Written by: Gonzalo Vidal Notario; IT Manager, MAN Truck & Bus Iberia

MAN Truck & Bus AG, based in Munich, Germany, is the biggest company of the MAN Group, and a top-ranking international supplier of commercial vehicles and transport solutions. In fiscal 2009 the company, with around 31,000 employees, posted sales of more than 40,500 trucks and over 6,200 buses and bus chassis of the MAN and NEOPLAN brands worth 6.4 billion euros.

MAN has factories all over the world in countries such as Germany, Austria, Poland, Turkey, South Africa and India, as well as service centers in the major countries of the world. Its trucks and buses are well known for their reliability and performance in all conditions.

MAN Iberia is the sales and service center for its operations in Spain and Portugal. It comprises four different companies and around 12 work offices, plus provides service to its extensive network of dealers and repair shops.

During 2007 MAN Europe decided to implement major infrastructure changes as part of a European-wide project. Its objectives were 1) the standardization of MAN processes; 2) obtain the same quality standards all over the world (ISO 27001), and 3) have a unique database –SAP. These infrastructural changes would greatly affect MAN´s printing infrastructure: it was an opportunity to change the way things were done.

MAN Iberia assessed printing and its importance: printing is a key service, as it affects the corporate image that MAN displays to customers, suppliers, partners and third parties. The quality of the document is important, but also the time to get the document produced, as a customer who waits for a document to be printed might get a wrong perception of MAN.

With the above idea of the importance of printing in mind, MAN Iberia officials decided to outsource the printing service, as it is not part of MAN´s core business. However, MAN wanted to have a clear control strategy over printing, with clear SLAs over the printing service, but leaving the details and day-to-day work to an outside company. Finally, after careful research on the available alternatives, they chose Pulsar Technologies as their outsourcing provider. MAN Iberia provided Pulsar Technologies their most current printer inventory, and Pulsar took care of the rest, being able to start the provision of the service within a week of the signed agreement.

MAN Iberia targets with the MPS service provider can be summarized as:

  • The MPS provider will not install any intrusive system
  • The automated monitoring system has to be transparent
  • The MPS service has to be proactive, including preventive actions
  • All the above have to comply with best practices ITIL, according to ISO27001
  • The MPS service has to be valid for any printer model chosen by MAN

MAN Iberia designated a responsible person per printer; that person is the one to handle the printer, receive any messages about its usage, and receive any supplies or technical visit. By having a responsible person, the service is never “orphan”, especially at the remote offices.

MAN Iberia trained its employees on the new printing infrastructure and usage, and on how to react, who to communicate any issues to, etc. As a result, the printers run smoothly, there are no printing disruptions, and there is a sense of full control.

On a monthly basis, Pulsar provides a detailed invoice that MAN Iberia can easily check and validate. The most relevant characteristic of the invoice is its transparency. MAN Iberia uses it to allocate printing costs internally, to check the accuracy of what is to be paid, and to perform random checks on the correctness of the data and of the amounts charged. In addition, no consumables are lost, as there is no need for an emergency stock, all of it resulting in a significant drop in printing costs, estimated above 15 percent. More importantly, now that a standard cost measurement element is obtained monthly containing ALL printing costs (the outsourcer invoice), it is easy to monitor future savings gained when implementing new printing policies.

Pulsar also facilitates MAN Iberia some monthly reports on the MPS service, such as potential savings, optimal use of printers, availability percent of the printers, and any other report is generated when needed.

As a result of the MPS service, MAN Iberia simplified its helpdesk infrastructure on printing costs, centralizing it through Pulsar. The availability of the printing service is now increased both by reducing the probability of errors, and reducing the impact when such an error happens.

After more than 2 years with MAN Iberia printing service outsourced for more than 100 printers, more than 900 toner cartridges have been replaced, 227 paper jams recorded, 28 technical incidents solved…and all within the strict compliance of ISO27001.

Gonzalo Vidal Notario earned a degree in IT Sciences from Univesidad Politécnica of Madrid and a MBA from IDE-CESEM. He has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance, pharmaceutical and industrial sectors. Since 1997 Notario has worked  as IT Director for MAN Truck &Bus Iberia. During Notario’s tenure, MAN Iberia has been chosen as a pilot for several IT enterprise projects. Under his direction, the IT department received ISO 27001 certification in December 2008.