Introduction
ATF works alongside Italian companies to support them in their digital development with Digital Transformation solutions ranging from Printing to Smart Collaboration, from IT Systems to Consultancy and Implementation of new digital processes.
The company, which today can count on the experience, skills and passion of over 30 people, was founded in 1989 by four partners who are still leading the company today: their mission, well before the “Digital Transformation” paradigm became popular, was to support companies in the management of paper and electronic documents through printing systems, products and IT solutions. More generally, since its creation, ATF has focused on digital space management, aimed at optimizing production processes.
The four founding partners were joined in 1997 by Ivan Consorti, who now runs the ATF Technical Department, the company’s “engine room”, as he likes to call it. Thanks to experience gained in the field over the years, Ivan is now responsible for organizing and coordinating the service and relationships with business partners in the technical area to ensure support throughout the country.
The Challenge
Throughout the current pandemic, it has become even more urgent to consolidate or, in many cases, initiate digitalization processes, for companies of all sizes and in every sector. Typically, and especially right now, many businesses have decided to also use the cloud for print management, taking advantage of the flexibility, scalability, and cost benefits that this service can provide.
Despite the increase in remote working, the need for printing across business departments continues to grow. So-called “hybrid” work environments require effective and secure printing tools to ensure continuity and resource optimization while minimizing risk. In this context, the MPS Monitor 2.0 platform for cloud management and monitoring of printers and MFPs from all major manufacturers was chosen by ATF for the integrated management of its customers’ printing processes.
“The features allowing the customer to remotely monitor multi-vendor print environments and the holistic approach to security for the device fleet managed by MPS Monitor 2.0 convinced us immediately, also having considered several other platforms,” says Ivan Consorti, partner at ATF.
The Solution
The implementation of MPS Monitor 2.0 began in 2020, after an assessment carried out with MPS Monitor consultants led by Luca Tanganelli, Italy Sales Manager of MPS Monitor, which highlighted the priorities of ATF and its customers: from consumables management, to the automated reading of printing device counters, a fundamental operation for invoicing under cost-per-page contracts. Furthermore, the Business Intelligence and remote technical assistance features included in MPS Monitor 2.0 proved to be essential for the Dealer. Particularly in the current climate, these features allow customers to receive a timely and faultless service with a simultaneous cost reduction of between 20 and 30%.
The possibility of immediate integration with the management systems in use and the features for the management of the operational processes of the platform, together with the ease of use found in the initial tests, were considered strengths which favoured the choice of MPS Monitor 2.0.
“Being able to have a cloud-based tool in SaaS mode for monitoring and managing the printing of our 2,000 customers in multi-vendor environments allows us to leverage scalability and flexibility, both of which are now essential to respond to the new needs of businesses and the rapid continuous changes resulting from the global situation,” says Ivan Consorti. “Many of the companies we provide support to are now moving to a hybrid working model: this means a new way of printing from different locations, which require not only different monitoring and a different ability to respond, but also a different management of counters and expenses, which thanks to MPS Monitor 2.0 we can activate immediately.”
The new ways of working, which need to consider employees located in different locations, with remote access to company devices, also requires special attention to data: ATF immediately found the holistic approach to security of MPS Monitor 2.0 to be fundamental. The full regulatory compliance guaranteed by the platform thanks to ISO/IEC 27001:2014 certification and consequently compliance with the requirements of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of the acquired data, compliance with the EU GDPR Regulation 2016/679, and in particular the use of adequately protected cloud systems located in the European Union, were determining factors in convincing ATF.
The Results
The implementation of MPS Monitor 2.0 provided the first benefits immediately: optimization of the monitoring, maintenance and supply operations of the device fleet managed by ATF allowed the Dealer to provide customers with a faultless service, reducing management costs.
Thanks to real-time monitoring and alerts received on the operator panel of the MPS Monitor platform, ATF was able to immediately obtain indicators regarding volumes, consumption, average coverage, duration and frequency of consumable changes for the printers and MFPs managed. ATF was also able to proactively check the status of consumables for each customer, providing supplies only when needed, or in advance in order to avoid several shipments to the same end user.
The new level of service that ATF was able to provide its customers during such a complex period as the pandemic was immediately appreciated by those companies struggling with the logistical and operational reorganization that the new remote working model entailed.
“Because of its history and know-how, ATF has been chosen as a partner by companies from different types of business, located both in Italy and abroad. MPS Monitor 2.0, Italian to its core with native cloud technology and a global reach, is proving to be the ideal partner for us,” says Ivan Consorti.
Future developments
The high degree of customer satisfaction relating to implementation of MPS Monitor 2.0 heralds a lasting partnership aimed at supporting the new needs of ATF’s customers, who are reorganizing their work according to the new ‘hybrid working’ model.
Printing processes that traditionally took place in-house and the management of these processes must now be handled by Managed Print Services providers on behalf of their customers, increasingly using cloud-based services and meeting the higher security requirements needed for home printing processes. Last but not least, Managed Print Services providers such as ATF need to respond to their customers’ demands for increasingly sophisticated analytics.
“The commitment and investment that MPS Monitor is devoting to increasing the security level of its platform, agents and all device monitoring processes is confirmation that our processes – and more importantly our customers – are in good hands. We will certainly implement the new features that the company offers us in the future: from our direct experience we are now convinced that whenever MPS Monitor introduces new functions or technologies, the impact on our business is always tangible and beneficial,” Consorti concludes.
