January 21, 2020. My article “Software for Document Management and Printing: Market Trends” was published on IT Channel News.
By 2020, the ask from companies had become very specific: “Make it so our employees don’t have to think about printing at all.” Not “optimize it,” not “simplify it” — just remove the headache entirely. And the market was already well equipped to deliver exactly that.
In the article, I broke down seven categories of software solutions that were actively being adopted in offices at the time — from basic print analytics to full document workflow automation.
Print fleet analysis — the software scans the network, produces a full inventory of every device, and pulls usage statistics for each one. No guesswork: you instantly see what’s working, what’s sitting idle, and where the bottlenecks are.
Document processing by preset parameters — scan a document, and it automatically goes to the right folder, the right address, the right people. Simultaneously — to the employee, the manager, the archive, and an external recipient. Zero manual steps.
Print management and queue control — send a document to print, walk up to any available device, authenticate with a card or PIN, and pick it up. No queues, no unclaimed pages sitting in someone else’s tray.
Color printing access control — a fact that surprises many: even when printing a black-and-white document, a printer can consume up to 30% of its color toner. Dedicated software lets you restrict color printing by role — via login, password, or card. The savings add up fast.
Mobile printing — send a document to the office printer straight from your phone, even when you’re not in the office. By 2020, this was already standard, not a novelty.
Real-time fleet monitoring — data from thousands of devices flows to a server simultaneously. Incidents are logged, statistics accumulate, and recurring problem patterns can be predicted before they happen.
Automated form processing — the software scans completed questionnaires and forms, reads the responses, and generates a report. No human hands needed in the process at all.
The core conclusion of the article holds just as true today: the less people have to think about printers and paper, the more they can focus on what actually matters to the business. The right software isn’t a cost — it’s freed-up capacity.