The division, called Managed Enterprise Solutions, aims to unify disparate hardware such as copiers, printers and scanners in order to cut hardware and printing costs, said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's imaging and printing group. The unit will also provide services and software that put scanned or printed documents in workflow systems to make document management easier.

The company's attention has been geared toward hardware and supplies, but software and services surrounding printing and imaging are a growing opportunity, Joshi said. The company sees a US$121 billion annual opportunity in the printing market, of which $64 billion is for hardware and $57 billion for software and services.

There is more to printing than just hitting the print button, said Roger Douglas, director of managed print services at HP. For example, software provided with the managed services could enable an invoice to be scanned, which can automatically be put into a company's payroll system. The automation reduces the number of steps and cost required to manage the document, Douglas said. It also reduces the chance for error through manual transcription.

The documents can also be secured through a service by establishing a status to ensure documents aren't appended, Douglas said. For example, if a marketing logo is finalized on a particular document, its status can be appended to ensure no one changes it. This approach is particularly helpful when editing legal documents, he said.

The company is also changing printer designs to build in more services-related functionality. For example, a touch screen on multifunction printers can be used to input or check the job status of scanned documents like patient records.