Printer solutions for the Home Office

What does the home working print market look like, and how is it expected to evolve post COVID-19? We asked the experts

More and more, print manufacturers are having to pay attention to different working areas beyond the kind of office environment we all know well. Flexible working comes with new challenges, and it would be remiss of dealers to exclude the rise of home and mobile working from their selling focus – all types of businesses, big and very small, need printing equipment. So, what are some of the latest developments in this area, and what’s new for 2020?

ALICE RAMSDEN DE GOMEZ, PRODUCT MANAGER AT EPSON UK The small office/home office (SOHO) is an exciting and growing market that reflects the fast-paced lifestyle and greater convenience which the digital age has introduced. The growth of flexible working arrangements has caused an increase in the demand for business-grade, compact desktop printers for home workers, and the industry has certainly begun to respond to this trend.

The main driver of product development in this sector is, of course, the need for high productivity –speed of printing, reliability and large ink yield supplies – which has to be balanced with low costs and small footprint. A key insight to bear in mind is that the home worker needs the same - or even better - service than that which has been experienced in the office, whilst not having an abundance of space.

On the other side, an employer needs to reduce how much they spend on acquiring, maintaining and servicing home devices. As a result, printers that minimise refills and reduce costs are ideally suited to home offices, where users need a feature-packed unit with intuitive navigation and compact design. 2020 will be a year of innovation and we can expect the launch of new products that will cater to this demand and combine the best of both worlds for those working from home. As we now use more connected devices than ever, these printers will need to boast flexible connectivity that makes it easy to print from mobiles, tablets, laptops and even wearables.

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ANDY JOHNSON, HEAD OF PRODUCT AND SOLUTIONS MANAGEMENT AT BROTHER UK

More consumers are choosing to use business-grade printers at home, whether that’s for running documents off for work or helping the kids with their homework. From inkjets to colour laser all-inone devices, they’re being enticed by the better reliability, lower costs per page and more convenient functionality that modern mid-range devices can offer when compared with more basic, entry-level models.

Business inkjets, for example, are particularly well-aligned to meet the needs of people working from home. They are energy efficient and use high yield cartridges, which make them cheap to run, and they provide access to useful, add-on features, from mobile printing to scanning straight to the cloud, which are helping them work more productively.

Suppliers are also offering consumers the option to buy these devices in bundles. Our All in Box, which provides a high specification inkjet printer and three years’ worth of supplies, is removing the hassle of ordering ink and toner.

Alongside standalone devices, cloud connectivity is providing businesses with the opportunity to roll out, and operate, a decentralised managed print service for people working from home. This can allow employees to reap the benefits of remote monitoring and automated supplies replenishment to reduce downtime, while giving IT managers an oversight of their decentralised print fleet and support from a vendor like Brother.

As the homeworking print market evolves, we’re working alongside our partners to ensure they can provide their customers with the right products and services to make those small, incremental gains that boost productivity.

RICHARD STEWART, PRODUCT MANAGER, DOCUMENT SOLUTIONS, CANON UK LTD

Canon has seen real spike in demand for home working solutions since the beginning of March. This has come in many forms, from small consumer inkjet devices to larger, desktopbased, laser printers. The demand has come from both businesses looking to procure home printing solutions for their staff in bulk, as well as from individuals working from home needing print and scan technologies who are buying for themselves.

We also have a number of existing customers who are looking to add home working solutions to their existing managed print services, where they want the same level of service, security, and accountability for their staff away from the office as they would in the office. That is where cloud print management solutions, like uniFLOW online, can help. Any printer with an internet connection can connect to the company’s cloud-based tenant and be managed in the exact same way as any printer in the office.

Canon products bring a wide range of user benefits to home working. These include large colour touch screens with smartphone-like touch control for intuitive control, a smartphone app, scan-to-cloud services - and even a free of charge toner recycling service. From easy set-up, maintenance, connectivity and enhanced scan productivity, we are always looking at optimising the end-user experience. With so many of us being currently asked to work from home, remote working needs to be as easy as possible, and optimising your home office with efficient tools is vital in order to boost productivity.

It remains to be seen if home working policies for businesses will evolve post COVID 19 to become more commonplace. This period has highlighted that, regardless the place of work, the technology does exist to facilitate employees’ print and scan requirements both in and out of the office. In some cases, these challenging times have turned into an opportunity for companies to identify areas of improvement and to make that transition from office to home as seamless as possible for their employees.

It seems like this is the right time for everyone to fully embrace a culture of digital transformation and, although all change comes with challenges, enabling workers to avoid disruption while creating value faster and more effectively is the key to success.