Weymouth, MA - InfoTrends is pleased to announce a new study entitled Disruptive Print Modeling for SMB: Business Inkjet & Laser. This research study will take a look at the way in which Western European small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) in the office document industry are showing an increased focus on the provision of Print-as-a-Service as part of a contract between user and provider.

Printer vendors have had a hard time shifting from over the counter sales to selling more than just the hardware. As the competition increases, it is important for vendors to find new ways to access potential customers and expand on their professional offering. Contractual selling can offer a number of advantages including improving satisfaction, increasing the use of color, and solidifying brand loyalty among many other benefits to the user and vendors alike.

“Contractual selling has previously been confined to the legacy copier business and MPS providers,” commented Deborah Hawkins, Associate Director of InfoTrends’ Office Document Technologies Group. “While Printer vendors and their dealers have done well placing A4 equipment under MPS contracts in larger organizations, smaller organizations have not generally accepted the MPS model. Clearly, more understanding is required regarding the preferences and needs of smaller organizations to understand what alternatives to a simple transaction sale will be attractive to them.”

Through this new study, InfoTrends’ intends to understand what packages might be attractive to the SMB market from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. Categories will be divided as follows:

• Home office (1-2 people)
• Micro business (2-9 people)
• Small Office (10-49 people)
• Medium-sized business (50-249 people)

“Included in the study will be a market modeling tool which, using quantitative data from IT decision makers, we expect to be able to gage acceptance and penetration potentials for different contractual print packages,” stated John Shane, Director of InfoTrends’ Communication Supplies Consulting Service. “Our objective is to understand if there is clustering of different customer types around different types of packages in the SMB marketplace.”

Through this research InfoTrends intend to:

• Understand the acceptance of contractual programs for office equipment and related products, such as supplies/services by size of company and work location (including remote workers).
• Present different contractual ideas to gauge interest.
• Map the current situation – identify and profile programs. Consider the characteristics of the prospective customers (including awareness, consideration, usage, etc.).
• Evaluate preferred channels and the benefits.
• Develop a Market Model to understand the acceptance/elasticity for different programs/packages by customer type and the need for capabilities, such as enhanced finishing.

For more information on this study, please visit our online brochure or contact Deanna Flanick at 973 985 2431 or at [email protected].