How will tablets affect print? CIOs weigh in at MPS Conference in Sydney

How will tablets affect print? CIOs weigh in at MPS Conference in Sydney

As Photizo has become known to do at the Managed Print Services Conferences, we take unsuspecting victims (aka Panel Members), whether they are end users or executives from major manufacturers and put them in a room full of MPS providers, infrastructure providers, consultants, etc. and bombard them with a slew of questions. See the executive panel in Berlin here.

The latest gory scene to take place was in Sydney, Australia where Photizo is hosting it’s 2nd annual Asia Pacific MPS Conference.

The victims:

John Duckett, CIO of Gilbert + Tobin (legal firm)

Phillip Hurley, CIO of Healthe Care Australia

Amid the slew of questions, we got to the topic of device management, smartphones, iPads and tablets.

How will these affect print? It’s a debated topic in the industry. I’m on the side of the fence that thinks print is going to continue to decline, but I respect the arguments of those who bring up how that’s what everyone thought with the introduction of email, but that created more print.

So, what do the guys who are managing these devices, managing imaging programs in their organizations have to say about it?

Phillip Hurley creates a picture of a healthcare world torn between doctors who use iPads to fill out charts and others who are tied to the fountain pen. He explains that some people are eager to adapt the use of tablets in their organization, especially as it becomes more inline with document management and EHR initiatives being put in place. “My expectation is that the days of printing things out and color coded files is a dinosaur.”

John Duckett, however says it’s going to take at least a few generations before legal firms begin to move away from print. “We print more now than we did. The need to print everything has passed, but they [lawyers and legal firms] can just not help themselves.” Duckett says he is certainly seeing an intrusion of the iPad and tablets into the legal profession. It’s now acceptable to have documentation on an iPad for quick reference in courts. However, he says he still sees lawyers carting files off to the courts–burdened with hardcopies. “Paper is safe with legal, for now.”

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