What were the key trends and industry developments in 2022?

The developments of 2022 will pave the way for commercial print trends in 2023 – so what were they? We have seen a real shift towards automation. Print businesses now place even more value on increasing uptime across the entire print lifecycle. This covers everything from pre-press to finishing, including logistics and fulfilment. Automation has helped businesses better serve their customers. It’s also enabled staff to spend more time bringing strategic value.

Sustainability is another key development. Customers now hold suppliers accountable as they assess their supply chains and find more sustainable print options and solutions. This has sharpened market competition and positively impacted the industry as a whole, an impact we support wholeheartedly at Ricoh. 

What are the biggest opportunities and commercial print trends in 2023?

In 2023, we believe Ink Jet will become more prominent. With Ink Jet, you can obtain faster run speeds, increase job volumes, produce smaller print runs and enables full-colour printing on all jobs, extending the historic break even between Digital and Offset. We are particularly proud to be innovating and leading the way in this technology. 

This year, there will also be a continued need for greater efficiencies in production through automation, but through focusing on integrated workflows and robotics and AI. We have written about the benefits of AI for print service providers here.

Data will also become ever more important as the industry looks to create efficiencies in production, particularly around big data that identify cost and efficiency savings for brands and marketing agencies. 

Another trend is partnership and collaboration. To ensure a strong relationship with a client, you must treat it as a partnership and collaborate. Operating in sync enables you to support all aspects of the business and helps nurture opportunities to spark new business. You can read about one of our partnerships here with Aura Print. 

How have economic, political, and supply chain challenges prepared you for 2023?

There has been a growing need for adaptable and flexible businesses over the past few years. One of the ways we have developed our business model was by moving away from the traditional supplier-customer relationship. We have made it clear that our clients can come to us as a trusted advisor to provide the necessary support in times of uncertainty. Ensuring we always stay true to this mantra will set us up for a strong future. 

Fostering these stronger customer relationships has also allowed us to identify synergies that generate shared business outcomes. 

One of the synergies we have identified with clients is finding greater efficiencies in our processes by streamlining our vendors’ network. These trusted relationships and efficiency levels will only develop in the years ahead. We’ve honoured the importance of our customer relationships in our new Champions of Print video. 

How can suppliers better help printers navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities in 2023?

It is crucial to be an advisor who does not solely focus on the production and output of the business but can support clients on broader challenges. 

We have adopted a delivery service that focuses on our customers’ growth by creating extra capacities which move away from the traditional relationship. Throughout the organisation, we have seen the benefit of providing post-sales business support and EDGE Business Development, helping clients diversify and grow.

How can suppliers do more to promote the effectiveness of print to the broader business community in 2023?

For organisations to promote print effectiveness, there is a need to become more active across the complete supply chain. To demonstrate how effective print can be compared to Digital Campaigns and to be part of the design process, not just a fulfilment of work.  

Working with industry bodies such as the BPIF and IPIA, as well as collaborating with other printers and marketing agencies, will enable originations to demonstrate the benefits of print.

Explore our Anything in Print hub if you are interested in understanding more about Ricoh’s commercial print offering. 

This article was originally published in PrintWeek 

Related articles: 

https://insights.ricoh.co.uk/digital-printing/customer-value-in-print 

https://insights.ricoh.co.uk/digital-printing/power-of-print

https://insights.ricoh.co.uk/digital-printing/celebrating-our-champions-of-print 

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During periods of forced homeworking, the business world learned some incredibly valuable lessons at an incredibly fast rate. The importance of business resilience became clearer than ever before, and we saw the true potential of flexibility for enhanced productivity and efficiency. 

But most of all, we fortified our understanding that the most important asset in any business is its people. As your organisation takes stock of these learnings and transitions to a hybrid working model, mental health and wellbeing need to be at the forefront of plans and policymaking. 

So, let’s take a look at some of the things you should be considering. 

Define the tools and technology your people need

A recent study by Ricoh Europe, surveying 500 UK office workers, revealed that people felt inadequate technology and a lack of collaborative working environments were holding back the realisation of more accommodating and agile ways of working inside their organisations.

