Siemens Business Services (SBS)
How an inquiry about a simple converter turned into a complex output management project
The enquiry from ADOP Services of Siemens Business Services (SBS) in Fürth, concerning a converter, with which PCL documents could be transformed to AFP, is from Compart’s perspective not spectacular, nor is the resulting solution sufficiently interesting for a major case study in our magazine. However, in this case, it was just the prolog of a much more substantial project, which, given the allotted timescale, can certainly be described as being very ambitious.
The Starting Point of the Project
As the SBS technician, based on a tip, and looking for a converter from PCL to AFP, contacted Compart System Integration, he had a clear and well defined problem to solve: His supervisor, Robert Fleming, had begun a project in which customer’s PCL documents needed to be printed on a continuous forms printer. A solution for transforming the PCL datastreams into AFP had to be found.
This conversion step belongs to a project in which each month between 500,000 and 1.5 million pages of human resource data, provided by a SAP HR module, in PCL format at irregular intervals and in different file sizes has to be processed.
These documents have to be combined with additional documents sharing the same personal number. The additional documents come from other sources and furthermore are not available in PCL format. The mapping key is the personal number extracted from the document.
Depending on information contained in SAP control data, the documents have to be printed on a variety of output media. The majority of documents should be printed in AFP format on a Xerox IPDS roll-to-roll production printer using the 2-up method. Lists for internal use are also printed on Xerox production printers.
Finally, the printed documents are inserted into envelopes using high throughput Böwe machines. Since the total volume planned for is up to 400,000 items, it was clear from the start that these deliveriesneeded to have both postage optimization and DP postage.
Enveloped items are sent by post. With the Deutsche Post (German Post) for inland addresses, or an alternative postal service for non-domestic addresses or in specific cases via the customer’s in-house post office. A further requirement from SBS was the ability in the future to send these documents by e-mail, so as to significantly reduce document sending costs. At the moment 35,000 pilot users receive their documents as a PDF file attached to an e-mail, sent by a modern, fully automatic application.
To complete the story, it is worth mentioning that the additional steps of logging, messaging, indexing, sorting, and reprint up to and including automatic resend as part of the complete process also had to be implemented.
Prerequisites
Very quickly it became clear to the project team that the set of tasks listed in the requirements catalog could not be met by any product or suite available in the market, but rather a productive, flexible solution was what was needed. The decision was therefore made for a modular solution, which had to be an optimal fit with the following prescribed components:
- Xerox printer including all possible characteristics including cutsheet and continous forms printing as well as full color
- Böwe insertion systems
- OMS spooler from ProfiForms
- Various custom development from SBS
These components make up the cornerstone of the project. SBS ADOP Services specified Windows 2000 as the operating system. A search was made for product components to cover the process steps listed above and which would harmonize well with the prescribed components.
An Unexpectedly Enlarged Project
After the initial contact, the detailed requirements were discussed between SBS ADOP Services and the Compart subsidiary Compart System Integration. A comparison was made with the functional profile of the products offered by Compart in this segment. It took less than a month until the solution initially discussed (a PCL converter) was turned into a complex output management solution using Compart’s DocBridge Pilot and including the ABIS postage optimization product (for details see the section “The Solution Path with DocBridge Pilot”).
On the 19th of April 2005, SBS ADOP Services decided to use this product and have the integration done by Compart System Integration, in what turned out to be a project covering a much wider set of functions as can be seen by the implementation. The actual project began on the 10th of May 2005 with a workshop. In the second half of September, after only five months, and with the active support of everyone involved, the first production run took place.
In the meantime a total of close to 400,000 sensitive documents have been delivered, via various paths, safely to their addressee. After this forced march and under the influence of the first production run deadline, Robert Fleming admits: “Output management, as can clearly be seen by this project, is a complex and delicate subject. Such an ambitious project schedule is only attainable when everyone involved is totally committed and all pull together. The result is very persuasive and in the end has substantiated our decision to go ahead with the project.”
The Solution Path with DocBride Pilot
Input processing
Monthly print data stream processing is made up of several thousand PCL and PDF files of sizes between 1KByte and 500Mbytes and a total volume of 10 GBytes. DocBridge Pilot’s input processing module, due to its multiformat and analysis features, can read the datastreams and extract metadata. Many of the input spool files contain a file control line packaged as an unprintable HP GL comment. The information in this line determines further input processing:
- Lists are put into the database as complete documents
- For single items a readable command line in the page header of each page is evaluated and removed.
For every document, the control data together with other important processing meta information are stored by DocBridge Pilot in a relational database used by all modules of the product. Sections of the control data like for example the personal ID are required later for specific output channel processing. For documents to be sent later by e-mail, the address data is extracted from the employee letter, thereby making it available to personalize the e-mail correspondence.
