The future of work

[SalesServiceGuy]

Customers who have embraced the digital workspace are seeking fluidity among their different investments in IT technologies. Those personal user experiences cannot be jarring as they move from one cloud product to another cloud product from a different vendor.

Customers are looking for choice amongst the cloud vendor community with seamless integration.

The beauty of a successful cloud integration is that you are not stuck with one client/ server technology "stack" and should be able to move easily between different vendors.

[D_L_P]

Sounds like techs will see a lot more people interested in Google Cloud printing and scanning. It's free with any gmail account, so once you login to your gmail account you can play around in the control panel. Google Cloud Print
Google seems to have all kinds of free stuff(search console, analytics, ad sense).

We'll be seeing a lot of those could apps in the future. I'm sure techs will get calls for printing issues from Google docs or O365.

[spanky]

Google cloud print will be discontinued at the end of this year.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Sounds like techs will see a lot more people interested in Google Cloud printing and scanning. It's free with any gmail account, so once you login to your gmail account you can play around in the control panel. Google Cloud Print
Google seems to have all kinds of free stuff(search console, analytics, ad sense).

We'll be seeing a lot of those could apps in the future. I'm sure techs will get calls for printing issues from Google docs or O365.

Google Cloud print support is scheduled to end on Jan 01 2021. A lot of very large educational facilities use Google Cloud print so no one really knows if Google will truly close down this service at that time.

You need to focus on Microsoft 365 apps that allow your copier brand to scan directly to OneDrive for Business, Exchange and SharePoint. Microrsoft has over 600,000 installs in North America and growing rapidly.

G-Suite is the 2nd most popular office suite which includes Gmail, Google Docs and Google Suite.

Customers now want scan to emails coming from their MFP to arrive with their personal email address and not a Device email from the copier. They want these sent emails to be recorded in their personal email sent files folder.

Customers are tired of having to send a scan to email to themselves from the copier and then send it again to their customers with their personal email address.

This can only happen via Authentication and PIN Codes or Card Swipes so you need to pick up your skills there. The only way you can do it is to have a copier equipped in your demo room and practise it. Otherwise you will look unprofessional in front of the customer.

This means that at a minimum your company needs to pay for a monthly MS365 subscription at around $15.00 month per PC.

Your company also needs to partner right away with an IT provider who can handle MS365 subscription requests.

Because of COVID-19 the print industry was automatically advanced five years into the future. That future does not look good for traditional copier dealers as Managed IT services begin to dominate and print will only be one part of what is known as the IT stack.

[SalesServiceGuy]

When Shopify Inc. CEO Tobi Lutke declared the age of office centricity over, investors were left wrestling with a monumental question: Will the work-from-home movement change business forever and, if so, what is the case for investing in office space?

Lutke’s statement via Twitter on May 21 read more like a manifesto of sector-wide change than one company’s plan for the future.

“As of today, Shopify is a digital by default company. We will keep our offices closed until 2021 so that we can rework them for this new reality,” Lutke tweeted.

“We cannot go back to the way things were - this isn’t a choice, this is the future.”

Shopify’s declaration was not made in isolation. Several large technology firms including Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and OpenText Corp. have promised to make remote work a standard practice for many of their employees. And some three million Canadians have shifted to working from home since the lockdowns took hold in mid-March, according to Statistics Canada.

While companies will need a physical hub, the ability to connect with less physical space than before will be a headwind that may take several years to right-size. Technology and the ability to connect virtually will also likely improve, enabling the trend further.

“In the near-term, there are leases in place that are legal obligations. However, as leases expire, there may be less need for space, resulting in higher vacancy rates, lower pricing and eventually lower construction activity.

Traditional work offices will still exist given the need for face-to-face meetings, social interaction, collaborative working environments and maintaining a flagship head office presence.

Undoubtedly more knowledge-industry workers will choose to work remotely some or all of the time post-pandemic. Their offices will not be eradicated altogether though, as meeting spaces will still be needed.

Many industries are not entirely based on knowledge workers such as factories and distribution centers where work from home is not possible.

... this is not a good trend for the print industry as the demand for A3 Dept size copiers and print volumes is likely to permanently diminish over the next 3-5 years as is the need for people to service these devices. A4 product placements are likely to increase as copier sales people begin to lead with these in their quotes.