Technology is an important element of making hybrid working possible and the key to giving employees the best digital experience to support their wellbeing and development. Without investing in technology to aid communication and collaboration, your people cannot truly excel in a hybrid working environment and achieve fulfilment through work.

Communicate regularly and openly

Nobody likes to be left in the dark, especially if they’re feeling anxious or uncertain. By being transparent and honest with the direction of your hybrid working plans – you will maintain a sense of togetherness, making sure your people feel part of the big picture. Your people should be part of the decision making process when it comes to creating a hybrid working policy. 

It’s also the role of managers to have regular one-to-one conversations with their teams when hybrid working is in place to avoid isolation and loneliness. And not only to talk about work but also to enjoy each other’s company as if they were hanging out at the office coffee machine. 

When teams are distributed across the office and remote locations, reach out to your colleagues before the emotional fatigue of remote working sets in. Put the right support in place before anyone even needs it. 

Signpost mental health and wellbeing platforms 

Recent statistics from Gartner’s global 2021 EVP Benchmarking Survey highlight that although 87% of employees have access to mental and emotional wellbeing platforms, only 23% of employees use them. When you have distributed teams working under a hybrid model, it is the responsibility of management to ensure your people know they have platforms and tools that can help them prioritise how they’re feeling and the challenges they’re facing.

You also need to provide opportunities for your people to reach out to others in the business that may be able to help them maintain their wellbeing or manage mental health concerns. At Ricoh, we have Wellbeing Champions who help everyone across the business thrive physically, mentally, financially and socially. Making sure communication lines are open and accessible is important. 

Finding the right balance

One of the biggest challenges for hybrid workers is finding the right work-life balance. A recent study by Gartner found that employees in the hybrid world are 1.27 times more likely to struggle to disconnect from work than employees in the on-site world. 

If you have decided to adopt a policy of radical flexibility and hybrid working, you need to reassure your people that managing your own time is ok. In fact, you should positively encourage them to disengage from their home desk every once in a while and get active. 

Set objectives to work towards

Targets and objectives play a major role in motivation. In the hybrid world, it’s important that these are clear and visible to all, regardless of where employees are working that day. It’s all about giving your employees focus and a sense of control even when their manager might not be there to provide guidance. 

Learn from the experts 

When it comes to mental health and wellbeing, it is important to lean on advice and guidance from the experts. Ricoh has signed the Mental Health at Work Commitment which helps us to ensure we are carrying out all the necessary actions to drive an open culture around mental health and wellbeing. 

Part of our commitment is giving our leaders the training to have open, empathetic and knowledgeable conversations about mental health. The other side of it is giving our people the tools to take control of their wellbeing, like our MyEva platform that enables employees to take control of their finances and pensions. We also have an Employee Assistance Programme, where employees can bring problems, big or small and work through them with an external sounding board and adviser. 

How can you devise a hybrid working strategy that empowers people? 

Any hybrid working approach should constantly monitor and support your people. It’s about being aware of mental health and wellbeing at work through open communication and being proactive when you identify problems and solutions.

You can discover how other organisations have approached these challenges by reading our Leading Change at Work report, researched and written in partnership with UK business leaders.  You can also read more about the benefits of hybrid working from our Head of IT and Communications Services here.

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Your IT infrastructure is the foundation of your business, covering your datacentres, communication networks, IT security and applications. It holds your digital capabilities, your ability to innovate and your overall business strategy. 

The value of getting it right is simple: if your infrastructure cannot cope with high volumes of customers or regularly harms the productivity of your people, you could be losing money. It also has the potential to damage business growth and your competitive edge. 

Cloud-first might be the trend you’ve heard of, but it might not be the best route for your business. Cost, security, and compliance will impact where you can store your data. In fact, the IDC forecasts that by the end of 2022, over 90% of enterprises worldwide will be relying on a mix of on-premises/dedicated private clouds, multiple public clouds, and legacy platforms to meet their infrastructure needs¹. 

With the help of a strategic partner, you need to examine every aspect of your infrastructure and ascertain the best approach on a case by case basis. 

