, have already made the shift, developing their managed IT service abilities mainly through acquisition; more activity can be expected in 2021.

6. IoT services offered by prominent players

MPS providers have a great legacy in managing the most well-known IoT-type devices on the network – printers and multifunction printers (MFPs). Efficient MPS platforms already push the performance, consistency, protection, and continuity of the print infrastructure via device monitoring, remote diagnostics, predictive maintenance, and analytics. The advent of enterprise IoT platforms offering asset management, smart analytics, remote monitoring, and fault detection offers a wider opportunity for MPS providers to join in the IoT space. This prospect is not restricted to conventional IT endpoint devices but could also include intelligent workstations and smart building assets such as sensors, lighting, and video cameras.

While enterprise IoT is gaining pace, MPS providers should assess opportunities to merge their technology with enterprise IoT platforms. Even Though managed IoT services extend a range of opportunities, providers must also consider the security tasks. While many MPS providers extend strong security to protect print devices from outside hacking and to avoid exposure of secret information, the management of new IoT devices needs new competencies to recognize and monitor device weaknesses. Cooperating and partnering with 3rd-party providers to acquire expertise in IoT device management and security is thus the finest way ahead for looking to expand capabilities.

7. The advent of AI in the workplace

Smart workplace technology services will begin to influence artificial intelligence.

2018 witnessed some basic voice recognition abilities to develop for smart printers and MFPs. We can anticipate seeing developments of these in 2020. Some giants like HP and Xerox both have developed capabilities. Drive will largely depend on collaborations with companies like Google and Amazon, for instance with the usage of the latter’s Alexa for Business. For conventional print makers, who need to be more appropriate in the future workplace, improving abilities in this area will be vital.

Around next year the print business will continue its reinvention, demanding that manufacturers and their partners drive significance, not only by compelling print and digital workflow offerings but also by extending services that are more important to the smart workplace. Digital transformation will continue to be high-level on the agenda of most companies, and this will become an opportunity for industry players to place their offerings and services as a means of helping companies drive productivity. Printing in the workplace may be slowly diminishing, but it is not vanishing and providers that are best placed to succeed will be those that expand their offerings and software capabilities to serve wider IT requirements as the print and digital worlds become ever more closely connected.