The print and imaging industry stands at a moment of truth. After decades defined by incremental improvements, slightly faster devices, marginal firmware updates, and cautiously paced software releases, it is now facing a transformation that is both unavoidable and irreversible. The pandemic didn’t create the fissures running through the industry’s foundation, but it certainly exposed them. Hybrid work pressures, rising service costs, elevated expectations from IT buyers, persistent DCA instability issues, and a younger workforce unwilling to tolerate outdated systems have made one reality undeniable: modernization is no longer optional. It is the price of admission for the next decade.
Across conversations with dealers, OEMs, analysts, system integrators, and ERP vendors, a single theme is emerging with increasing clarity: the gap between modern platforms and legacy providers is widening at a pace the industry has never seen before. And soon, the distance between the two will no longer be bridgeable. Many organizations are still trying to extend the life of outdated architectures by layering on incremental features, but the market signals are unmistakable: the industry has reached its digital reckoning.
For years, technological progress in the print space moved slowly and predictably. New hardware cycles brought modest improvements, while software platforms added features around the edges without rethinking their core design. Much of the industry remained anchored to on-prem architectures, manual updates, fragile integrations, and workflow assumptions rooted in the early 2000s. Meanwhile, both users and IT leaders moved on. Today, they expect seamless cloud-native access, real-time visibility, integrated data flows, stable and reliable connectivity, automation that eliminates repetitive tasks, and the ability to plug into the rest of their technology stack without friction.
Dealers operating on modern SaaS platforms have been able to adapt quickly to hybrid environments, remote support models, and new customer expectations. Those still dependent on legacy systems, aging DCAs, and brittle infrastructures discovered just how costly and fragile those environments have become. In 2025, modernization doesn’t mean adding more features; it means rebuilding the operating model from the ground up.
This shift is amplified by a generational transformation reshaping the workforce. Millennials and Gen Z now make up the majority of new hires across sales, service, operations, and leadership tracks. Their expectations, shaped by intuitive apps, cloud-native business tools, and mobile-first experiences, are fundamentally incompatible with the legacy systems still in place at many dealerships. This is not a training problem. It is an experience problem. The next generation will not adjust to outdated tools; the tools must evolve to meet the expectations of the next generation. Organizations that modernize not only improve the customer experience, they strengthen their ability to recruit and retain talent.
Nowhere is the pace of change more evident than in service operations. The traditional break–fix model is rapidly giving way to a remote-led, intelligence-driven orchestration model. Technicians who once relied primarily on mechanical expertise are now empowered with remote configuration capabilities, cloud-driven firmware deployment, proactive triage tools, AI-assisted insights, and automated workflows that address issues before the end user ever notices them. This shift is reshaping both the cost structure and operational rhythm of the service organization. It reduces truck rolls, minimizes emergency service events, and stabilizes contracts by making service delivery more predictable, proactive, and efficient. Increasingly, service excellence is becoming a software and data capability, not simply a hardware or labor capability.
And this is where the real root of the problem begins to surface: technical debt.
Many legacy vendors built their platforms on architectures that were never designed for the demands of today’s market. Over the years, new features were stacked on top of outdated foundations instead of reengineered from the core. This has created an environment in which the cost, risk, and complexity of modernization now exceed what is practically achievable. It is not a matter of good or bad providers; it is a matter of architectural runway. For many legacy platforms, that runway has simply run out. By the time the industry required true cloud-native platforms, multi-tenant architectures, and flexible integration layers, the technical debt embedded in these systems made modernization nearly impossible without a complete rebuild. At that point, catching up becomes unrealistic.
This brings us to one of the most misunderstood topics in the industry: the definition of “cloud.” Many solutions marketed as “cloud” are little more than hosted legacy platforms presented through a browser. The underlying architecture, workflows, fragility, and maintenance requirements remain unchanged. Dealers running systems that still require local installs, VPN dependencies, manual updates, maintenance windows, or inconsistent DCA connectivity are not cloud-modern, they are simply managing old infrastructure in a different location. True SaaS delivers continuous updates, zero downtime, integrated security, scalable multitenancy, reliable data paths, and the flexibility to evolve at the pace of dealer and customer needs.
A major force shaping industry direction is the growing momentum behind platform convergence and connected intelligence. Dealers no longer want more dashboards; they want systems that work together to produce actionable insights. As ERP disruption accelerates, with modern entrants challenging the two-decade dominance of legacy systems, dealers are paying closer attention than ever to interoperability, data reliability, and ecosystem trust. When ERP, CRM, DCA, and analytics platforms unify into a connected ecosystem, data shifts from something dealers review to something that guides daily operations. This is where predictive billing, proactive service triggers, accurate supply forecasting, device lifecycle planning, and contract margin recovery become real and repeatable.
Security has also become a brand expectation rather than a standalone feature. Hybrid environments have expanded the attack surface, and unmanaged print endpoints remain a frequently overlooked vulnerability. Modern SaaS platforms must now meet the same standards as other enterprise technologies: zero-trust alignment, secure-by-design architecture, hardened APIs, continuous compliance, and transparent governance. IT buyers evaluate print infrastructure today with the same rigor they apply to any other critical application. Security cannot be an afterthought. It must be engineered into the foundation.
OEM innovation continues to accelerate, with devices becoming smarter, more connected, and more capable. Telemetry is richer, firmware updates are increasingly cloud-driven, and device intelligence has reached levels the industry couldn’t have imagined twenty years ago. But the connectivity layer between OEMs and dealers has not kept pace. The next leap forward will come from deeper OEM–ISV collaboration, creating shared data models, unified visibility across brands, automated configuration workflows, and cross-platform intelligence that benefits the entire channel. OEMs have built smarter machines. Now the industry must connect those machines to smarter platforms.
The print industry’s digital reckoning is not hypothetical, it is already underway. The organizations that will lead the next decade are those willing to modernize boldly, automate intelligently, and build platforms and partnerships that elevate dealer performance rather than constrain it. The winners will embrace true SaaS architectures, open ecosystems, reliable and stable data collection, connected workflows, modern workforce expectations, and deeper OEM–ISV collaboration. The losers will depend on incremental updates and legacy architectures that simply cannot meet the moment.
The future will not be shaped by those who wait for change.
It will be shaped by those who lead it.
Kevin Tetu
Kevin Tetu is president, managed print division, Valsoft.