Unknown serial number appears in the Lexmark Cloud analytics and reports

Issue description

The printer serial number is listed as "UNKNOWN" when viewing reports displaying the printer usage in the Lexmark Cloud.

• What is this "UNKNOWN" serial number?
• When print jobs are released from the Lexmark Cloud Print Management queue, the releasing application sends details about the job back to the cloud for reporting and statistics. The method of releasing the job causes the serial number to be known or unknown. Some methods in releasing print jobs (most notably, the Lexmark Mobile Print app) do not report the printer's serial number. Hence, the job information cannot be associated with a particular printer, and thus will be grouped with all other jobs printed in this manner. Therefore, the "UNKNOWN" printer serial number could contain information from jobs released on many different printers.
• Why are the "Printer Supplies History" and "Printer Hardware Statistics" always empty for this "UNKNOWN" printer?
• The "Printer Hardware Statistics" and "Printer Supplies History" reports are driven by data reported from the enrolled printer to the cloud. When these reports are triggered, the printer's serial number is known and reported. Thus, no hardware or supply data are stored or displayed for the "UNKNOWN" serial number.
• Why does the "UNKNOWN" printer have so much usage?
• The reports listing a printer with an "UNKNOWN" serial number are tracking on one or many printers together. An organization having many users printing from methods that do not report the printer's serial number has a high printer usage.

Solution

As the Lexmark cloud system matures, users should expect improved reporting, and less activity classified as "UNKNOWN".