Here are 4 key considerations for business leaders who want to modernise their IT infrastructure. By keeping these in mind, you can create an infrastructure strategy that meets your current needs and accommodates business growth and transformation well into the future. 

1. Engage your key stakeholders

IT infrastructure is not just a problem for IT to solve. It is a challenge for your entire organisation. Most cloud initiatives fail due to poor communication and misunderstood goals; it is important to have a clear strategy with complete alignment up, down and across your entire organisation. 

Getting the right people in the room to begin the conversation will ensure any outcome meets the 360° needs of the business. The common stakeholders will be the people in your business who want to run processes better, faster and more efficiently. And the decision-makers with the budgeting and buying power. 

2. Determine business drivers

Your key drivers will be unique to your organisation. They could be competition and market challenges, shifting customer dynamics or business growth plans. While it’s important to understand how you will use new technology today, it is critical to take the future into account and build a plan that anticipates growth or new business models. 

We’re seeing many organisations who want to rethink their infrastructure to accelerate hybrid working and make operational process improvements. More internal drivers could be a lack of cost control and data visibility or concerns over data privacy. 

Once you have prioritised your list of drivers, you need to map them against your global business objectives to make sure you’re aligned with your ambitions. Input at this stage from a strategic partner will give you the insights to assist your decision making.

3. Assess current system

To understand what you need to fix, you need to understand what’s potentially broken. Collecting end-user accounts is important, listen out for users who are experiencing downtime and systems running badly or slowly. Gather feedback on how easy it is for your people to remote work, access important files or carry out critical workflows.

Explore how stakeholders would like to run processes more efficiently, or make better use of data through reporting and forecasting. These conversations will reveal where your system and service are lacking. Talk to your customers and analyse sentiment. It is important to note if you’re losing sales due to malfunctioning user features or fractured communication. A strategic partner can help with this important feedback process. 

Your IT leader should also be able to share any data on cyber breaches and data loss, that will demonstrate where urgent attention is needed. Whether breaches happen due to misconfiguration, poor setup, end-users adding non-approved apps or sharing data with third parties, having infrastructure that can alert and restrict delivers resilience, peace of mind and security.

4. Define what success would look like

Defining how you will measure success can help you focus your efforts and ensure KPIs are integral to your strategy. KPIs shouldn’t be an afterthought once a project has been completed. Aim to measure KPIs in line with your business objectives like sales growth, revenue and productivity. Numbers like website visits and projects completed can be vanity metrics.

Ricoh Cloud & Infrastructure Services 

As a strategic Cloud & Infrastructure partner, Ricoh can work with you to help you define the right approach between on-premises, private cloud and public cloud. We can also help you identify any networking implications that need to be considered. We work closely with your team to understand your business and IT strategy, your existing infrastructure and your operational goals. 

Working end-to-end, we discover, implement, manage and advance your entire IT infrastructure, enabling a global experience with local delivery. Meaning you can access extensive technical expertise without having to hire additional internal resources, providing total cover to meet your needs today and in the future. Discover more about our solutions.

If you’re serious about growth and digital transformation speak to one of our experts today about modernising your infrastructure. Contact our team to find out more.

1. https://blogs.oracle.com/cloud-infrastructure/post/top-10-hybrid-cloud-trends-in-2021

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For years, people have feared the looming threat of automation, arguing it is likely to replace jobs rather than create them. But the tide is turning. Technology like AI has been normalised; nowadays, we all rely on digital devices inside and outside of work. Even more so with the arrival of hybrid working. 

The future of work is about challenging outdated practices. Your people don’t want to be mired in repetitive processes anymore, they are digital natives aware of the positive impact technology can bring.  

So, if you haven’t looked into how automation could enhance your critical operations, improve employee engagement and accelerate business growth, now is the time. In this article, I’ll share how you can start that journey in right way, and optimise the value of process automation. 

What is business process automation? 

Business process automation uses software to automate multi-step business transactions like accounts payable or employee onboarding. We call it automation because the software is programmed to mimic repetitive steps humans take and intelligently process data from multiple digital and paper-based sources.