A whole set of functions can be used to optimize dispatch with DocBridge Pilot based on this metadata. These can be adapted and extended from self-defining SQL commands, providing the required level of flexibility.
Process Control
Using the Bundling and Delivery Packaging Module of DocBridge Pilot, and considering the need for postage optimization at very high throughput, the documents are divided up into packages per output channel. Then they are made ready for mass production by being bundled for dispatch to a single department, respectively an individual, and in the order and package size required for the output channel: Inland post; in-house, specially printed labels, employee e-mail, e-mail to clerical staff, lists for internal distribution, etc. After all, more than 10 output channels need to be served, each one with a different design! When additional documents (e.g. attachments or activity reports) have to be fed, they are allocated to the correct main document. A single document to be dispatched as well as an address label must be available for each addressee, otherwise the documents are held back.
For letter dispatch with the Deutsche Post, DP postage is done with the help of the integrated ABIS solution. This system is certified by the Deutsche Post and provides the maximum rebate under the “limited performance” contract.
Output Processing
For the prepared data, the DocBridge Pilot Multi-Channel Module takes care of the processing for each channel:
The document pages for a dispatch contain a barcode from the OMR/Barcode Module in DocBridge Pilot to drive the Böwe insertion system. Other barcodes are created for C4 envelopes from 9 to 60 sheets than for C6 dispatches with 8 sheets. C6 dispatches are sorted from Z to A for downstream process. In addition to the control data for the insertion system, the barcode also needs to include the consignment ID and the output spool tracking number. The insertion system registers all incorrectly produced letters. The DocBridge Pilot Reprint Module supplies this information to the Consignment Tracking Module, which in turn creates a new post-print spool file for the relevant consignment. Using a barcode scanner, the consignment is removed from the tracking system by the staff once production has been successful. Large print files are converted by the DocBridge Pilot conversion module to a 2-up AFP job and printed by a continuous forms printer and inserted from its output roll. Smaller jobs can be printed as a single sheet job in AFP or PCL on the appropriate printer by staff using the DocBridge Pilot Web GUI.
The lists, like the consignment pages to be inserted, are mostly output in AFP, but on cut sheet printers. Per separation page, inserted into the datastream by the DocBridge Pilot print preparation module, the stack is put to the side, so that the staff can easily separate one batch from another for every change of dispatch address. In the event that the sheets are pushed together again, information on the edge of the page helps to separate the stack.
For dispatching per e-mail documents contained in a dispatch are converted to PDF as a single file using the DocBridge Pilot Multichannel Processing Module. In addition a text control file is generated for the e-mail and communication server TopCall. Next to subject, personal address, and the correspondence text, this control file includes the personal ID, which can be used to securely encode the e-mail to the communication server with PKI. Other key fields provide a DocBridge Pilot specific dispatch number. After successful dispatch, respectively after each error, the TopCall server returns a text file containing the corresponding dispatch status. The many thousand input files evaluated by the Reprint Module and passed on to DocBridge Pilot’s fully automatic dispatch tracking. Every two hours the scheduler integrated in DocBridge Pilot checks to see if any e-mails have been returned as not-dispatched. In this case the e-mail is automatically reproduced. After a configurable time, e-mails which have consistently failed are deferred to an error job. For each of these undeliverable e mails, the DocBridge Pilot Reprint Module generates a new print mailing, which is sent by normal post to the addressee.
These operations were configured in DocBridge Pilot XML profiles. Complex sub-workflows were automated using simple JavaScripts, as they are known from HTML programming.
Compart System Integration as Project Partner
The SBS project was implemented by Compart System Integration, a subsidiary of Compart Systemhaus GmbH. At its founding at the beginning of 2005 Compart System Integration assumed all the service functions of the main company, leaving Compart Systemhaus to concentrate exclusively on product development. As a sales and service organization, active only in Germany with offices at the same location as the main company, Compart System Integration sells and supports Compart products as well as undertaking large custom projects in which products from other suppliers are also integrated. This proximity to and close alignment with the developer – next to the intense efforts of all the staff involved – were certainly determining factors for the successful implementation of the project.
Siemens Business Services (SBS)
Siemens Business Services is a leading international IT services organization. This Siemens operation offers services from a single source covering the entire IT environment from consulting and system integration through to the management of IT infrastructure. With indepth know-how and knowledge of specific industries, the company creates measurable value for its customers. Siemens Business Services is one of the top 10 companies worldwide for outsourcing and IT maintenance. In the last financial year (September 3 0 2005) turnover was 5.4 Bn Euro – 75 percent of which was non-Siemens related. Currently the company employs approx. 39,000 people. More information is available at www.siemens.com/sbs