January 2012 – Integrated Highways Services Provider, FM Conway, is to transform the way it records, tracks and reports incidents and service events. The business has selected ICCM’s e-Service Desk to target reductions of up to 30 per cent in incidents.
Currently, processes are spread across a range of platforms, with some incidents requiring the completion of paper forms. e-Service Desk will automate all processes, which will allow FM Conway to better manage live calls and also provide a data source to help identify trends and root causes.
Mark Dyson, business analyst at FM Conway, explains, “Through our ongoing IT development programme we continuously seek to improve performance, efficiency and transparency. We had identified several areas where investment in technology could deliver these results.
“ICCM provided us with a solution that enables the business to automate and manage a wealth of event types; including complaints, property damage, accidents and personal Injury. We have also been able to establish a single electronic repository for information that can be accessed across the business.”
ICCM’s e-Service Desk will help FM Conway to meet key business growth objectives and ensure that the organisation’s reputation for excellent customer service is maintained.
Dyson says, “ICCM has introduced dynamic software to help improve the quality and timeliness of our service. In addition, we now have a single solution working across the organisation and all of its divisions which will reduce future costs and promote competitive advantage as we seek new business opportunities.”
James Gay, CEO at ICCM, says, “FM Conway has identified the importance of Service Management strategies and made a long-term investment in a platform that will enhance the way it manages incidents and service events. We look forward to seeing e-Service Desk add value to the business, creating new opportunities for it to grow.”
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In a move described as “drinking our own champagne”, Bytes Systems Integration has reduced service call logging times from 4.5 minutes to one minute, and expects to reduce call times by a further 25%.
This has emerged in an audit of the implementation, done in January 2012 by James Gay, CEO of ICCM Solutions. The ICCM eService Desk solution delivers 32 out-of-the-box service management processes, combined with best practices and practical experience, to provide the highest industry accreditations.
Jane Khaled, enterprise support services divisional manager at Bytes Systems Integration, part of Bytes Technology Group, wholly owned by JSE-listed Altron, is tasked with specific ownership of the internal implementation of service management. She says one of the major drives Bytes Systems Integration had in replacing its old helpdesk was to implement ITIL best practice.
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of best practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business.
Khaled says: “James was here for a very specific reason. We went live in March 2011, so we had a good 10 months’ of usage. We knew that we had done good things with the ICCM e-Service Desk solution, but we wanted an independent audit of how well we were actually doing. And we wanted a view of what we could do to improve even more.”
James Gay says: “Becoming ‘great’ comes from re-using the BPM processes that are intrinsic to the system and applying them across multiple departments within the business to gain a competitive edge. For peak performance, businesses re-use service management principles to leap to ‘extraordinary’ status, truly accelerating business transformation.”
He is adamant that companies do not buy technology: they buy outcomes. “So when it comes to auditing a technology solution for a service desk, you want to see consistency,” James Gay says.
“For instance, the system should force all agents to log a call in the same way. But it also has to be simple for agents to use and drive the process. As an example, my litmus test is if my mother logs a call in the call centre in a different way to your agents, it’s too complicated and you’ve got it wrong.
“The next outcome we hope for is that, if everything is being logged in your organisation, you can see the whole picture and see what needs changing,” James Gay continues.
Khaled describes the audit as “very enlightening and worthwhile as it pointed out a couple of areas where we can gain even more efficiency.
“It has given us the confidence to take our next steps towards becoming great. We have big plans, and are rolling out the contracts process in ICCM. It will not only be great for our business, but is also something our own customers have a burning need for because it automates governance to a large extent. Contracts management is an integral part of ITIL, so it is the logical next step for us.”
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Case Study – Micro Focus:
What faced Martin Baker, IT Director at Micro Focus, and his Board was not the merits of applying ITIL® (IT Infrastructure Library), but the strategic choice of either aligning its internal IT Support application to ITIL or replacing it completely with a Commercial Off the Shelf Solution (COTS) – in order to mitigate risk at a critical growth stage.
Micro Focus, a FTSE 250 company provides application, testing and management software and arrived at a juncture where it had doubled in size as a result of the company acquiring Borland and a division of Compuware.
As a result of the acquisition strategy the company increased significantly the number of employees it supported overnight as well as adding an additional 46 new geographical office locations to its remit, a challenge for any IT organisation.
