System and method to collaboratively identify paper-intensive processes

A system for gathering knowledge related to paper-intensive processes associated with one or more printing systems used in an organization to generate printed documents by a group of users, the system comprising:

• a print job tracking component configured to generate a representative set of printed documents by tracking and storing all or a portion of the printed documents and associated metadata generated by the printing system over a predetermined duration of time;
• a clustering component configured to process the representative set of printed documents to generate a plurality of clusters of printed documents, each cluster of printed documents including a subset of the representational set of printed documents which are associated with a predefined measurement of similarity;
• an annotation component configured to assign a set of users to label each cluster of printed documents, each set of users including a subset of users selected from the group of users and each subset of users associated with a relatively high degree of contribution to the cluster of printed documents, relative to other users, included in the group of users, and receive document labeling data from the subsets of users for one or more printed documents associated with each of the respective document clusters, the labeling data including one or more of a process type, a document type and a reason for printing the printed document;
• a classifier component configured to be trained using all or part of the received document labeling data and associated printed documents and classify one or more of the printed documents generated by the print job tracking component which were not included in the plurality of clusters of printed documents generated by the clustering component;
• a compiler configured to compile the label data for all or a portion of the representative set of printed documents, including label data directly provided by one or more users and label data provided by the classifier component;
• and
• an indicator generation component configured to generate one or more indicators representing the use of printed documents associated with one or more of the document type, the process, the user, a project and the reason for printing.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory recording medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer processor, perform a method for gathering knowledge related to paper-intensive processes associated with one or more printing systems used in an organization to generate printed documents by a group of users, the method comprising:

• a) generating a representative set of printed documents by tracking and storing all or a portion of the printed documents and associated metadata generated by the printing system over a predetermined duration of time;
• b) processing the representative set of printed documents to generate a plurality of clusters of printed documents, each cluster of printed documents including a subset of the representational set of printed documents which are associated with a predefined measurement of similarity;
• c) assigning a set of users to label each cluster of printed documents, each set of users including a subset of users selected from the group of users and each subset of users associated with a relatively high degree of contribution to the cluster of printed documents, relative to other users, included in the group of users;
• d) receiving document labeling data from the subsets of users for one or more printed documents associated with each of the respective document clusters, the labeling data including one or more of a process type, a document type and a reason for printing the printed document;
• e) training a classifier using all or part of the received document labeling data and associated printed documents;
• f) using the trained classifier, classifying one or more printed documents generated in step a) which were not included in the plurality of clusters of printed documents generated in step b);
• g) compiling the label data for all or a portion of the representative set of printed documents, including label data directly provided by one or more users and label data provided in step f);
• and
• h) generating one or more indicators representing the use of printed documents associated with one or more of the document type, the process, the user, a project and the reason for printing.