A growing number of companies are taking advantage of managed print services, otherwise known as print outsourcing, offered by major printer and copier vendors like HP and Xerox.

Managed print services involves the service company taking over the placement, management and support for all output devices in a company, in return for a fixed cost, up to 30% lower than the company is currently paying.

Savings are achieved by concentrating devices, getting rid of old machines with high cost of operation, and encouraging best practices (such as two-sided output, scan-to-email and appropriate use of color).

The Wall Street Journal reports a major increase in the popularity of such services. The article cites numbers from Photizo Group, a Lexington, Ky., market research firm, which calculates that the print outsourcing business reached $20 billion last year, up 37% from the year before. That’s in a year when total shipments of printers and copiers only reached $4.8 billion, down 77% from the previous year.

The WSJ article cites one big example: Procter & Gamble. “Xerox is replacing some 45,000 devices, mostly H-P desktop printers, with about 10,000 shared multifunction devices that are mostly made by Xerox.” But it’s not just global corporations: Small companies, government offices, schools and universities are all being pursued by managed print services sales people.

HP is the leader, according to Photizo, with 35% share. Xerox comes in second with 20%. Others, including Canon, Ricoh, and Lexmark are trailing, but working hard to catch-up.

Tags: Canon, HP, Lexmark, Managed Print Services, Proctor & Gamble, Ricoh, Xerox