CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

IT Se

rvices & Solutions

Federal Government bodies and local Governmen

t Offic

es

NIENSCHANZ

www.axiossystems.com

NIENSCHANZ is a multi-brand group of companies, one of the largest IT holdings in Russia and a trusted solution provider with over 18 years of experience delivering a portfolio of IT services and solutions to the largest organizations and government bodies.

NIENSCHANZ customers are large, federal government bodies and local government offices, including the Committee of St. Petersburg Local Authorities, the Federal Tax Service and Immigration Authorities. Since 2002, NIENSCHANZ has been ISO 9001:2000 certified, the international standard for quality management.

NIENSCHANZ is segregated into divisions – financially independent business units which carry full responsibility for developing and selling their products. The Division of Computing Systems (DCS) is one of the oldest business units. Formed in 1990, its main business was initially the production and distribution of computing equipment. In 2005, due to a significant decrease in the demand for computing equipment, it was decided to focus efforts on a new offering – providing IT services to external companies. Since 2006, DCS has been an outsourcer, supporting the IT infrastructure of external customers: mostly governmental organizations such as the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation and multiple municipal organizations in St. Petersburg.

Challenge - improve efficiency and management of IT services

In 2007, the growth of business prompted the requirement of a conceptually new approach to manage IT services. By this time, the outsourcer already supported 20 large customers (over 10,000 configuration items) which were spread over multiple locations in St. Petersburg and the surrounding region.

DCS faced the following issues:

Lack of a federated source of information in the �Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and information about the assets from different customers was stored in multiple Excel tables, which made reporting virtually impossible.Since there was no automation of registering requests �made, a large proportion were lost or not responded to on time.The calls were not distributed or assigned to personnel, �which led to a non-effective use of resources – often highly qualified engineers were occupied with rudimentary tasks.Lack of a federated platform led to calls being �registered in multiple databases which meant that no analytical data was being collected.

Key StatisticsOne of the largest IT companies in �Russia [1]Total turnover of the NIENSCHANZ �CJSC in 2009 was 8.2 billion RUR (USD 0.27 billion) [2]30,000 configuration items �22,000 calls closed in 2009 with �assyst

1 according to CNews ratings 2 exchange rate 1 USD = 30 RUR

Key ChallengeFind the right ITSM platform to �support the MSP business in line with its strategyReduce costs and increased �operational efficiencyRegain control of their customers �complex IT infrastructures

Key StrategyDefine and re-engineer existing �business and IT processes Establish a Service Desk �Implement a federated CMDB and �ITSM platform

Key Benefits/ResultsImproved customer service with �Service Desk operating 24/7Reduced incident resolution time by �38%Productivity ratio increased by 34% �per engineerAverage customer satisfaction level �increased to 9.8/10Time and cost savings to support IT �infrastructureCost transparency for customers and �senior managementDefined business processes �Improved visibility and control on �assets with assyst CMDB Reporting system now powerful tool �for decision-makingGained ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 and �ISO 27001 certification

There were no clear responsibilities defined �within DCS, especially in regard to customer communication.Management had no view of staff workload or �how much time they spent on certain customers.

The above led to reduced customer satisfaction levels and overworked personnel, since they were “fire-fighting” the majority of the time. Also, due to a lack of reporting, it was difficult to communicate what costs were associated with ongoing contracts, which led to a strained relationship with senior management. Strategy – increase service delivery and customer satisfaction by automating processes in accordance with ITIL recommendations

DCS devised a five year strategy for which it was crucial to re-define the business processes, change the company structure accordingly and gain an adequate grasp of the complex IT infrastructure they were supporting.

All of this required a platform to automate IT Service Management (ITSM), with the main goal to improve service delivery and customer satisfaction by increasing the operational effectiveness of the IT services. The required platform was to enable automation of all ITIL processes and create cost savings.

Following a comprehensive selection process, the assyst solution from Axios Systems, the world’s leading ITSM provider, was chosen, most notably because it allowed the organization to automate all ITIL processes within one single implementation and offered the shortest deployment time.

