FULLY EFFICIENT

Efficient technology management is particularly important to Matthias Wochner, Managing Director at HSM. As he is responsible for finance, sales, and marketing he considers it essential to the company’s continued business success and growth. The extensive range of inhouse technologies relating to IT and production is one of the main pillars of HSM’s unique selling proposition.

“Our manufacturing depth, with extensive machinery and equipment available inhouse, is what distinguishes us from most of our competitors. This means we are very flexible when dealing with our customers’ requirements, something that is very important with regard not only to large-scale equipment but also to specialized devices. Public-sector customers – such as government authorities – are a good example because they always stipulate very specific requirements.”

One of the elements of this strategy is the restructuring of output solutions at HSM in the Managed Print Services project, which focused on all of the printers, photocopiers, scanners, and fax machines used in the company. The overarching aim was to increase their efficiency in terms of environmental impact and financial cost. This is where the independent experts from CHG-MERIDIAN came in, as partners for efficient technology management. Beforehand, HSM’s IT department had analyzed the company’s needs so that its future printing infrastructure requirements could be defined in detail.

CHG-MERIDIAN helped to plan the new infrastructure and prepare the subsequent call for tenders. The defined requirements were demanding. For example, the devices and a 24-hour support service have to be available at all times, not only in Germany but also at HSM’s subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Poland, and the USA. The list of requirements included a 20 percent decrease in running costs, greater energy efficiency for the devices, and automated transmission of information to enable the replacement and billing of consumables.

After the requirements analysis and request-for-proposal consulting, the main strategic assistance that CHG-MERIDIAN provided to HSM related to the development of efficient and flexible customized business concepts. The consolidation process led to the number of end devices at HSM being reduced from 150 to 90, a decrease of around 40 percent. Combined with the reduction in the operating costs of the individual devices, monthly costs fell by an impressive 50 percent despite the printing volume remaining unchanged, meaning the actual cost saving was significantly higher than the targeted 20 percent.

This impressive feat was achieved by providing the best possible terms, reducing running costs, and using fewer devices.

A further advantage of HSM’s manufacturing depth is the sheer breadth of the high-quality product portfolio. As Wochner explains: “This enables us to operate in all kinds of sales channels, from small devices sold online to maximum-security equipment and large machinery developed for specific projects. And between these extremes, we can exploit the fluid boundaries between our product categories to always offer our customers the HSM product that best meets their needs.”

Wochner adds: “One of the main challenges for the future is the increasing complexity of business decisions and processes. It’s not always easy to deal with these complexities in a company of our size.” An expanding medium-sized business with global operations, HSM now exports 72 percent of its products to international markets, which are very fast-paced and subject to very different laws and regulations. Given its successful growth, HSM has therefore teamed up with CHG-MERIDIAN to take a closer look at its internal structures and processes.

TESMA® technology and service management system. The system has been customized so that specially defined shopping carts containing the necessary IT assets are available for each HSM location – with uniform terms and conditions worldwide and the same high quality and service level.

This is where economies of scale and far greater transparency really come to bear: “This has a direct monetary effect for us but also makes the administration much more straightforward,” says Thorsten Schäfer, IT manager at HSM. “Such structures are entirely normal in a large company but not so in a medium-sized business like HSM. CHG-MERIDIAN was the ideal partner for us because it doesn’t just cover the funding; it’s also a single source of support for the entire technology lifecycle. What’s more, it provides the international structures that are so important to us, i.e. global availability without international billing.”

The Managed Print Services project is just the first step in further cooperation with CHG-MERIDIAN on the restructuring of IT and technology management at HSM. Other initiatives will have the same aim: reducing complexity and using the company’s resources even more efficiently so that they can be targeted in areas where they will harness potential for growth in relation to customers, markets, and products.

• Company: Hermann Schwelling Maschinenbau GmbH + Co. KG

• Sector: office and environmental technology
• Products: file shredders, baling presses, cutting machines, crushers, perforators
• Headquarters: Frickingen, Germany
• Administrative headquarters: Bielefeld, Germany
• Managing Directors: Hermann Schwelling

• Founded: 1971 in Salem, Germany
• Employees: approx. 700, incl. 74 trainees
• Revenue: approx. €100 million
• Export rate: approx. 72%
• Share of revenue from office technology: 55%
• Share of revenue from environmental technology: 45%
• Production facilities: Salem, Frickingen, and Reichenbach (all Germany)
• Subsidiaries: United Kingdom, France, Poland, and USA
• Website: www.hsm.eu