Baker reflects on the decision this presented the company at the time; “We had a comprehensive internal IT support environment entitled RITA or ‘Request IT Assistance’ but this wasn’t ITIL aligned and with one eye on the horizon we knew we had to start to implement plans to apply best practice standards in what we did.
“Our acquisition programme was quickly being realised and we had to make the decision to either expand RITA to become ITIL aligned or look for a COTS Solution to fulfil this requirement. There were pro and con arguments for both routes, but ultimately we had to make a realistic decision about how much internal resource we would be able to commit to such a change to RITA, especially in times of great flux. We chose off the shelf and became ITIL aligned.
“With the decision made to review the market and implement ITIL, a globally recognised standard, we benefited in being able to recruit the best applicants against this standard, which in turn will help us in our organisational wide Service Management implementation.”
Soon after, Micro Focus quickly appointed Sarah Hutt to Head its IT Support Services division and take responsibility for the ITIL project. The challenges faced by Hutt were not unique, but her approach was.
As a highly regarded IT Service Management Specialist her appointment to Micro Focus was a shrewd move which has seen the organisation implement not just a new IT Service Management Solution, but one that has the capabilities of improving organisational efficiencies across multiple departments such as Facilities, Finance and Marketing… and benefits within the IT Service Management area are being realised only four months after go-live.
Hutt takes up the story from Baker; “As an international organisation we have a ‘Follow the Sun’ 24×7 internal support service approach, supported by a team of 14 based in the UK, Europe, US & Asia. One thing I noticed early on into my appointment was that although there were many processes and procedures in place they didn’t comply with our newly instigated vision of becoming ITIL aligned.
“As Martin has already explained, we were faced with up-grading our existing system or purchasing a solution already aligned to best practice. In some ways I was lucky in the fact we were in effect a greenfield site in this regard. On the flip side this meant there were no universal standards for ITIL and few people were working toward a best practice standard.
“So the first objective in my new role was to source a Service Management application which would assist me in the implementation of ITIL best practise processes. This had ramifications as RITA, the in-house system, also supported other departments, so we were faced with how we continue to provide the other departments with a ticketing application. Did we continue to support the in-house system for this purpose? Or do we bring them with us on our ITIL journey? We chose the latter, and brought them with us.”
An extensive four month review period for a COTS solution commenced looking at product scope, flexibility, functionality and reputation of the provider in the ITSM marketplace. In total fifteen options were identified from emerging SaaS models through to Business Process Management (BPM) ITSM Solutions.
Therefore the selection criteria focused on the eventual solutions flexibility, ITIL alignment, Total Cost of Ownership, Cross Departmental Integration, from work flow visibility from incoming call/notices, incident and call resolution rates through to trend analysis. Micro Focus selected ICCM Solutions, a flexible turnkey technology underpinned by BPM architecture from Metastorm®.
Hutt gives her analysis on the selection of a BPM Service Management Solution; “The Service Management strategy that Micro Focus is implementing needed to be built on a system that would provide us the greatest flexibility, it needed to be innovative and allow us to create clear efficiency gains within the business.
“From our initial review of the BPM Service Management platform from ICCM it was clearly a functionally rich out of the box ITIL aligned product. We could clearly see applications for the solution that could be applied beyond just the IT Service Desk and would quickly get us on an ITIL path from what was a standing start. And we didn’t have to re-invent the wheel.
“One of the biggest advantages for me is it’s easily configurable and can be applied across multiple departments due to the nature of its BPM architecture. It is a flexible and process rich solution with a variety of ‘standard’ out of the box ITIL processes. Coupled with a very polished look and feel, I knew instantly it would get us quickly on our ITIL journey. Our only constraint would be the customisation of the system to work within the parameters of our business.
“Within the first 12 months we have already implemented Incident, Problem and Change Management. And over the next 12 to 18 months we are implementing a Service Catalogue function, Configuration Management, Event Management and Release Management into our IT Support environment.”
Future:
Hutt concludes by discussing the future vision of ICCM’s BPM Service Management Solution within Micro Focus; “As I’ve mentioned we’ve only been live with this system for a relatively short period of time. And already I’ve had discussions with department heads, such as facilities, which are looking to expand the system into other parts of the business as they can and are seeing value on what it can do.
“New departments which were not involved in RITA are looking to become part of the new project as well, such as the legal team. Obviously here their requirements scope is very unique from most other departments of the business as they are handling confidential data relating to the business and our client base.”
