The OEM asked how big data “can help unleash your print fleet”.
In an article for Data Informed, Scott Steele, Head of Managed Services Tools and Infrastructure at HP Inc, noted that “in today’s evolving IT world, companies are looking for every advantage, at every angle to find areas to improve the business and reduce costs”, and printers are “frequently one of the most overlooked assets on the IT network”. He added that printer are “expected to ‘just work’ with little attention paid to how they are being used”, and often “little understanding of what they cost”.
Such “overlooked devices” can cost companies “tens of millions of dollars because they have not been properly optimised for the needs of their business”, and beyond “hard costs” there is a “productivity loss when printers don’t work and employees can’t easily print”. The OEM has been working to “solve these types of issues” through MPS “for over 20 years”, and the “rise of big data and the internet of things” represents trends driving “significant advances” in printer servicing.
Steele highlighted that these advances are “helping deliver higher levels of flexibility, transparency and control” for lower costs and a “better print experience”, with the potential “for even more advanced applications to deliver even greater improvements in the future”. He then moved on to discuss a “few ways big data innovations can improve printing for your business”, starting with gaining a “deeper insight into the printing environment”.
Noting that modern printers are “smart, connected devices” that “collect and share data about themselves”, Steele noted such devices allow a “greater degree of insight into the state of the printers in a fleet than ever before”. Big data allows for collection of “richer insights” about printers, and technologies helping this include machine-to-machine communication, machine learning, advanced remote diagnostics and integrated insights about user interactions.
He then went on to discuss “leveraging big data for stronger fleet performance”, noting that “historically” printer placement was “guided by a limited set of data”, but adding that big data “enables precise printer placement”, and such data brought together allows for creating a “plan for the optimal device deployment”, creating a strategy “that is customised based on the needs of each office to increase the performance of the workforce”.
Analytics of such data consists of three steps: data collection and device discovery, device monitoring and management, and strategic analytics, with Steele stating that big data “makes it possible to be proactive and predictive about the management of the printer fleet” and increasing “faster diagnosis, dispatch, and resolution of service events”.
Finally, he reflected on “turning data into actionable insight”, noting that big data has “already resulted in significant advances improving printing for businesses and will continue to do so in the future”, and working with MPS providers should allow you to “ask them about their big data capabilities and make these types of capabilities and performance modelling part of your overall print environment plan”.
He concluded that “your print environment does not need to be a cost and productivity issue. By embracing the potential of big data to gain more actionable insights, it is possible to cut costs, improve productivity and gain maximum return on your printer investments”.