Intelligent Print Management (IPM)

Gaining control over wasteful printing has always been challenging for the CPOs of large enterprises. New methods for regulation of print volume have been devised to curb costs that go into paper, ink and all other consumables that account for printing a page. Organisations across the globe that have executed steps to implement automated procedures for their paper-intensive processes, integrate paper with digital workflows and effectively eliminate wasteful printing have achieved cost-savings of 25-40% of their respective Print Management spends. This article throws light on some of those solutions that have revolutionized Intelligent Print Management (IPM) in large enterprises. IPM Market Drivers The Global IPM market has been growing at a CAGR of about 7% since 2012, and is estimated to continue to grow at the same rate till 2018. As per a recent survey conducted by O'Keef & Company and commissioned by Lexmark International, the employee printing spend by the US Government amounted to about 1.3 billion USD per annum. On an average, each employee would print 30 pages a day totaling to 7,200 pages per employee annually of which about 35% would be discarded in a short timeframe which equates to 2,520 pages per employee per year! Aggregating results from the entire survey the total number of pages printed on an average by a large-sized organization amounted to 19 billion pages per year of which 6.65 billion pages go waste. Author: Maneesh Byadigera