Future Departmental Examples of Best Practice Include:
- Finance: From an internal sales perspective tickets are raised between sales and finance order entry, relating to customer queries regarding renewal notices, serial number requests etc. These elements need to be raised and passed onto finance to ensure invoicing can be adjusted accordingly
- Facilities: With multiple sites and locations, assets need to be maintained to a high standard. Therefore the reporting of issues and requirements such as requests for office moves, damage to facility infrastructure such as faulty lighting or the request for additional furniture can be handled through ICCM. This increases the visibility of the asset infrastructure managed by the facilities team, in turn giving an accurate view of the quality of the estate improving the asset longevity
- Marketing: From a marketing perspective this department will be using the reporting capabilities in handling website queries i.e. an individual employee may report a broken hyperlink or request a copy change to the website. This ensures the issue is reported to the team and corrective action taken allowing for a proactive rather than reactive marketing strategy
Hutt adds, “But the really interesting and innovative applications come from other parts of the business. For example whilst starting to look at integrating into Facilities and Finance for individual departments we will be investigating the ability to automate processes that go across departments rather than just vertically into them. The first initiative we’re potentially looking at is mapping how HR requests impact across multiple departments.
“When a recruitment request comes into the HR department, is approved and a job offer granted and accepted we will be able to create an automated trigger into Finance, IT and Facilities. Once these are completed, and in place, triggers will go back to HR for sign off.”
Innovative organisations and evangelists, such as Hutt and Baker, within these companies see the benefits of a BPM Service Management solution linked to an ITIL aligned strategy. They see how Service Management strategies can and will help the whole organisation achieve improvements in efficiencies. These programmes will help the bottom line of the organisation and are convincing the Board, Business Managers and Stakeholders the importance of an IT Service Management Strategy based on Business Process Management in a bid to attain a Service Management programme.
- END -
About Micro Focus:
Micro Focus, a member of the FTSE 250, provides innovative software that allows companies to dramatically improve the business value of their enterprise applications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application Modernization, Testing and Management software enables customers’ business applications to respond rapidly to market changes and embrace modern architectures with reduced cost and risk.
For additional information visit www.microfocus.com
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ICCM Solutions has today announced it is to strengthen its foothold in the African market through the opening of an office in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the appointment of a regional head to drive forward the company’s vigorous growth plans.
Brad Fraser has joined ICCM as Director of Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, and brings extensive experience of initiating and expanding IT ventures into Africa: particularly in Mauritius, Mozambique, Kenya, Zambia, Botswana and Tanzania.
It was while Fraser was Financial Director at Bytes Systems Integration that he first came into contact with ICCM. There he spearheaded a project for Bytes to work with ICCM to deploy a progressive IT service management strategy.
Fraser comments, “Having already worked with ICCM through a customer perspective, I am only too aware of the value-add that ICCM’s e-Service Desk provides through streamlining process and technology, resulting in close alignment to business needs and significantly reducing deployment time.
“My move to ICCM reflects the opportunity I believe the solution brings to the African market, through the provision of revolutionary software and superior services to organisations aspiring to achieve Best Practice Service Management. ICCM’s scalable e-Service Desk with an enterprise Business Process Management (BPM) platform enables service management capabilities across all industries and business functions. The ITIL standards ensure that businesses don’t have to reinvent the wheel when implementing the solution.
“With 15 years of experience in the IT industry and a strong business process focus, I understand that this is a service management methodology purchase – it’s not about the technology.”
James Gay, CEO of ICCM Solutions says, “ICCM already has an established presence in South Africa though our work with organisations including Bytes and law firm Webber Wenztel. This market presents a key growth opportunity for ICCM and the strategic appointment of Brad will be pivotal in realising this growth. Brad not only has extensive experience and knowledge of the IT industry, but he is also very familiar with the nuances and understands the intricacies of doing business within different African markets. The appointment, along with the establishment of an ICCM African office, will help strengthen the business’ already proven track record in South Africa, Botswana and the UK.”
- ENDS -
About ICCM Solutions
One of the overriding directives of ICCM Solutions is the simplification of complexity in Service Management environments. Founded in 1998 ICCM provides a global client base with sophisticated ITIL aligned Service Management Solutions built on Business Process Management (BPM) Architecture, from Metastorm BPM®.