Reducing the running costs of the business by 50% increases profitability of leading MSP

NIENSCHANZ finds the ideal ITSM platform, assyst, to enable them to develop and implement their strategy effectively

NIENSCHANZwww.i tsm-nnz.ru

Country Russia Sector IT (MSP)

9 10 CCS Neanschantz US v1.0

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

IT Service Management Automation

Cost

Sav

ings

NIENSCHANZ

www.axiossystems.com

Benefits – improved customer service and productivity while reducing costs

Significant savings were achieved through:

Defined business processes and improved quality of service provision

The DCS business unit was structurally re-organized to fit the defined business processes and each staff member received a formalized job description. The first reorganization step was to implement a 24/7 Service Desk in order to provide customers with a single point of contact to address concerns and get feedback on open calls. As a result, the call answer rate has improved significantly and call abandonment has reduced to almost zero, which was quickly acknowledged by the customers: “During Q3 of 2008, the average performance rating given by the customers to our IT team was 7.8/10. In Q1 of 2009, it increased to 9.6/10, and to 9.8/10 in Q4 of 2009”, Yury Timofeev, CEO at DCS, proudly reports.

Improved efficiency through effective planning of transport and resources

assyst offers improved allocation of incidents, which are now rated depending on personnel qualifications and availability. More incidents are now resolved by 1st line support, which has freed up the time of more qualified personnel, thus reducing costs by structured workloads and process automation. The federated CMDB and Resource Manager tool within assyst shows the operator planning on-site customer visits an electronic map where the calls are located. This enables intelligent scheduling of personnel, saving time and associated costs.

Incident resolution time has reduced by 38% (from 9.2 to 5.7 hours on average for an incident)In spite of an overall increase in the number of registered calls by 60% (due to the continuously increasing number of customers), the productivity ratio per engineer increased by 34% compared to the same period in 2008.

Improved teamwork and internal communication

The reporting within assyst enabled the development of an efficient and comprehensive staff motivation scheme. The performance of individuals and teams is rated against specific KPIs. “Gaining control helped team spirit within the DCS”, Timofeev believes, “There is now a better distribution of workload and everybody knows exactly who is responsible for what. In addition, we have developed a transparent motivation system through assyst reporting, which is used to calculate the bonus payments at the end of the month.”

Improved control and management of IT infrastructure through a federated CMDB

The assyst CMDB currently holds over 30,000 configuration items distributed throughout multiple locations in St. Petersburg and the surrounding region.

The single, federated CMDB gives control over assets and their relationships, as well as instant access to information on customer assets serviced, either in total or per customer.

Transparent cost structure

“Implementing assyst has allowed us to analyze the workload related to each of our customers”, Timofeev explains. “This information made us re-consider the contracts: we can now calculate exactly whether the conditions we have with a particular customer are profitable for our company. Through the assyst reporting functionality, we were able to clearly demonstrate that to senior management.”By using assyst, DCS has gained control over its cost structure, which has improved the relationship with senior management, as well as established a more transparent relationship with their customers.

Tailored reporting system to support decision-making

According to specific business and customer needs and requests, a comprehensive reporting system was developed for each party, based on Crystal Reports and BIRT products, by integrating them with the assyst database. “Our customers receive the information they need within timescales that suit them. As a result, their business decisions are made based on facts, not assumptions”, Timofeev explains.“The facility to enable decision-making with

“The most important achievement for us is that with the assyst implementation we were able to cut the costs to support our day-to-day business by 50%”

Yury TimofeevCEO, DCS

NIENSCHANZ

precise and up-to-date information significantly decreased the negative impact on the business, Timofeev explains, “It is difficult to calculate direct savings but, at a minimum, I believe that implementing assyst opened new avenues for our business development and permitted us to grow, i.e. sign new customers, without the need to hire additional personnel to run new contracts. It also gives us the opportunity to gain additional revenues as a reseller, since we, as an authorized partner of Axios Systems, include assyst as part of the ITSM offering to our customers.”

Obtaining ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 for ITSM and ISO 27001:2005 for information security compliance

Implementing assyst allowed the company to gain ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 and ISO 27001 certification. Not only was this an indication of improved service delivery and information security, but also showed that the maturity of the organization had grown significantly. NIENSCHANZ has been one of the first companies in the north-west region of Russia to obtain these certificates, which has significantly increased the kudos of the company and demonstrates the overall quality of their services to their customers.

Axios Systems in IT Axios has been providing ITSM solutions to the IT industry for more than 20 years. assyst, is a fully integrated, out-of-the-box solution, available in on-premise and SaaS models, which helps organizations optimize IT infrastructure efficiency, reduce overheads and lower the total cost of IT ownership. Our main focus on helping companies deliver top line value has been particularly well demonstrated in the IT sector with customers including SCC, Northgate, LANIT, and Kaspersky Lab, among others.

Speed of deployment