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A Better Life, A Better World

Bringing clarity to Panasonic’s IT equipment



Panasonic is a global leader in the development of systems and solutions for consumer electronics, the home, the automotive industry, and the B2B sector. The group’s IT infrastructure is managed by Panasonic Information Systems Company Europe (PISCEU), a division of Panasonic Business Support Europe GmbH. As a long-standing customer, the European division values the high quality of CHG-MERIDIAN’s services and the ready availability of information about leased assets and contractual terms.

In line with its motto ‘A Better Life, A Better World’, Panasonic’s mission is to exceed its customers’ expectations by providing solutions that are fit for the future. Given the high standards that Panasonic sets for its own products, it comes as no surprise that it has equally high expectations of its infrastructure, which plays an essential role in the company’s business. Installing and maintaining this groupwide IT network in Europe is the task of Panasonic Information Systems Company Europe (PISCEU). The IT service provider employs more than 160 people at its headquarters in Hamburg and at other locations such as Munich, Langen, Neumünster, Warsaw, Bracknell, and Milan.  

PISCEU supports customers across Panasonic’s business units and provides the right processes and technologies that enable employees in Panasonic’s European companies to meet their business objectives. The service portfolio comprises infrastructure and security services, applications, and digital and online solutions.

PISCEU has been a CHG-MERIDIAN customer for many years and leases complete workplace solutions, currently covering more than 8,100 assets in total. These include laptops (around 40 percent), monitors (20 percent), and smartphones (almost 30 percent), alongside servers and large printers. PISCEU has also opted for the eraSURE data erasure process, with CHG-MERIDIAN managing the entire end-of-life process for the IT assets at its Technology and Service Center in Gross-Gerau. When an asset has reached the end of its economic life, the center erases its data in accordance with the highest security standards. The assets are then professionally refurbished and resold on the secondary market, in line with the principles of sustainable lifecycle management. 

Maximum transparency

Panasonic particularly values the high level of transparency that CHG-MERIDIAN provides. Regular review meetings are held to determine how equipment should be returned at the end of the lease, or to discuss what type of damage frequently occurs and how it can be prevented, for example by attaching films to defective monitors. The Panasonic team particularly benefits from TESMA®, which brings together commercial and technical data to offer the company a comprehensive overview throughout the technology lifecycle, from advice and rollout to device collection and certified data erasure. The platform provides decision-makers from a range of departments with information regarding their technology landscape and individual assets. For example, TESMA® provides information regarding device configurations and locations, and available budget. In day-to-day operation the software’s financial control reports make budget, consumption, and capacity planning easier. At the end-of-life stage, it provides Panasonic with information about the asset status, period of use, planned removal and completion of removal. The full data erasure process for the IT assets is also displayed here. 

“CHG-MERIDIAN is much more to us than just a leasing partner. We very much appreciate the company’s flexibility when requirements change during the lease term, for example, or when terms have to be adjusted. We also appreciate the fact that they manage all the logistics involved in returning the equipment at the end of its term. This feels like a truly service-oriented partnership”, says Ulf Kütemeyer, Senior Contracting & Procurement Manager at PISCEU. 

The ability to scale the IT solution internationally is important to Panasonic. CHG-MERIDIAN supports the company’s locations across Europe, for example in Poland, the UK, and Italy, where employees are able to automate their processes via the TESMA® platform too. Panasonic’s European IT plan requires the ability to order and procure IT equipment centrally, to distribute it internally, and to allocate costs to local subsidiaries. It was easy for CHG-MERIDIAN to adapt its own processes to those of the customer and to develop bespoke solutions in individual cases.

Support and dialog

André Lang, Key Account Manager at CHG-MERIDIAN AG.

CHG-MERIDIAN has maintained close contact with Panasonic and PISCEU since the partnership was agreed in 2014. The two companies’ teams joined forces to produce a process handbook as the basis for the partnership. “We engage in regular dialog with Panasonic to ensure that we know their requirements and wishes. We can then proactively approach Panasonic with custom solutions, which they appreciate very much,” says André Lang, Key Account Manager at CHG-MERIDIAN AG.

The single point of contact makes it easy to manage all of the IT equipment, while the price-per-device approach for the entire IT infrastructure provides a reliable basis for planning and simplifies cost control. It is also important to Panasonic that contracts are flexible so that the latest developments – be they in IT or in the financial markets – can be taken into account.

“CHG-MERIDIAN gives us truly comprehensive support throughout the technology lifecycle, from advice and procurement to end-of-lease and data erasure. This has enabled us to noticeably increase our productivity and profitability. For us, the collaboration is an excellent and close partnership.”
Ulf Kütemeyer, Senior Manager Contracting & Procurement bei PISCEU.