The BPM platform provides ICCM clients the opportunities to implement and deliver successful technology strategies to ensure the collaboration between the business and IT – ultimately reaping the rewards of business innovation and competitive advantage.
ICCM’s software allows organisations to support and drive best practice, via a turnkey technology, and is available as a ‘Commercial off the Shelf’ Solution.
ICCM Solutions was named a Gartner ‘Cool’ Vendor in 2010. For further information visit www.iccm.co.uk
For further information contact:
Brad Fraser – Director, Africa and Indian Ocean Islands
ICCM Solutions
Block E, Somerset Office Estate, Kudu Street, Roodepoort, Gauteng, South Africa
Cell +27 (0) 82 321 3690
Tel + 27 (11) 021 5079
For further information contact:
Ascent PR
T. +44 (0)1454 629 741
iccm@ascentpr.co.uk
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International Survey by ICCM Solutions shows IT Professionals do not Recognise the Service Desk as a Profit Centre
IT professionals are failing to recognise the opportunity for service desks to be profitable, according to an international survey conducted by ICCM Solutions across Europe and North America.
Only 25 per cent of respondents questioned at Europe’s largest Service Management exhibition, Service Desk and IT Support Show 2011 , said they believed the service desk has the ability to generate revenue opportunities and become a profit centre. Whist in direct comparison with North America, when asked the same question, 43 per cent of respondents at the HDI Conference and EXPO 2011 in Las Vegas answered that it does.
James Gay, CEO at ICCM Solutions, comments, “It is disappointing to see that the service desk is not being recognised as a potential revenue-generating unit within a European context. Especially as ITIL was born out of what was essentially a European framework. The IT industry is a highly skilled arena, but to demonstrate its value as more than just a cost-centre, IT professionals must find their entrepreneurial spirit and exploit the potential of service management strategies to open new revenue streams and instigate progress service management programmes that utilise current displacement technologies.
“This is particularly important in the UK and Europe if, as the survey and our own experience indicates, the IT industry in other regions such as North America is already realising the importance of moving Service Management into the revenue generating spectrum.”
US-based Miller-Valentine Group is a prime example of how organisations are demonstrating a return on investment through foresight in its application of its service desk.
James Gay explains, “ICCM Solutions has been working with Miller-Valentine to provide an advanced IT Service Management Solution based on Business Process Management Architecture. The company is a clear IT visionary and represents an emerging trend of moving beyond the status quo of traditional IT Service Management Solutions by linking business processes to Service Desk delivery for IT asset management.”
Michael Gutman, Vice President of Information Technology & Information Services, says, “As an IT leader it has been historically very difficult for me to give the business an accurate view of IT spend and relating this to the running of the IT infrastructure. In order for us to do this we’ve had to radically change our service offering to the business by moving from a traditional IT funding model, of head count budget allocation, to a paid for service delivery model from each of the business units we support.
“Our IT department is now funded by the services we offer rather than a budget we’re allocated annually. This forces hidden IT support costs within the business unit to become visible to the whole organisation. The subscription-based charge back system allows business unit leaders to identify cost-saving opportunities and to provide cost justification on any new IT outlay.”
————————————————————————————————
1) The Service Desk and IT Support Show was held on 19 – 20 April 2011 at Earls Court
2) The HDI Conference and Expo was held on 27 – 30 March 2011 at The Palazzo at The Venetian, Las Vegas
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Measuring ROI Needs to Come Out of the Silo:
The identification of ROI programs within ITSM projects is proving difficult for IT Service Management professionals to quantify; according to a new research report published by www.sm-roi.com – the International body representing ITSM peers in the pursuit of identifying and promoting ROI best practice in ITSM.
“An IT Service Management ROI Findings Summary – Research Paper”
Findings:
SM-ROI.com has identified four major obstacles as to why IT professionals are failing to accurately represent ROI in ITSM projects. Access to the report and its findings can be downloaded here:
“An IT Service Management ROI Findings Summary – Research Paper”
- IT people do not understand how to present financial information to the business
- IT people ‘expect’ others to read & interpret what they represent – rather than present it in a consumable format
- IT fail to ask for help outside of their immediate sphere of responsibility
- IT people typically justify recommendations versus substantiate business objectives
Consolidation of International Primary Research
This paper is the consolidation of international primary research with in-depth surveys completed by over one hundred ITSM professionals giving insight into why the industry is failing their businesses by not identifying and implementing ROI Strategies.
