For more than 20 years, Lexmark has leveraged a wealth of usage and performance data to monitor and manage our fleet of 1.2 million printers worldwide. Proactive management allowed us to deliver personalized, data-driven insights to inform customers’ business decisions. 

With the sheer volume of data and changing customer expectations, it’s time that we uplevel our own solutions to advance at the pace and scale needed to serve our customers.  

We’re excited to partner with Microsoft to deploy the company’s Azure technologies to build a platform that not only facilitates process standardization and scale, but allows us to deliver tailored service offerings to customers to reach their business goals. 

Specifically, we’re using Microsoft Azure IoT capabilities to connect and manage devices, no matter the network environment. From global retailers to local businesses, Lexmark’s devices use Azure IoT to run cloud-natively. Furthermore, the devices are network agnostic, which allows for a streamlined customer experience, as well as increases access to print from anywhere options.  

Modernizing our legacy system

Before introducing new technologies to our customers, we first looked internally. Through this process, we redefined nearly 150 business processes, retired legacy systems and deployed modern technologies. 

Making these changes and deploying the new Azure-based solution brought immediate benefits for our business. It allowed us to improve data sharing and analysis – fostering quick and informed decision-making, reduced costs and enhanced customer experience. It also enabled us to offer more advanced services – expanding our set of customers to include small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), while positively impacting the bottom line.

Overall, this new comprehensive approach to modernizing our internal system not only paved the way for immediate results, but also tangible revenue growth. In fact, 40% of Lexmark’s revenue is now contractual or recurring due to the modernization of our technology stack. 

Azure-in-action

One notable place we saw near immediate improvement was our call center. By tapping into the granular customer data now available and the more intuitive system, agent handling time was reduced by 25%. With more optimized dispatch routes and intelligently batched tech visits from AI-driven predictive modeling, technician efficiency is up 20%.

Next, using the same Azure cloud-based services within our sales and services operations, we achieved a true, 360-degree view of our customers. This has been game-changing for the customer experience, allowing us to remotely resolve 70% of all customer issues. 

Even better, using this 360-degree visibility, we launched a new analytics service called the Lexmark Customer Governance Portfolio (CGP), which allows enterprises to assess their entire print environment holistically, as well as drill down to individual print devices. Customers are already reporting the benefits of this new tool, including using analytics to identify business process outliers and cost-saving opportunities. 

Through our partnership with Microsoft, we have enhanced our current business and opened the door for new opportunities – some even outside of print. Together, we are uniquely positioned for success and excited to take Lexmark to new heights.

 

Phil Carter is director of IoT and managed services at Lexmark, focusing on the company’s strategy, development and management for its Internet of Things (IoT) and managed services businesses. Since joining Lexmark in 1998, Carter has held leadership roles across the company, including in R&D and global services, where he led teams that developed Lexmark’s predictive service and data analytics capabilities; manufacturing and product engineering; supply chain; and cross-functional product delivery. He holds a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is also a graduate of the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business leadership program.