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AZL is a pension provider that takes care of the administration, management advice and actuarial and communication advice for dozens of pension funds servicing over 1,5 million people in the Netherlands.
The organization wanted to take steps to expand from IT Service Management into Enterprise Service Management. Its legacy tool, BMC Service Desk Express, was no longer supported and the business wanted to move from traditional communication channels to a cloud-based, self-service approach.
Maurice Dassen, Quality Manager at AZL, says:
“We started looking for a modern application. We wanted to introduce a cloud application that had a new, young, fast look within the organization. It had to have self-service ease of use.”
He added that AZL wanted to ensure that the users would find all the functionality they needed as well as the ability to work in the way that they wanted. A longlist was drawn up based on Gartner studies, as AZL wanted a product that was well-known and was used successfully by other big businesses.
As well as 4me, Freshworks, BMC Helix Remedyforce, ServiceNow, Samanage and ASSYST were on the list. After considering the priorities of flexibility and cost, 4me and Freshworks’ Freshservice made the shortlist.
Maurice says: “We had a good feeling at the 4me presentation by 4me partner InfraVision. 4me offered a lot of possibilities. The license structure of 4me also appealed to us. We are no longer tied to restrictive licensing and long-term obligations and can handle user rights flexibly and freely, without increased cost.”
Mike Clappers, Head of IT Run at AZL, says: “4me fitted best. The reasons to choose 4me were price, flexibility, visibility and having one central portal for AZL employees. Also, the lead time for implementation was very important. 4me could meet these requirements.”
Industry
- Financial Services
Location
- The Netherlands
Challenges
- End-of-life legacy ITSM solution that was not in the cloud. AZL wanted a new, easy to use, flexible, fast, cloud-based solution with attractive self-service included.
“4me has enabled us, as an IT department, to work more efficiently. This is mainly due to its excellent support of IT management processes and the Self-Service Portal.”
Mike Clappers, Head of IT Run at AZL
The implementation took six weeks and it was on time and within budget. Mike says: “In that short time an extensive set of processes was implemented.”
4me was initially implemented in IT, but, as Mike says, when other departments saw the “power and success” of the tool, they wanted to use it too. Seven months after the initial implementation, four AZL departments: IT; Facilities; Personnel and Finance, all use 4me and are connected.
“It has enabled us to create a single point of contact for the entire organization. All questions or tickets can be logged and dealt with in the same way,” Mike explains.
- Request Management (Incident Management and
Request Fulfilment) - Change Management
- Problem Management
- Configuration Management
- Service Level Management
- Knowledge Management
- Templates/Workflow
- Self-Service Portal – configured to the customer’s brand style and to display the product catalog
- Single Sign-On
- Active Directory
- Event Management
- Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
In phase two we added InfraVision’s integration platform which allowed us to move the Active Directory import to a fully automated AD integration. Other integrations will follow.
Mike adds: “We also made use of a number of self-built applications that we are now running within 4me. For example, we have an application that allows you to make controlled changes to production. We have now transferred the entire workflow to the 4me application.”
AZL employees could immediately use the Self Service Portal without any training. AZL’s support staff followed the standard training available on the 4me website. Mike says that it is worth considering targeted training for users with specific roles.
AZL has seen some very positive results from 4me. Mike says:
“4me has enabled us, as an IT department, to work more efficiently. This is mainly due to its excellent support of IT management processes and the Self-Service Portal.”
“Because we have a mature application now, we can steer better and more directly, and ensure that people follow up these processes. You can use the application to make clear what the benefits of the processes are.”
As a financial services provider, AZL is strictly regulated and the 4me tool has helped the organization to manage its compliance activities.
Mike explains:
“4me also relieves worries in certain areas. We had difficulty getting information out of the previous application. Now we have standard log files, flows are transparent and only people with a certain role need to give approval. This has led to greater compliance and control, making it easier to report for auditors from De Nederlandsche Bank (Central Bank of the Netherlands).”
One of the big advantages of 4me is that it is flexible and can be adapted to suit the processes of the business. Mike says: “It does not use a strict ITIL process from which you cannot deviate. You can apply it how it fits best within your organization.”
Another aspect of 4me that helps with regulatory compliance is the Audit Trail function. This provides auditors with all the correct information in one go. This has also led to time savings for the organization. On average, time spent on mandatory reporting is reduced by 10 minutes per ticket.
Mike adds: “4me can assign a specific role to an auditor to allow them to look into the application themselves. This creates confidence and saves time for the organization.”
As well as the Audit Trail, the other function that has particularly impressed AZL is Automation. Mike says: “By using the automation rules, tasks can be quickly and easily transferred to the relevant colleague who can then immediately handle them. Previously, this was often done by email, which did not always benefit the turnaround time.”
The real-time dashboards have also offered the organization greater insight and greater ability to follow up on the approximately 3,000 requests processed by the IT department each month.
Maurice says that he would recommend 4me to other businesses looking for an ITSM or ESM tool. “I am proud of what we have accomplished, our success with 4me and how smoothly many other departments have joined.
He sums up the experience of the 4me project in six terms: “Cooperation; pleasant; fast; agile; flexible; and a self-learning stimulator.”
The next step for AZL is to redesign and improve the Service Catalog, based on the learnings so far. Maurice says: “Because of the flexibility of 4me, you can implement change based on your experiences, without taking the whole setup down.”
4me was implemented for AZL by InfraVision. Maurice says: “There was great pragmatic cooperation with InfraVision. InfraVision strongly promotes self-reliance and 4me makes it possible. As a result, the organization takes faster steps in embracing this product and its further development.”
Mike adds: “There was trust. We quickly found cooperation, not formally sticking to agreements, but really working together, trying to achieve something as partners. This was a big plus point.”
“4me also relieves worries in certain areas. We had difficulty getting information out of the previous application. Now we have standard log files, flows are transparent and only people with a certain role need to give approval. This has led to greater compliance and control, making it easier to report for auditors from De Nederlandse Bank (Central Bank of the Netherlands).”
Mike Clappers, Head of IT Run at AZL