Practitioner ROI Experiences
ITSM peers wishing to have full access to the supporting practitioner ROI experiences can do so by becoming a member of www.sm-roi.com
About SM-ROI.com
SM-ROI’s intention is to create visibility of the benefits of implementing a Progressive Service Management strategy for ROI purposes. Its aim is to help peers achieve ROI savings.
SM-ROI is a free portal and resource contributed to by its members; vendor neutral and is the leading international authority in the area of ROI for Service Management.
Join today by visiting www.sm-roi.com or download the strategy report.
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The Guardian.co.uk
How British Transport Police has made significant efficiency savings through the exploiting the potential of its service desk technology. Before British Transport Police (BTP) implemented its service desk system the organisation had no clear way of viewing staff performance.
It had a legacy system which chief technology officer Cliff Cunningham describes as a “very basic Access database”, which struggled to deal with the information on 5,000 employees and more than 2,000 service desk calls each month. It was impossible to assess how much time staff were spending on specific incidents, or drill down to details to discover why some employees were taking longer than others in their responses.
Cliff Cunningham, the organisation’s chief technology officer, says this has changed since the implementation of a service desk system with business process management technology in 2006.
The decision to move to a newer system was part of a major refresh at the body. BTP gets its capital from the Department for Transport, and was given “a sum of money” to carry out a refresh of all of its desktops and servers.
“It gave us a fresh impetus as an organisation and obviously getting that new kit and having that sum of money meant that the estate grew, so there is a bigger requirement to manage it more effectively,” he says.
“In terms of the (IT) department, obviously it has enabled us to improve our efficiency and service,” he says. “And also, the way we have tailored the system, I can now tell how much time people are spending on incidents.”
He says this has been particularly important: “If two people are dealing with the same sort of incident why is one taking a lot longer than the other? It gives you the information you need to delve a bit deeper and understand whether there are training issues, whether the incident is not being recorded properly, or if the person spending too much time on other bits.”
As well as using the system, which was provided by ICCM Solutions, to examine staff performance, BTP has used it to improve communications between its 145 sites. Being able to change the workflow of the new system to suit the specific requirements at the organisation has helped this process, explains Cunningham.
It has also been used to identify the potential for savings by reducing the travelling time between locations and through the virtualisation of desktops and the IT facilities of remote offices.
“It’s trying to do more with less and that’s one of the reasons we’ve gone down the virtualisation route,” he says. “We can’t afford to keep our physical servers. I will not buy a physical server unless it can be justified. Everything we do, we’re looking at how to make it more cost-effective.”
Cunningham says that although it is difficult to quantify exactly how much has been saved, he has no doubt that it has made the force more effective and efficient, and that this is particularly important in the current financial climate for the public sector.
BTP has also used the technology to automate a large chunk of its services including requests for CCTV footage, for which a frontline police officer was previously needed to make the request, own it and then present information as part of a criminal case. This is now done through an automated BPM tracking process owned by an administrative staff member.
The organisation is also working on a project to develop electronic timesheets, as part of a plan to spread the BPM platform to as many different parts of the organisation as possible. “There are a number of manual processes we have that are very paper bound and are inefficient,” Cunningham says. “Whereas if I could automate them and build in all the auditing functions, and the checking, and the authorities, then obviously it is a big gain for us in terms of productivity.”
He admits that despite the success of the tool, it has taken staff at the organisation a bit of time to adapt, but insists that it was worth the effort.
“It’s a slow process, but once you get to a number of successes it sort of picks up its own momentum,” he says. “The trick is to get them to understand what they want, then we can look at what the best solution is.”
The Guardian.co.uk
guardian.co.uk/government-computing
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As modern enterprises grow, so does the complexity of their IT systems in supporting their business activities; something which was recognised by South Africa’s leading systems integrator, Bytes Systems Integration. As a direct result of needing to streamline and improve its customer support operations, and recognising the business’ need to create value added services to its product portfolio, Bytes embarked on the deployment of a progressive IT service management strategy with ICCM Solutions.
What is fascinating about Bytes’ strategic service improvement programme is that it is being pioneered by the Financial Director, Brad Fraser.
