The Print Management Blog

Using reports to show the value of print management

  

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One of the common "wow" features of our software that our customers share with us is the power of the reports that Equitrac generates. Whether the data is used to create management-level visibility of the costs of printing, help users understand how much their print activity costs the company to help change behavior, or to determine how to best deploy print hardware, our reports reveal some very useful information.

I thought it might be helpful to convey some of the different information that we make available in reports. There are nearly 100 pre-designed reports available with our products, and it is easiest to talk about them in categories.

Accounts: Reports in this category provide data about print accounts (allocated by department, business unit, students, etc.). Details include:

• How, when and where accounts are being used

• Account balance and transaction histories

• How accounts are organized

• The current status of the device (online, offline, jammed, etc.)

• When and how often they are being used

• When and how often they experience faults such as paper jams or toner outages

• Total and percentage usage of color, monochrome, single or double-side printing, application, account or network user

Detailed activity: Detailed information about the documents that users are creating.

Summary activity: The number of color, b&w and monochrome pages created by accounts, devices, applications, user, organizational structure, and so on. Summary reports allow you to summarize the information by date range, device, user or transaction type.

Total activity: The number of color, b&w or monochrome in single- or double-sided pages by: account type, billing code, device, user account, application or device/user location.

Of course, reports themselves don't change a business. But, the data revealed is a powerful tool to measure, understand and improve printing.