Is it time you started using print analytics?

You might be looking for ways to save money when it comes to your print solutions and lessen the financial impact these solutions might be having on your company as a whole. This is why you should consider print analytics, which refers to software and applications that analyse the data within your print environment in order to assess patterns and practices in your printer usage. Print analytics will give you and your company a better understanding of the processes involved in document printing and its effects. 

There are three specific aspects of print analytics that you should take a look at.

Print Equipment Analytics

Thanks to features such as archiving and statistical analysis, print equipment analytics can help you answer two important questions:

• What is your printing volume?
• How much is it costing you?

This element of print analytics will give you a better understanding of your company’s total cost of ownership, or TCO, when it comes to printing. You might actually underestimate how much printing your company does, and with the help of print equipment analytics you can make more informed decisions regarding your printing solutions.

Print equipment analytics will enable you to optimise the use of your printers and ensure that no printing resources are being overused. If you’re thinking of harnessing print equipment analytics for your company’s benefit then you should first do a thorough assessment of your printer fleet and calculate the current costs of your printing.

End-User Analytics

It’s important to have a solid understanding of your printer fleet and its usage, as this will help you optimise printing for your business. That being said, you still need to understand the behaviours and dynamics of the people who are actually using those printers, otherwise you’re still missing important information.

End-user analytics is the aspect of print analytics that focuses on identifying user behaviour based on the following factors:

• Printing quantity, or how much the user or department is printing
• Printing behaviour, or what specific users or department are printing and when and where that printing is being done
• Print material, or what users are actually printing and whether or not they are authorised to print it
• Print-related waste, or whether printing accessories like toner and paper are being used efficiently

By ascertaining your workforce’s printing habits through the use of analytical software you will be more able to identify areas where costs can be reduced. You’ll also be able to educate your employees on best practices related to printing.

Print Document Analytics

Print document analytics is focused on helping you properly understand the role that printed documents play in your business. Data pertaining to print document analytics can be split into two distinct categories:

• Statistical data, which can be obtained by analysing document filing and saving data through software, as well as end-user document printing data
• Qualitative data, which can be obtained through meetings, seminars and questionnaires

By collecting this data, you’ll come closer to understanding the role that document printing has within your company’s workflow and overall procedures. You’ll also be able to investigate areas in which improvements can be made. With print document analytics, you can identify the printing that is essential to your company, as well as the printing that should be avoided if possible or done away with entirely.

Print analytics is a useful measure that you can employ to ensure your office printing is properly optimised and that no wasteful printing is being done. With it, you’ll be able to cut costs, save up on printing resources and hopefully educate your workforce on printing-related best practices.