Gartner: Three Trillion Pages Printed in the Office in 2017
The latest innovation–color output from a monochrome HP LaserJet.
Is business printing dead? Not so fast. According to an article posted by IT Pro, although innovations such as cloud-based digital-document storage are on the rise, “Printing remains a vital part of many workplace IT systems, as demonstrated by Gartner’s most recent print hardware, software, and services forecast analysis, which predicts office devices will print almost 3 trillion pages over the course of 2017.”
The result is said to be that more and more enterprises are taking a closer look at their enterprise printing.
“The explosion in the use of mobile devices and thin clients in the workplace drives demand for printing wherever employees are,” Gartner said. “There is also demand for an affordable mobile printing solution that is easy to use and manage and that meets IT security requirements.
“This is being driven by the diversity of mobile platforms and printing devices, the need to ensure documents are printed seamlessly and securely without compromising network security, and the need to control and monitor who is printing and what is being printed remotely.”
Re-examining an enterprise’s print environment can also yield great cost savings. Today’s enterprise printers and copier/MFPs are often deployed under a managed print services (MPS) contract, and may have a lifespan of up to seven years. The firm notes that making the wrong decision with such contracts could saddle an enterprise with a costly solution for almost a decade.
Meanwhile, security is said to be one of the most important things businesses should be concerned with, as most enterprise printers are now network- and Internet-connected, the latter of which enables hackers to gain access into the enterprise.
An example occurred earlier in 2017, when a hacker named “Stackoverflowin” remotely hijacked around 150,000 unsecured printers.
Other considerations besides security and monthly printer-supply contracts, the enterprise’s monthly print volume, mobile solutions, total cost of ownership, and energy consumption.
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