A second tier of layoffs is beginning to effect the industry as print industry decision makers begin to deal with this slow down is not going to go away any time soon.

[D_L_P]

... this is not a good trend for the print industry as the demand for A3 Dept size copiers and print volumes is likely to permanently diminish over the next 3-5 years as is the need for people to service these devices. A4 product placements are likely to increase as copier sales people begin to lead with these in their quotes.

Good point. Sounds like the demand for the segment 2-4 copiers will be much lower in 3-5 years. Dealers will have to move into production color or high speed B&W copiers to stay afloat. Or expand their IT offerings. Sounds like that service will be in higher demand 3-5 years from now.

I wonder how the seg 1 copiers will fare? I'm sure all this is good news for companies like HP, Lexmark, or Brother. But will the throwaway SOHO equipment win out or the low end dealer equipment win?

[SalesServiceGuy]

Good point. Sounds like the demand for the segment 2-4 copiers will be much lower in 3-5 years. Dealers will have to move into production color or high speed B&W copiers to stay afloat. Or expand their IT offerings. Sounds like that service will be in higher demand 3-5 years from now.

I wonder how the seg 1 copiers will fare? I'm sure all this is good news for companies like HP, Lexmark, or Brother. But will the throwaway SOHO equipment win out or the low end dealer equipment win?

Production print is not even 5% of the market place yet all of the big manufacturers fight bitterly for market share. While the print volumes are high (yet declining) print for pay customers are slow to pay their bills and very demanding.

The much more likely available course of action is to expand their IT offerings with either inhouse staff or partnering with a 3rd party.

Another direction is to diversify into new markets such as label printing, digital signage or items that new categories cater to healthcare.

To be sure, not all industries will be effected equally by the decline in print and the need for onsite service.

Managed IT services could well become the dominant form of dealer revenue where print will only be one part of the customer's spend also referred to as an IT Stack. Many traditional copier dealers focussed solely on hardware sales and cpc click revenue are in danger of losing control of their accounts to Managed IT services providers.

If you are a copier tech and you are unwilling/ unable to learn new skills you will probably become some combination of lower income or unemployed.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Airbnb, the home and apartment rental service reported a surge in bookings for the summer. Airbnb revealed that it had more US bookings between May 17 and June 3 than the same time period a year earlier. And it appears the momentum is continuing: Last weekend (June 5 through 7) gross bookings grew year-over-year for the first time since February.

CEO Brian Chesky said he's noticed travelers are preferring to stick to drivable destinations within 200 miles of their home and that customers are booking stays for one week or longer because of the shift to remote working.

"Work from home is becoming working from any home," he told Bloomberg News.

... small local communities are concerned that the influx of new visitors increases the risk of Corona virus infections rapidly overwhelming small rural hospitals with very limited healthcare resources.

[20 year tech]

The industry as we knew it has changed to be sure. its been in decline for quite some time but it will not end. When I started in 91 I was told that fax will be gone in 2 years. almost 30 years later I still have fax calls. Folks working from home are not as productive, my sister who works in IT had been working from home for the last 2 months. My state is lifting restrictions and she started working back in her office and is extremely happy to be back there, and in her words "working again" and ordering lunches from local delis and restaurants. we will all adapt and prosper in the end IMHO.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Recent global trends and events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have drastically changed the way businesses operate. This sentiment was reflected in a Gallup poll, where more than half of the surveyed at-home workers indicated their preference to continue working remotely as much as possible even after business restrictions are lifted. This shift in mindset from both employees and executives means that businesses need to actively make adjustments, allowing employees to work remotely as part of the "new normal" for workplaces.

- Survey results published by Engine Insights/Smartsheet

- 89% of Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) workers report difficulty working from home during pandemic

- 91% of Millennial (1981-1996) workers report difficulty

- 64% of Gen Z feel the amount of time spent on video calls makes it hard to get their work done

- 61% of Millennials report same

- 85% of Gen Z feel less connected to their teams

- 81% of Millennials report same

- 79% of Gen Z feel less informed about what is going on within their company

- 69% of Millennials report same