Future of photocopier industry?

[Dreama]

G'day,
just wondering how everyone is going? I work as a tech for one of the manufacturers, mainly in a Connectivity role and have noticed over the last year to 18months things are starting to change.

What do you think the future holds for the copier industry?

the company i work for are starting to push "software", but at the end of the day this software is still MFD/printer related, such as cost recovery etc.

I would be very interested in hearing other peoples ideas and view points.

Cheers
Dreama

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

G'day,
just wondering how everyone is going? I work as a tech for one of the manufacturers, mainly in a Connectivity role and have noticed over the last year to 18months things are starting to change.

What do you think the future holds for the copier industry?

the company i work for are starting to push "software", but at the end of the day this software is still MFD/printer related, such as cost recovery etc.

I would be very interested in hearing other peoples ideas and view points.

Cheers
Dreama

I think there are many 'Industry Experts' who have already done or continue to do research on the future of the photocopier Industry. But as we all know, the industry depends heavily on the number of pages printed to drive revenue, and if pages don't increase, the business is in trouble. With advancement in technology such as the growing use of 'Cloud' services like Google docs, Microsoft 'Sky Drives' etc; and with Microsoft, now having joined, Apple & Google in making Electronic tablets, and companies encouraging their employees and other people to go 'green' by avoiding unnecessary printing, Means that businesses and individuals are printing less because they don't need printed pages.
Recently in my country, the Government proposed to buy i Pads for each and every member of our parliamentarians (c.f Senators), a total of 385 of them! and that is only in one arm of the Government.
All of our Television stations now have their news readers appearing on the screen brandishing i pads to read from, instead of the traditional printouts we knew all along.
The copier\printer manufacturers themselves seem not to have helped matters by setting up businesses 'Managing print services for their customers and promising to slash budget'.
Truth be told, there has been a 'disruption' in the market. Businesses and individuals are increasingly shifting their attention to reading on the screens rather than from hard-paper binding.
Optimistically though, not all is lost, as 'there will always be paper work', and 'there will always be electromechanical devices' to be fixed. My advice to fellow techs is to keep on training and retraining in order to keep abreast of this constantly changing technology, in order to keep being relevant in this field.
Computer knowledge and IT skills is a must!

[gear13z]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

to my fellow tech...there will always a saying that.... move forward or be left behind...everyday copier industry is changing...not that quick but it goes with technology...it is already paper less but it will take a century to eliminate paper...

[emujo]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

to my fellow tech...there will always a saying that.... move forward or be left behind...everyday copier industry is changing...not that quick but it goes with technology...it is already paper less but it will take a century to eliminate paper...

Or when all the trees are gone, whichever occurs 1st. Emujo

[CompyTech]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

G'day,
just wondering how everyone is going? I work as a tech for one of the manufacturers, mainly in a Connectivity role and have noticed over the last year to 18months things are starting to change.

What do you think the future holds for the copier industry?

the company i work for are starting to push "software", but at the end of the day this software is still MFD/printer related, such as cost recovery etc.

I would be very interested in hearing other peoples ideas and view points.

Cheers
Dreama

As someone whos only been in this field for about 5 years, a lot has changed in that time... When I started there was a lot less "cloud" connectivity and smartphone and tablet driven world.. We still have those old fashioned customers that all they need is a piece of paper to come out the end, and they don't give a rip about scanning or any connectivity. Everyone is starting to go paperless, and scanning to file will put mechanical wear on equipment.. However, once everything is digitized the need to print will reduce greatly but I don't think it will go away entirely.. Even when I started I knew this trend was starting..

</$0.02>

[Jules Winfield]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

Yeah, just keep up with the latest technology as best as you can. Pretty soon we'll all be working on time-traveling Delorians and worm hole generators...

[Bill T.]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

And when the tree are gone, we can work on what creates this. Direct Digital Manufacturing Complex Parts | RedEye Digital Manufacturing Service This is the future.

