As many businesses look to increase efficiency and reduce costs, as well as future-proof their print environments, a growing number are turning to print workflow automation solutions to help achieve this – and this presents opportunities for resellers.
For many businesses, these continue to be tough trading times, with slow economic growth and increasing costs putting pressure on margins. To help combat this, businesses of all sizes are looking to ways to cut costs in the running of their operations and increase efficiency. One area an increasing number are looking to for these savings are print workflow automation solutions.
Stuart Brookes, PaperCut’s EMEA regional lead and head of sales & channel, says that demand for print workflow automation is increasing. “External economic factors like rising energy costs and the increase in the minimum wage and National Insurance contributions have hit all businesses, particularly SMBs,” he says. “Many are investigating new ways to increase efficiency, reduce costs, errors and waste, while futureproofing their print environment. That’s ramping up demand for print workflow automation solutions. They add tangible business value at a time when organisations are looking at all options to help bolster their overall competitiveness.”
Marcin Pichur, regional vice president sales at DocuWare, agrees that there is clear and sustained rise in demand for print workflow automation. “Large enterprises in the likes of highly regulated sectors such as healthcare, legal, finance and government are leading the charge, but mid-market organisations and SMBs are rapidly following as they confront the hidden costs of manual document handling, compliance exposure and operational delays,” he adds. “The driver is simple. Businesses increasingly recognise that print is no longer an isolated function but a critical touchpoint in the flow of organisational data.”
Rick Dove, pre-sales technical specialist at Epson UK, concurs that businesses in regulated sectors are driving the increase in demand for print workflow automation. “While interest spans many sectors, workflow automation is most beneficial in environments where printing remains critical to business operations and tightly regulated,” he says.
“In particular, the healthcare, legal, and education sectors are increasingly prioritising workflow automation to handle high volumes of sensitive documents while maintaining security and compliance. In healthcare, for example, automation helps streamline the production of patient records, consent forms and administrative documentation while reducing manual handling and the risk of error.”
Transformative
Investing in print workflow automation solutions can make a big difference to a business’ operations. “In document-intensive sectors in particular, it can remove bottlenecks and dramatically improve turnaround times, resulting in document approval processes being fast-tracked; this, in turn, can help accelerate decision making over the matter the document relates to,” notes Stuart.
Marcin adds that the impact of automation on print workflows can be transformative. “By integrating intelligent document processing (IDP), organisations turn every printed or scanned document into structured, searchable and actionable information,” he says. “Tasks that once consumed hours, such as classification, data extraction and routing, are now completed in seconds with far greater accuracy. This not only reduces labour costs but strengthens compliance, improves auditability and eliminates the operational blind spots that manual processes create. For many customers this is enabling a more intelligent, data driven business model.”
Trends
Marcin adds that current trends reflect this shift. “Customers are demanding solutions that are secure, integrated and capable of delivering real time visibility,” he says. “Security, in particular, is rising sharply on the agenda as print fleets become more connected. Automated compliance, standardised data capture and end-to-end audit trails are now baseline expectations. At the same time too, they want intuitive, low friction experiences, such as guided product tours, hands on workflow demos and transparent value propositions that align with their buyer-led journey.”
Stuart adds that customers demand that process efficiency is aligned with robust security, as they look to eliminate as many sources of data leaks as possible. “Secure print with user authentication and data encryption to protect sensitive information is, therefore, a must-have,” he says.
“They also want the solution to be compatible with multi-brand fleets and provide an easy-to-use dashboard that provides insights into the workflow process while simplifying its management.”
Rick agrees that security is a priority, along with simplicity. “Customers are increasingly demanding cloud-first, secure, and low-maintenance print workflow solutions that fit naturally into their existing IT environments,” he says. “Rather than complex or heavily customised systems, organisations want automation that can be deployed quickly and managed centrally, without placing additional strain on IT teams.
“At the same time, security also remains a critical requirement, particularly in regulated sectors, with customers expecting workflows that support data protection and compliance as standard. Alongside this, there is also a growing interest in solutions that support lower energy consumption and more efficient use of resources.”
Reseller conversations
Print workflow automation is still an evolving medium, and some businesses are still wary of adopting it. But this is where resellers have a crucial role to play and there are certain benefits that they should be highlighting in conversations about it with customers.
“As a starting point, a reseller can outline how an automated print workflow can be an integral part of their customer’s broader digital transformation journey, aligning with their strategy to migrate all core services and applications to the cloud,” says Stuart. “Drilling down into the details, it’s right that resellers focus on the process efficiency and security benefits that an automated print workflow can deliver, as well as the support it offers hybrid workers, too; when remote print is unmanaged, it can often be the weak link in the security chain.
“They should also explain how scalable cloud-based automated print workflows are, and how they can adapt quickly and easily in line with an organisation’s growth and ever-changing market dynamics.”
Marcin adds that for resellers, the most effective conversations start with uncovering the true cost of the status quo. “Many organisations underestimate the operational drag created by manual workflows,” he explains. “By reframing print automation as part of a broader intelligence strategy – not a one-off digital project – resellers can position themselves as long-term advisors rather than transactional suppliers. Demonstrating how the likes of IDP integrates with existing systems also helps partners elevate their offering and unlock recurring revenue opportunities.”
Future
Marcin expects that over the next 12–24 months, the print workflow automation market will accelerate. “AI driven automation will become standard, not optional,” he says. “Partners who embrace value-added services, continuous enablement and deeper collaboration will be best placed to thrive as customers seek smarter, more connected and more compliant print ecosystems.”