Fraser identified a number of new business opportunities within the Bytes Group as well as undertaking a technology review of the service management processes, behaviours and working practices.
Bytes had become aware of its own requirements to rationalise its client support systems. Each business unit had its own way of operating, applications and software, which needed to be incorporated into the combined Bytes infrastructure and supported in a centralised model. This segmented approach had arisen as a direct result of the organisation’s growth strategy through company acquisitions, resulting in a complex IT infrastructure and client support matrix.
Through ICCM’s e-Service Desk, Bytes established a progressive service management strategy. In addition, Bytes also initiated a technology strategy that has helped the company differentiate itself from competitors by creating new services for its product portfolio. As a result, the solution has enabled Bytes to generate new revenue opportunities.
Fraser, an experienced executive, is responsible for the financial direction of the business as well as the operational support systems. This ensures there is a continued focus on value, efficiency and vision, something which Fraser believes he has seen in this project.
He says, “Obviously having an ITIL aligned service desk that operates smoothly is our immediate priority, but we see ICCM’s e-Service Desk being utilised across a number of different business units, effectively streamlining far more processes than we had originally anticipated. Our service management strategy has taken on a new direction which we are delighted to drive forward, particularly as it will help generate new revenue opportunities for the company.
“We have been able to distinguish between ‘incident management’ supported by SLA’s and ‘change requests’, which require additional effort and scoping. This has enabled Bytes to generate revenue from the change requests that were previously dealt with under ‘problem management’. Other revenue opportunities are developing by offering e-Service Desk as a ‘Managed Service’ to existing clients who do not wish to establish their own Service Desks.”
Bringing Together Offerings
The company needed a solution that encompassed and integrated the business intelligence that had gathered. The largest problem was ensuring the management of the clients’ IT infrastructure was correct. Many different business managers needed to be able to use the technology, all with different skills, service sets, needs and priorities.
Fraser explains, “We needed to revolutionise the way our business operated. A number of strategic acquisitions in South Africa led to a range of different systems that had been inherited and utilised without a common approach. In order to maintain a smooth running of the client support systems, it was necessary to overhaul the service strategy, design and continual service improvement processes – and not just to cope with the current requirements, but to future proof.”
During the technology selection, each manager was asked for input into the process and base their decision on the results that could be generated from each solution – not just the technology. Bytes needed a solution that would not only satisfy requirements on a tactical level, but actually solve problems they were thinking about. Nine out of the ten managers voted to implement the ICCM e-Service Desk solution.
Hidden Gems
At the outset Bytes’ key driver in this service improvement project was the standardisation of its many service desks. In reality ICCM’s offering gave much more than this. Bytes soon realised the e-Service Desk solution offered a return on investment far beyond its original remit.
The solution has enabled Bytes to implement value added services and differentiate itself from key competitors in seven key ways:
• total transparency of service;
• bespoke client support;
• proactive support and disaster avoidance;
• business continuity;
• bespoke SLA agreement levels;
• consolidated view of data and third party information; and
• the use of a portal to up-sell products and services.
By using the solution to its full advantage the company is offering improvements in its service and product portfolios and creating new business opportunities. As a result Bytes will be turning the client support function into a revenue-generating unit, rather than just cost-centre.
This has been achieved by allowing recognition of non-billable calls to billable calls. Anecdotally, the team has found that for larger customers, requests would be generated through the service desk. Previously, requests were undertaken without question because the particular customer was important. The priority for the service team was to keep the customer rather than ensuring the request was justified and could be completed within the service level agreement. Now, each request is logged and, by implementing this process, the revenue opportunities have been identified.
The entrepreneurial spirit of the organisation has also shown through during the process of moving from a cost centre to a profit centre – the business managers are now identifying new opportunities to generate additional revenue streams from the business intelligence obtained through ICCM.
A Return On Investment
Whilst Bytes has seen a return on investment beyond its initial expectations, the hidden gems of the e-Service Desk solution are central to Bytes’ key consideration during its purchasing decision: value.
Fraser says, “ICCM is a beautiful fit; we can literally change almost any parameter and it adapts accordingly, due to the operational platform based on Business Process Management. And it’s not just about delivering service management process deployment, it enables us to demonstrate clear operational business value, efficiency and return on investment. Without a doubt, this is the most effective solution I have ever worked with.”
