A stagnant economy, combined with continuous technological innovation, makes this a particularly challenging time for the channel. The traditional foundation of hardware still remains. Increasingly however, customers want more than a simple ‘hardware, supplies and maintenance' operation. It must also incorporate their Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy. Alongside the printers, scanners and MFPs, enterprises now require end-to-end solutions to manage the content that flows through their organisations with seamless interoperability and smart mobile technology.

 

The days of making profit on hardware alone are drawing to a close. Devices will continue to be sold, but the growth (and the margins!) will be found helping customers to efficiently and effectively work smarter, facilitated by new technologies to capture, manage and access information from both smart multifunction and mobile devices.

 

With the transition to mobile continuously gathering pace, BYOD is becoming common practice in the workplace. Now that 4 out of 5 companies allow employees to use their personal mobile devices on the job, Lexmark Mobile Print and Lexmark Mobile Capture make it easy to take advantage of this computing power. These apps allow users to jump-start workflows instantly by capturing, retrieving and sending and printing critical data from wherever you go.

 

In the current business environment where time is an increasingly valuable commodity, timesaving innovations that tie into a BYOD strategy make a real difference to productivity.

 

Innovations such as this promote flexibility and productivity within the workforce, and indicate where the future lies. As the "now" imperative, the urgent demand and expectation for mobile devices must be reflected in the focus for the channel. The channel has a major role now in helping the customer embrace this mobile future and understand how they can gain the benefits of mobile productivity.

 

For further information visit http://www.misco.co.uk/lexmark-colour-laser-printers [1]

 

Martin Fairman, UK Channel Sales Director , Lexmark