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

Or when all the trees are gone, whichever occurs 1st. Emujo

Fortunately the trees are going no where. The environmentalists shall never allow it to happen. As a matter of fact, the 'death of the copier\print industry' means the 'death of the paper industry' as well, And instead survival of more and more plantations of trees and forest covers. Good news for mother nature.

[Iowatech]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

Fortunately the trees are going no where. The environmentalists shall never allow it to happen. As a matter of fact, the 'death of the copier\print industry' means the 'death of the paper industry' as well, And instead survival of more and more plantations of trees and forest covers. Good news for mother nature.

For what it is worth, the vast majority of trees used in the production of paper anymore are grown on tree farms specifically for that purpose.

[Iowatech]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

And when the tree are gone, we can work on what creates this. Direct Digital Manufacturing Complex Parts | RedEye Digital Manufacturing Service This is the future.

Cool, super ink jet printers.

[Dreama]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

... My advice to fellow techs is to keep on training and retraining in order to keep abreast of this constantly changing technology, in order to keep being relevant in this field.
Computer knowledge and IT skills is a must!

Thanks - i totally agree. This is what i keep telling people that I work with. we have a younge guy here that is straight out of high school and I ahve told him to go do a TAFE course in IT (if thats what he wants to do), as that indutry would be better to be skilled in

[rthonpm]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

Even with cloud solutions making an impact on a lot of organisations, there's still a lot of paper around and a need for generating reproductions of paper documents, either as electronic files, or physical copies. Further still, for most of the big copier markets (government, legal, and medical) the cloud just isn't there yet in terms of offering data security, liability, or easy ways to transfer data between providers.

Paper isn't going anywhere in the next five to ten years so there will still be a need for a copier, but it will finally become the data management hub that we've been promised it would be for years. Since digital copiers have come out, we've seen the development from copiers with add-on boards for additional functions to integrated machines with a true embedded operating system, and full network integration. How long before we see a manufacturer tie in a scan to cloud feature for using DropBox, SkyDrive, or Box.com? When does that then work for a paid add-on for scan to an Amazon Cloud service? Yes, we'll recognise a copier for what it is, we'll just see the distance it can reach increase.

The job of supporting the device is going to become much more IT focused rather than mechanical, but there will be a few things that stay the same: not enough money, piss poor company management, and far too many irate customers for stupid reasons.

[coolbeer]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

When I started in the industry 30 years ago, I was told it was a short term prospect as the paperless office was just arround the corner.
Well its a large corner or maybe i have been going round in circles for years.

Paperless office, well i have another 10 years to go and and im not worried.

[cccjjn]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

I started in the industry 20+ years ago as a typewriter tech working on IBM Selectric and Olivetti equipment. I worked for a thriving company at the time......That company went from thriving to out of business in about 2 years. Luckily I got out before the collapse and that's how I landed in the copier industry. I saw the writing on the wall when one of my biggest accounts got rid of 200+ typewriters that we had under annual service contracts at $189 each. The dealer I was working for at the time was not evolving with the times. I immediately began looking for a way out before it collapsed. Sure enough within 18 months of me leaving he closed his doors. In many ways I see the copier industry in the same way I saw the typewriter industry in 1994 when I bailed. If dealers do not evolve and come up with new sources of revenue they will be gone within the next few years. If you work for a dealer like that beware. Copiers are not going away completely but they are quickly becoming a disposable commodity. Not to mention that they just don't break down the way they used to in the days of spring clutches and bicycle chains. The days of the traditional copier lease and service plan will end soon. Where I see this heading is that the traditional copier dealer will vanish. It will be replaced by the technology hardware company. The technology vendor will control all aspects of a business's technology hardware from the network switch to the workstations to the output devices. Get with the times or get run over by progress.

[glewisme]

Re: Future of photocopier industry?

It's changed light years in the 15 years I've been in the business. Techs need to hybrid tech/IT now. No longer can a guy get by knowing how to turn screws! Our company is a Sharp dealer and we really need to start pushing the benefits of Sharp's OSA ! As well as MPS software.