Which processes are ideal for business process automation? 

Labour intensive document management tasks provide the perfect environment for automation. It doesn’t matter what the process is called or how sector specific you think it is, a process that will benefit from automation has a few familiar hallmarks. 

Watch out for the processes that typically involve multiple email threads, documents and approvals. Where even a minor human error has the potential to cause a cascade of inefficiency, bottlenecks, and missed deadlines. The tasks which must be done correctly, every time, or you risk losing a customer, damaging your reputation, infringing compliance laws or obscuring your ability to forecast finances effectively. 

Automation transforms outcomes for processes that rely on reams of paper-based documents and large volumes of data that has to be captured, collated and called upon frequently by your team. Maybe you’re always hearing complaints from staff about the antiquity and speed of your current system – these are the processes that should be identified, dissected and automated using specialist software. They hold the key to unlocking hidden value. 

The benefits of business process automation 

60% of employees spend more time searching for files than replying to emails²

By putting automation in place, you empower your people to organise, secure, capture, digitise, tag and approve documents with ease, limiting human error, saving time and reducing cost. Providing a more intuitive and straightforward experience, can also help you retain and nurture high-value employees who prioritise efficient working methods. 

Enhance accuracy and reporting facilities 

For business leaders, automating critical processes enhances decision-making capability by providing accuracy, faster responses and real-time reporting. Putting your business in a more agile position and giving you the resilience and visibility to make changes if necessary. Having the ability to run critical operations quicker and with more control, also makes it easier to grow your business. And if you’re switching from paper to digital in multiple areas, you stand to improve your sustainability numbers too. 

53% of employees experience delays waiting for information to be updated across multiple systems from multiple departments³

By using automation software, you will also be able to offer immediate and self-service access to the information your customers need. Likewise, your people can access intelligence on their customers quicker and easier through cloud storage, enabling them to provide tailored customer service. 

How to approach automation? 

Once you have identified which processes are suitable for automation, you need to have the right mindset to move forward. There are a few fundamental rules of automation to remember:

• You can’t automate until you have mapped how your process works and where the data is captured. If the process doesn’t work or is incomplete, your automation won’t work. 
• Process automation isn’t about one piece of technology. There’s no single technology that delivers universal benefits, and it takes a combination of solutions and a layered strategy to deliver results. 
• You don’t need to transform entire processes from day one. In many cases, automating one essential step can unlock immense value. 

Choose Ricoh for Business Process Management 

Bringing a specialist partner on board to fast-track business process automation will ensure you implement solutions that truly solve the challenges you and your workforce face. With an objective vantage point, we start by getting to know the needs of your business, your processes and your people. Then, by working closely with your teams, we design digital workflows that apply process automation – making your business more intelligent, your employees more satisfied, and your customers happier. 

Discover more about our solutions. We can help you with bespoke process automation services and single software applications like DocuWare, which can automate all document management from accounts payable and order fulfilment to inbound mail. 

Ricoh’s experience in traditional working practices positions us well to bridge the gap between the old world and the new world. Our leading principle of powering fulfilment through work also means our people are passionate about enhancing workplace experiences. Contact our team to find out more.

1. https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/most-workers-feel-automation-has-made-work-life-better#gref

2. https://www.netsuite.com/portal/resource/articles/business-strategy/business-automation-statistics.shtml

3. https://westx.ca/transform-your-business-into-a-digital-workplace/

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What is hybrid working?

Let’s start with the basics. There are different types of hybrid working.

1. Every employee has complete flexibility to work at will on-site or remotely. 

2. Every employee has a designated rota of on-site and remote days.

3. Some employees work fully on-site, some employees work fully remote.

4. Some employees have flexibility, some work full-time in one location.

There could even be other permutations but none of the options are right or wrong. Depending on your sector, your core services, and the size of your organisation, any of them could apply to you. You might already know which of these setups will suit you best. 

But like any large scale project, the first step is to consider the perspectives of your key stakeholders and your people. Find out what they need to communicate and collaborate effectively. You can then build a business case that gathers all the data, resources and insights. It must also balance the potential ROI of switching to a hybrid working model. 

