Skip to content
Easi is a trusted managed service provider (MSP) that has been providing IT services and software and infrastructure solutions to mid-sized and large companies since 1999. Easi focuses on short implementation times and delivering added value to its customers. It provides flexible solutions for companies that want a partner close to them and helps customers reach their full potential by delivering IT services faster, better, and more cost-effectively.
Based in Belgium, Easi has 500+ employees and eight offices from which it serves 800+ happy clients, mainly in Belgium but also in the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Easi has been growing rapidly and was in need of a flexible cloud-based service management application that would enable quick and easy integration with its 800+ customers. A tool with core ITSM features built-in as standard but flexible enough to be tailored to the needs of both Easi and its customers.
Easi’s IT support team provides customer support for the IT infrastructure so that the customer can focus on their core business and what really matters to them.
Before 4me, it worked with something it built itself, called Extranet (an application in IBM’s Lotus Notes), but Easi needed a proper service management tool with many functions built in out of the box. Extranet was too limited; users could submit a request, but it wasn’t possible to link a request to a configuration item, for example, and it wasn’t possible to allow more than one person from the customer side to log in.
The new service management solution would have to be more professional to increase efficiency and improve the user experience.
After an extensive RFP process, 4me was chosen. Johan Jakus, Business Unit Manager & Partner at Easi, says: “4me stood out head and shoulders above the rest, no doubt. It was perfect, exactly what we were looking for. What really attracted us is how close it is to the ITIL principles, the customer environment, the configuration items, and problem management and change enablement. Everything is built in. And then, there was the ease of integrating customers. We have so many that you don’t want to be doing that manually.”
4me provides the flexibility Easi needs in its collaboration with customers and the ability to create easy enterprise workflow automation and integrations. In addition, it provides complete transparency and real-time reporting per service so that Easi can easily show the performance in relation to the SLAs.
Johan says: “4me really has the best of both worlds. It is a very nice combination of a standardized solution, while you do have that flexibility you need at the procedure level. Too much flexibility is not good because then you have to come up with too much yourself, which takes too much time and is time-consuming. And fully standardized solutions, on the other hand, are also not good because then you can’t properly set up a procedure such as onboarding.”
“Price was important too. 4me’s flexible consumption-based licensing was a big plus. We can easily remove or add licenses where necessary. And we certainly appreciate the weekly releases of new features and product upgrades at no extra charge.”
Industry
- Managed IT Services
Location
- Belgium
Challenges
- Easi needed a flexible cloud-based service management application that would enable quick and easy integration with its customers: a standardized tool that was flexible enough to be tailored to the needs of both Easi and its customers.
Solution
- ITSM/ESM
“4me stood out head and shoulders above the rest, no doubt. It was perfect, exactly what we were looking for. What really attracted us is how close it is to the ITIL principles, the customer environment, the configuration items, and problem management and change enablement. Everything is built in.”
Johan Jakus
Business Unit Manager & Partner at Easi
The implementation was done in collaboration with 4me partner 2Grips and went according to plan.
Johan says, “The collaboration with local 4me partner 2Grips is great. We really work as a team. We receive all the necessary advice, and they are quick to respond in case of any questions.”
After a three-month test phase with six important customers during the summer months to fine-tune everything, they went live in September 2022.
Johan explains: “The challenge is always when you introduce new systems and processes, that the customers have to be willing to adopt the new solution. In this case, it wasn’t a problem; everybody saw the advantages of the new way of working in 4me.”
To ensure the smooth adoption of the new solution, 2Grips advised Easi to organize workshops and internal training sessions for those who needed it. Johan says: “To be honest, the workshops were enough for everyone to understand the tool and be able to work with it; 4me is very user-friendly.”
Furthermore, the Go Live was announced in an email, and the team asked the project managers to include it in their conversations with the customers. In addition, there were regular strategy meetings where customers also had the opportunity to ask questions.
- Request Fulfillment
- Incident Management
- Configuration & Asset Management
- Service Level Management
SSO, Active Directory, and integrations with customers. Integration with customers is very easy when they also use 4me themselves. Easi has recently started to integrate customers who use a different ticketing or service management tool themselves as well.
Easi works with a large number of customers who all provide a great variety of services. This can now all be handled very efficiently in 4me, improving not only efficiency but also the user experience, resulting in happy customers.
Johan says: “We see lots of thumbs up; it is all very positive. Processes are more efficient, and customers find it much easier to work with. They are making good use of the tool, which certainly wasn’t the case before.”
“What I like about 4me is the consistently great performance, flexibility, and easy workflow automation and integration. We are much more agile, and the tool can easily be adapted to our specific needs and the customer’s wishes.”
“What is also nice is that the tool is constantly evolving; new features and updates are released on a weekly basis, motivating us to enter into a continuous improvement cycle as well.”
“And the fact that many capabilities are built-in as standard works very well for us as we don’t have to think about processes such as Incident Management.”
“4me is great for onboarding customers. When we create a new customer, all the necessary service instances and SLAs are automatically activated. That is very handy when you have so many customers; it saves us a lot of time and effort and ensures we communicate the right things to the right customer.”
The team handles around 1,000-1,500 requests per month. Johan explains: “It is difficult to compare to before, but we see the number of requests increasing, which is a good sign and according to expectation. That was one of the reasons why we wanted to switch to a more professional tool.”
Easi is using 4me more and more as a fully-fledged ESM solution. Currently, 4me is used primarily for customers, and is expanding to other departments for services to customers. Easi has around 600 external users and 20 internal users, from the IT department but also departments such as HR. In the future, Easi may also start using 4me to manage internal services.
Johan says: “I would certainly recommend 4me to other MSPs. I truly value the flexibility, performance, and ease of integration. I am happy that we are able to offer this tool to our customers.”
“4me really has the best of both worlds. It is a very nice combination of a standardized solution, while you do have that flexibility you need at the procedure level. Too much flexibility is not good because then you have to come up with too much yourself, which takes too much time and is time-consuming. And fully standardized solutions, on the other hand, are also not good because then you can’t properly set up a procedure such as onboarding.”
Johan Jakus
Business Unit Manager & Partner at Easi