“Many companies make claims in the market about their solutions but ICCM has propelled our service management, a core business process management function that delivers full business technology integration in line with our requirements and objectives. We’ve benefited enormously across every single business unit.”
Tags: BPM, Continual Improvement, e-Service Desk, ITIL, ITSM, ITSM ITIL BPM Event, itSMF, Service Management
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Public Servants Delivering Better Public Services – Applying Originality in IT Strategic Delivery
In these times of financial austerity public servants must apply originality in how they deliver public services to meet the challenges they face. Yet, it is also wrong to assume the public sector has not been prudent with the public purse over the past decade either.
Initiatives such as Gershon and CIPFA have subjected the public sector to greater accountability, focusing them on providing sound financial management and good governance by releasing resources to front line services. In some instances this has already resulted in raising productivity, accountability and giving value for money to the public through efficiency savings.
That said the public sector now faces different and tough spending choices, as Mervyn King, the Governor of The Bank of England, warned ‘The UK faces a sober decade ahead’. Previous spending and efficiency drives must now start to mature and come to fruition. Information Technology was a key deliverable in these efficiency choices and, arguably, will now assist those decisions makers in making the hard-hitting choices they once again face. But what is important is that choices made must be the right ones, in the right areas, in the right order and the public sector must continue to deliver high quality and cost effective public services.
As the national police force for the railways, British Transport Police is not immune from the looming spending cuts. One of the challenges Cliff Cunningham, Chief Technology Officer at The British Transport Police, has faced is how to ensure strategic investment decisions in IT infrastructure will deliver optimum efficiencies in this new austere climate.
Today the Force is reaping the rewards of shrewd technology investment having replaced its legacy IT Service Desk with a Business Processes Management (BPM) ITIL Service Management technology, provided by ICCM Solutions, in 2006.
They made a clear and long term strategic technology commitment to introduce a Service Management BPM tool which they identified as having applications beyond its use within a pure Service Management environment, such as considering inventive applications ranging from improving personnel productivity processes for timesheet management and expenses, through to any manual form where a workflow is associated with it.
Cunningham comments “Firstly, from a performance management and training perspective, I’ve been able to understand the discrepancies of why one individual can close and resolve a call in 20 minutes versus another individual, who may take up to an hour for a similar incident. By identifying these performance trends I can allocate training resources in the most productive manner to remove this type of identified bottleneck.
“Secondly, and more importantly, through the virtualisation of my remote offices and desktops I can identify significant cost and efficiency savings by reducing the amount of unproductive travelling time between locations. This will improve my staff productivity overnight and increase my ability to support the business.
“There is no such thing as a one size fits all” states Cunningham when examining the cultural challenges of implementing a Service Management Solution. “When we were looking at an ITSM strategy we knew we had to be conscious of, and conform to a highly structured, ranked based organisation. The task ahead of us was to get senior management buy-in and to share with them our vision of what a Service Management strategy would deliver to the Force. We knew we had to demonstrate clear results that could be felt beyond the IT team and into the business.”
British Transport Police handle in excess of 2,000 Service Desk calls per month, supporting 7 geographical regions, 145 individual sites and 5,000 employees via its central IT base in North London. One of the ways ICCM’s e-Service Desk has helped to improve efficiency, productivity and communication is through enhancing cooperation and collaboration across locations. British Transport Police were previously using an Access database as a method of managing their Service Desk and the new IT Service Management tool allows them to edit a process module and change the workflow of the system to suit the Forces unique requirements.
Cunningham goes on to explain, “We tackled our uniqueness head on and undertook an ‘adopt and adapt’ approach, only achievable due to the flexibility of the business process nature of the ICCM Service Management software. This allowed us to learn, modify and model as we educated ourselves and the rest of the organisation. We took the initial decision to implement a relatively straight forward business process project that would have high impact results on the business as our first project. Once we were successful at this, we added more complex activities that addressed our pain points and took ‘head on’ the complexity of Incident Service Management.”
Other improvements the Force has witnessed include personnel ‘Case Management’ records within HR, CCTV officer request for footage retrieval, management and delivery, through to compliance with legislation relating to data stored on criminal records called ‘Review, Retain or Delete’.
These applications have produced cost and efficiency savings by streamlining these business processes within the Force. For example in the request for CCTV footage, an expensive and highly skilled front line police resource was once required to request footage, process the request, own it, present the information as part of a criminal case, and prepare images for court use and return them. This process can now be administered, via a BPM tracking process provided by ICCM Solutions, via an automated method owned by a less expensive back office administration staff member – releasing the frontline officer, who still retains full control and management of the CCTV request process.