The three factors you need to consider when talking to stakeholders

Depending on where your stakeholders sit within the business, three arguments are likely to be raised: productivity, staffing and culture. These core principles were introduced by Mark Mortensen, an associate professor in organisational behaviour, following hundreds of hours of interviews with business leaders in 2021. 

Keeping these principles at the forefront of your mind will ensure you’re well equipped going into conversations with key stakeholders, helping you develop a critical standpoint on the different needs and perspectives within your organisation. 

1. Productivity

Some argue that working side-by-side in an office allows for seamless communication. While others may say their team has been even more productive in remote working conditions where they can manage their schedule and be free of office distractions. Whichever side of the debate you’re on, hybrid working clearly impacts collaboration. 

This conversation is particularly relevant for your colleagues in operations tasked with identifying the optimal form of working arrangements to ensure your organisation delivers on its promises. 

2. Staffing

The question of a great resignation proves that some employees will quit if not granted some flexibility. It also stands to reason that companies who don’t offer this will be at a disadvantage when attracting and retaining quality talent. Ensuring this factor is taken into account is an important objective for HR. 

3. Culture

There are widely differing opinions on whether it’s possible to communicate company cultural beliefs and behaviours in a remote world and how to best do so. As culture is often implicitly understood, this argument is difficult to substantiate. 

The important takeaway is that hybrid working shouldn’t erode the culture that has made your organisation what it is and actively seek ways to support it. Your hybrid working model should also build a culture of trust, where management trusts employees to stay engaged and productive from remote locations. 

What are the operational benefits of hybrid working? 

To make hybrid a true success, you need robust technology. Ensure your business and your people achieve their goals from any location. As a result of implementing this technology, you stand to optimise efficiency. To define success, you need to explore what a positive outcome looks like for you, whether that be gains in productivity, business growth or staff retention. 

Communication and collaboration tools can remove everyday friction and enable your teams to connect, collaborate and create seamlessly wherever they are. By replicating the ease of jumping on a video call remotely in an in office environment you can make the office a destination again, where employees can come together to collaborate and seek inspiration. And when meetings run smoothly, applications work reliably, and collaboration is frictionless, your business is more productive and, in turn, more competitive. 

To power these applications, you will need infrastructure to carry and store the communication traffic as well as the cybersecurity measures to protect you from network breaches. Putting all this in place requires expertise from a trusted partner. The agility and flexibility these types of solutions provide will substantially accelerate the digital transformation of your organisation. 

By identifying the positive impact of the technology investments you could make to support your hybrid working model, you can impress your stakeholders most concerned with productivity and culture. 

What are the people benefits of hybrid working? 

Hybrid working has several people benefits, including increased morale and employee engagement. It also boosts employee retention and creates an enhanced talent pool. 

It also empowers organisations to become more diverse and inclusive by enabling access to talented individuals who may have previously been unable to apply, due to inflexible set working hours or locations. This can only be positive, leading to diverse views and experiences which can generate creativity and productivity.

Surveying UK businesses on their remote working practices, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has also revealed the following stats which support long-term flexible or hybrid working models. Not only do these statistics show a positive outlook for employees it also shows gains for employers. By putting people at the centre of decision making, it improves overall outcomes and user adoption. 

• 46% of employees believe they have seen increased wellbeing simply for having greater flexibility of their working hours.
• 34% of the respondents believe that flexible working leads to creative collaboration via IT.
• 33% felt that there was a reduction in distractions.¹

Ricoh can help you enable hybrid working 

As an organisation, we see hybrid working as the keystone to unlocking human potential, innovation and productivity. We work with organisations to implement successful hybrid working models. We also grant our own people flexible-first hybrid working arrangements. Explore our digital workspace solutions.

Hybrid working may seem ubiquitous, but by its very nature, it is rewriting the rules of the workplace. It is important to understand all the perspectives around you to lead change within your organisation in a positive way. If you are the person in your business pushing the hybrid working agenda, we can help you formalise your plans by introducing you to innovative digital workspace solutions and through discovery with our expert digital consultants, contact our team to find out more.

