At its Showtime event in Prague on 23 September 2022, MyQ brought together almost 200 partners from 40 countries to celebrate MyQ founders´ 30 years in the print industry. The event showcased the company’s MyQ X and MyQ Roger solutions and outlined its ambitious plans for growth, including how it will enhance its support of hybrid working.
The event also enabled MyQ CEO Martin Janus to reflect on how the company has transformed from starting out as a Kyocera dealer focused on the Czech market into becoming a leading player in the global print management market.
From humble beginnings to global presence
Back in 1992, Janus Company, a small family business based in Prague, was established as a dealer for Kyocera printers. Also in 1992, the three MyQ founders – CEO Martin Janus, CTO Radek Tetik and CTIO Jakub Ahmadyar – met at high school and subsequently studied IT together. They recognised that traditional printer and copier software and systems were typically expensive and inflexible – having been designed in the main for large companies. So, in 2007, they created the MyQ software brand as part of the Janus Company with the main mission to help sell hardware.
With a focus on intelligent automation and customer-centric vision, MyQ set out to address the print needs of all companies – from the smallest businesses or medium sized companies to the largest enterprises.
Beginning by supporting companies in the Czech Republic, MyQ became a separate independent company in 2010 and gradually expanded into the international market. Today, MyQ software is used in over 100 countries worldwide.
Optimised solutions for the new era of hybrid work
The monumental rise in hybrid working has had a major effect on how businesses operate. However, Quocirca’s research reveals that while hybrid working is here to stay, many organisations remain reliant on print to support critical business processes.
Consequently, organisations are having to revaluate their print and document capture infrastructure to support the needs of today’s diverse and distributed workforce.
IT managers need to ensure that document workflows – whether printing or scanning – can be delivered to users securely, while maximising user productivity and supporting sustainability initiatives.
Addressing diverse needs with MyQ X and MyQ Roger
MyQ’s products support a multivendor environment with a consistent user interface across all models, enabling ease of use regardless of the MFP brand.
MyQ’s product portfolio supports all print and IT requirements through its two platforms – MyQ X and MyQ Roger.
- MyQ X is a fully fledged print management solution. Its functionality enables companies to reduce costs, both financial and environmental, enhance security and improve the efficiency of the print infrastructure. MyQ X includes a range of rules-based printing and can be deployed remotely on premises or in the cloud.
- MyQ Roger is a smart digital workplace assistant that runs on a multi-tenant public cloud infrastructure. The extremely intuitive app for mobile devices and printers provides users with flexible printing and scanning – without the need for local infrastructure and servers.
MyQ Roger is particularly useful for distributed environments. For instance, a user can capture a receipt on their mobile phone and save it to an online folder such as the company’s OneDrive. From there, the accounting department gets an automatic notification and can process it immediately. MyQ Roger also includes OCR so users can convert scanned documents to searchable PDFs.
Future developments in professional services and reporting capabilities
The 30 years celebration event introduced key areas where MyQ will be developing its product and service offerings.
- Professional services will be expanded to help partners provide additional services to customers and expand revenue opportunities.
- Security is one of the key features that MyQ focuses on and continues to deepen cooperation with external experts so that the offered products meet the latest security standards.
- Advanced analytics. MyQ is expanding its advanced reporting capabilities which are integrated with PowerBI. For example in partnership with Data Brothers, MyQ is offering Environmental reporting. As sustainability moves higher on the agenda, customers will be more receptive to more advanced reporting to understand the environmental impact of their print environment. The advanced reporting capabilities will also help channel partners uncover potential opportunities for digitisation and more effective use of MyQ scan/capture functionality.
- MyQ neXt. As organisations continue to build out their work environment for hybrid work, MyQ is increasingly supporting hybrid cloud infrastructures and is currently working on the the successor to MyQ X – MyQ neXt. MyQ neXt, which will support SaaS, will eventually supersede MyQ X to deliver enhanced IT management functionality for its customers along with central management and IPv6 support.
Quocirca opinion
MyQ has demonstrated an ambitious vision for the company as it navigates its way to strengthen its position in the print management market. Its passion, commitment to innovation and agility is a strong testament to a start-up mindset that still permeates the company culture. This enables it to operate with agility and speed in addressing the customer needs in today’s cloud-centric hybrid workplace.
With a reported one million connected devices for MyQ X, MyQ is already a well established player in the print management market, reporting. As traditional print management shifts to the cloud environment, MyQ will need to articulate a strong cloud proposition to differentiate in a crowded market.
However, with recent acquisitions in the market creating some uncertainty for customers, MyQ is well positioned to build a competitive advantage and be a disruptive force as it moves to the next phase of company growth.
Read more about MyQ and watch Quocirca’s podcast with Martin Janus
