The federal government has been concerned with the costs of phantom power in IT devices for years. Back in 2001, President George Bush ordered agencies to slay what he called energy vampires, eliminating devices that used up too much standby power.
But like any good villain from a monster movie, government’s energy vampires were not so easily dispatched. In fact, it’s possible that they have grown over the years.
Verdiem is attempting to become the garlic necklace or holy water against these pests with its newest software product, Verdiem Print & Power Analyzer, which builds on Verdiem’s IT energy management and efficiency platform to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs. It lets organizations measure end-user print activity, identify both local and networked printers, characterize costs and analyze the data to uncover opportunities to optimize the print environment. According to the company, this often results in reduced enterprise print costs of up to 30 percent, or $20 to $60 per user per year.
“IT organizations are experiencing increased pressure to improve service delivery and reduce costs, but they typically have little to no visibility into the costs and utilization of their print environment,” said John Scumniotales, the company’s CEO. “Industry benchmarks show that most organizations easily spend $300 dollars or more per employee per year on printing.”
Verdiem cites an August 2012 Gartner report that said that organizations with managed print services saw savings ranging from 10 to 40 percent.
The Verdiem Print & Power Analyzer works to identify areas where too many printers are being deployed by tracking individual print usage for both local and networked printers. Printers often standby mode or with functions that are mirrored elsewhere can then be eliminated from an office.
Verdiem measures key print metrics by monitoring end-user print activity. Dashboards and reports give IT staffs actionable data on print volumes and costs by department, printer, location and user. IT will finally be able to answer who prints, where they print, what they print and when they print. By understanding these behaviors, IT professionals can drive change and demonstrable cost reductions into the print environment.
Verdiem power monitoring also establishes a baseline of electricity usage and costs for PC and printer fleets. To control PC energy consumption and save $20 to $50 per PC per year, IT can upgrade to Verdiem’s industry-leading PC power management solution.