Cunningham goes on to assert, “While we’ve yet to achieve everything we set out to establish since we set ourselves on an ITIL Service Management course, we’ve still achieved a great deal. An organisation like ours is an ‘oil tanker’ and does not turn very fast, therefore it’s critically important to educate and bring people with us.
“So our approach of adopt and adapt suits us extremely well. We’ve made significant inroads in changing our Service Management culture and introduced a number of corporate initiatives such as an IT asset class service level agreement strategy, built a knowledge base repository and provided a Configuration Management Database to the organisation.
“Ironically an interesting challenge I face as an IT manager is not that we’re limited by the technology we use, but often constrained by the delays in establishing an agreed business process first”.
Cunningham concludes, “Every organisation has its own political challenges and these have to be understood by both IT and the business. People in my situation have to really understand this. By investing in an ITSM model based on a BPM architecture you really have to believe that what you’re doing is right for your organisation, and have the ability to see the bigger picture if you want to reap the rewards.
“It’s an iterative process so the team, and by that I do mean IT and the business, must identify the joint issues together, understand how to overcome these, and plan what we jointly know to be right. It’s simple, we need to see, think, do and improve – everything a Service Management solution is about.”
-ends-
About The British Transport Police:
British Transport Police is the specialist, national police service for Britain’s railways. BTP deals with major and minor crime, disorder and incidents, and covers the rail system in England, Wales and Scotland, including London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, the Glasgow Subway and the Midland Metro and Croydon Tramlink systems. Its 2,914 police officers, 322 Police Community Support Officers, 190 Special Constables and 1,316 support staff are recruited and trained like those of local forces and have the same powers.
www.btp.police.uk
About ICCM Solutions
One of the overriding directives of ICCM Solutions is the simplification of complexity in Service Management environments. Founded in 1998 ICCM provides a global client base with sophisticated ITIL aligned Service Management Solutions built on Business Process Management (BPM) Architecture, from Metastorm BPM®.
The BPM platform provides ICCM clients the opportunities to implement and deliver successful technology strategies to ensure the collaboration between the business and IT – ultimately reaping the rewards of business innovation and competitive advantage.
ICCM’s software allows organisations to support and drive best practice, via a turnkey technology, and is available as a ‘Commercial off the Shelf’ Solution.
ICCM Solutions was named a Gartner ‘Cool’ Vendor in 2010.
www.iccm.co.uk
Contact US:
International Head Office:
ICCM Solutions
Cedar House
Riverside Business Village
Swindon Road
Malmesbury
Wiltshire
United Kingdom
SN16 9RS
Tel: +44 (0)1666 828 600
e-mail: info@iccm.co.uk
North American Head Office:
ICCM Solutions
7577 Central Parke Blvd
Suite 111
Mason
Ohio 45040
Tel: (800) 651-7408
Police Cuts: The Facts (source BBC 26th October 2010)
- 20% cut in Home Office funding
- But more money expected to be raised as part of council tax “policing precept”
- So cuts for some forces may be as low as 14%
- No official figures published on job losses
- Police Federation claimed 40,000 jobs would go if cut was 25%
- HMIC said 12% cut achievable – but anything more would affect frontline
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11621642
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Strategy Report: Seven Strategies in Delivering Market Distinction & Profitability
Progressive MSP’s and Outsourced Providers are utilising disruptive IT Service Management BPM technology to significantly improve their organisations ability to develop clear and distinctive value added services to their product portfolios, whilst at the same time driving efficiency programmes within their organisations. These strategies are culminating in clear market differentiation between vendors and an improvement in their profitability. How are they doing this? They are implementing seven simple strategies underpinned by IT Service Management based on Business Process Management (BPM):
1. Total Transparency of Service – One-Stop-Portal Exposure
2. SLA Adherence & Contractual Visibility
3. Proactive Support & Disaster Avoidance
4. Business Continuity Programmes
5. Bespoke SLA Agreement Levels
6. Consolidated View of Data & Third Party Information
7. Bespoke Client Support Processes
Download a copy of the report today: http://www.iccm.co.uk/whitepaper5.aspx?ett=WHITEPAPER5
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