Alan Austin is sales and marketing director at Ricoh South Africa.

Last year, mobile printing – previously the exclusive domain of travelling executives – infiltrated the corporate mainstream. Oddly enough, the reason is the titanic rise of smartphones and tablet computers. That’s odd because many resurrected an ancient anthem with the advent of smartphones and tablets: the paperless office. They droned on endlessly about big screens, portability, and the power of apps.

In fact, the opposite is true. The advent of powerful mobile computing in smartphones and tablets means those companies that want to remain competitive will have to support mobile printing for their employees.

You see, what the paperless pundits failed to factor into their equation was the consumerisation of technology and the increasing shift to virtual environments. That means businesspeople will increasingly buy their own hardware, their own software, and they will work from home or non-traditional environments, such as coffee shops or anywhere on the move.

Research by the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Ricoh, as well as independent research by Quocirca and Lyra, supports the rising prominence of mobile printing. A Quocirca study shows that nearly 60% of businesses know that employees want to print from mobile devices. However, only 5% of companies have deployed mobile printing and less than a quarter are actively looking into options for their employees.

The Economist Intelligence Unit research reckons that 80% of its respondents expect the workplace will be more virtual by 2020, and 48% suggest the majority of employees will work from home. Interestingly, the same research shows the consumerisation of technology will accelerate and 70% of subjects think employees will conduct all of their work using one device. As many as 52% predict employees procuring and administering their own devices and applications.

One of the analysts at Quocirca, Louella Fernandes, says consumerisation is one of the major reasons for businesses to adopt a mobile print strategy. “Organisations that ignore the impact of consumerisation on their print environment can be open to risk, as employees will bypass IT to use alternative consumer printing apps,” she says. “These solutions may not offer sufficient protection and will also prevent organisations from tracking and controlling print usage.”