Konica Minolta is joining Xerox and Oki Data in the managed print services field. Its new managed IT and managed print services have high ambitions for growth through its dealer and partner community.

Xerox’s acquisition of a Canadian managed print services provider kicks off what is predicted to be a competitive, breakout year for MPS vendors and channel partners – in a market IDC has predicted will steadily climb to $42 billion globally by 2014.

Channel significance is peppered throughout IDC’s annual analysis of top global managed print services providers, specifically in language used to describe offerings and models finding the most success—vertical expertise, document workflow, business process, scale, consultative, streamline, mobile, security, and global support.

The integration of managed network and print services solutions in the recent OKI Data/Agiliant alliance offers additional sales opportunities for the Business Technology Association channel, and is the latest in Agiliant’s late-2011 dive into the document services arena.

Level Platforms earlier this week announced the release of Managed Workplace 2011 R3, which includes new features for managing printers and power management systems. Much has been made of the managed print options, but is the real story the evolution of RMM to business control panels?