Or discover our on-demand webinars, giving you the latest advice and guidance from industry experts to help you to navigate the changing business landscape.

1. https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/flexible-working-lessons-from-pandemic-report_tcm18-92644.pdf

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Over the past two months, we have set out to explore how business leaders can start making the most of this new era in our “Leading Change at Work: Devising your digital workplace strategy” advisory report. Businesses have weathered more than their fair share of disruption over the past 18 months. Yet findings from Ricoh commissioned research suggest significant under-investment in some crucial areas, such as technology.

Last year, we released our Conscious Workplace Report dedicated to the impact of the pandemic on the way we work. The report focused on statistics related to both attitudes and challenges. This year, we wanted to examine how the pandemic (and other external factors, such as Brexit) has changed the day-to-day life of employees and managers – gathering insight from different sectors and speaking directly with Facilities, HR, IT, Finance and Operations professionals.

Collaborate to build the big picture

For senior leaders to develop an effective change strategy, it is vital to listen to department heads, invest in skills and enable collaboration. Many business leaders today, particularly those in Finance and Operations, feel a growing burden as a result of internal silos.

A key to success for any business in times of change has always been collaboration. Yet the mass and rapid introduction of hybrid work has made this more challenging. Our research found that many businesses are still operating in silos, with key departments feeling that their needs are not being met and that investment, both financial and in terms of focus, has been limited.

The pandemic demonstrated the power of what can be achieved with cross-collaboration. Many IT, Finance, HR, and Facilities teams found themselves working together with a common goal for the first time – to enable hybrid working and protect the wellbeing or workers. Vodafone’s workplace transformation with Ricoh and Coventry City Council’s smart locker solution are great examples of what successful collaborations can achieve.

Investing in a long-term digital workplace strategy

Over the past 18 months, virtually every business has undergone some form of digital transformation change that has supported the remodelling, refreshing, and renewing of its approach to working. When done successfully, this digital transformation has enabled businesses to increase their innovation and agility. However, when poorly implemented, the implications can be far reaching and serious.

For finance departments, demonstrating a return on investment with quantifiable metrics helps to make the business case for digital workplace improvement projects. One area of investment that is passing the cost-benefit analysis now is addressing ongoing cybersecurity and data protection challenges. This type of investment comes in many forms, from expert consultancy to advanced technology, but the challenge is clear, and the outcome is measurable. Only through sourcing reliable metrics will finance teams be able to make successful and valuable investments to support employees.

Effective long-term change strategies must factor in the wider business context to be truly effective. For example, strong economic growth and low interest rates can mean more experimental investment, set against higher rates and slower growth which may mean planning for more cost-effective processes. The key to both is in the measurement of newly introduced technology and processes coupled with addressing the needs of a modern workforce. Getting this right leads to greater business agility and better support for employees and their productivity.

The word of the future: flexibility

Remote work has altered employee mindsets for good. Over 400,000 workers in the UK resigned in the three months leading up to September. It’s clear that the perception of “normal” has shifted. With an international talent shortage, businesses are feeling the strain to appease all employees – regardless of conflicting demands.

Almost all businesses recognise that they need to enable flexibility to attract and retain talent. But this involves more than a simple amendment to working hours. With more employees than ever working with colleagues in different time zones, global issues (such as supply chain) frequently disrupting working patterns, more innovative approaches are needed. The introduction of workflows, switching from conventional shift patterns or enabling more autonomy are all possible solutions. Only through the introduction of change and effective measurement can you identify what needs best suit your business.

The requirement to shape your business according to needs, to keep up with the times without losing your identity, is certainly a challenge. Organisations need to remain flexible and agile to remain competitive and ensure business growth while attracting and retaining top talent.

While there are still rough seas ahead for businesses across industry and sector, the storms are navigable through collaboration, careful investment, and increased flexibility. Take a look at our “Leading Change at Work: Devising your digital workplace strategy” advisory report, you can find clear guidance to lead your business down the path of greater productivity and security.

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