TVNZ: Greater efficiencies with Ionix Service Manager and Delta Software



AT A GLANCE:

Business Objectives

- Create a centralised Configuration Management Database (CMDB) - Streamlined method for customers to log calls and service requests - Implement a tool that followed ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) best practices - Implement a viable and easy-to-use workflow engine

Solution

- EMC Ionix Service Manager (formerly InfraEnterprise 8.0)

Business Benefits

- Reduced service management headcount by 15% with no impact on customer service - Enhanced reporting capabilities and automated CMDB population - Improved workflow operations and more efficient call logging and service requests

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TVNZ, the largest public broadcaster in New Zealand, has nine sites and 1000 full time employees. With freelancers and season productions, that number can jump up to 1500. Their complex IT infrastructure supports broadcast, web and corporate applications.

By 2007, the sheer volume and complexity of high level information about the IT infrastructure – known as the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) – had overwhelmed the ability of QSM, the service management solution TVNZ had installed nine years prior. “Reporting was a challenge as it was difficult to pull information out of the tool,” says Vaughan Bosher, Manager Infrastructure & Operations at TVNZ. “In fact, some of the teams had resorted to keeping information in spreadsheets and Access databases. While this helped them, it also meant that not everybody had access to the same information.”

When Lisa Arthur came on board as the new Service Centre Team Manager in November 2007, she quickly realised there was a lot of work to do to improve Service Management. After a thorough review Lisa and her team prepared an RFP for a replacement Service Management solution.

Delta’s winning proposal

The Delta proposal was the preferred choice for TVNZ. “We scored the competing proposals on the responses to our criteria, tool functionality and the presentation of the solution,” says Bosher. “Delta and InfraEnterprise scored the highest so we made the strategic decision to work with Delta and acquire their recommended solution.”

Rapid implementation

Because TVNZ had done such a thorough job of defining their requirements, initial implementation proceeded in a relatively short time period. In addition, Delta had developed a mature implementation methodology based on more than 40 similar projects. “We start with the desired outcomes,” says David Gandar, Managing Director of Delta, ”and then work from there to define process enablement, improvements and finally operations. While each business is unique and the scale of implementations can vary, the processes are surprisingly similar. Because we have managed so many projects like this, we can quickly focus on the key areas so that clients can begin to reap benefits as soon as possible.”

Benefits

EMC Ionix Service Manager is now an integral part of TVNZ’s business. “We use it to log and track all incidents and requests from our customers,” says Bosher, “and the technology group uses it to track our changes. At the heart is the enhanced CMDB with which we can track and report on our assets. In addition, we use the Ionix Knowledge Bank to record information and fixes and publish solutions to our customers. As a result, we have significantly improved reporting capabilities and complete visibility into incidents and assets. This in turn allows the team, managers and the customers to know what has been requested, what is actually happening and, significantly, what has been provided.”

“We have gained quantifiable efficiencies from workflows,” continues Bosher, “because customers are able to log their own requests and faults directly, resulting in fewer calls to the service centre. And since it takes less time for call logging and allocating jobs, we have been able to reduce the Service Management team headcount by 15% with no impact on customer service and re-assign them to other critical tasks. And for the CMDB, assets are automatically captured with details like location and therefore are more efficiently managed.”

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