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SUCCESS STORY

TAL Group

TAL Group Switched to 4me to Drive Process Harmonization Across Europe

HEADLINE SUCCESS

END-TO-END VISIBILITY

SEAMLESS COLLABORATION

INCREASED SPEED & AGILITY

One service management platform for all improves efficiency and user experience

For over 50 years, the TAL Group has managed the Transalpine Pipeline, a 753 km long energy facility, which covers 90% of the oil needs of Austria, 50% of the Czech Republic, and 100% of Southern Germany.
 
The group consists of three companies in Germany, Austria, and Italy, with 255 employees and a further 1,000 indirect colleagues employed in allied activities.

A new tool to improve service efficiency across the business

Bernd Muetzelfeldt, Chief Information and Communication Technology Officer at Deutsche Transalpine Oelleitung GmbH, is responsible for all IT topics, such as applications, networks, servers, service desk, and cyber security. 
 
Bernd explains: “We wanted a new, powerful, and complete service management solution that would be easy to use for both the end users and the IT specialists, and with language and translation capabilities so that Italian users could easily communicate with the German service desk and vice versa.”
 
TAL OL IT was looking for a new service management tool to improve service delivery efficiency through the harmonization of processes and a shared IT service center between the group members, who had been self-sufficient until then, and the aim was to develop a more efficient service structure.
 
Bernd: “We wanted to work with precisely defined SLAs and a coherent service catalog.”
 
The choice fell on 4me. Other tools considered included Matrix, Zendesk, and ServiceNow. Decision criteria included overall performance, ITIL orientation, auto-translation capability, front- and back-end usability, self-administration capability, and the team.

Bernd: “The overall concept of 4me, the local partner, the look and feel of the tool, the attractive auto-translation feature, and also the pricing model convinced us.”

blu Systems GmbH from Oberhaching was chosen as the implementation partner. Bernd: “We wanted a local partner from the Munich area with whom we all feel comfortable. A partner who understands what we need and whom we can trust to do everything necessary to make the implementation a success. When blu introduced 4me, we immediately had the feeling that the team was a good fit for us.”

Industry

  • Energy & Utilities

Location

  • Germany, Italy, and Austria

Challenges

  • TAL was looking for a powerful service management solution that would be easy to use for both the end users and IT specialists with language and translation capabilities.

Solution

  • ITSM, ESM

“The improved overview and more efficient processes save us a lot of time and money; it is clear how our services perform, where tickets are, and what people need to do, resulting in improved productivity and better service experiences.”

Bernd Muetzelfeldt
Chief Information and CommunicationTechnology Officer at TAL Group

Implementation

The implementation went smoothly. The proof of concept was ready after a few days, and the tool was implemented and fully functional after two weeks. Everything was completed within budget and on schedule.
 
Bernd: “4me partner blu Systems GmbH is professional, efficient, responsive, and customer-oriented. We felt comfortable with them, and they gave us exactly the support we needed and wanted every step of the way.”

Training

The training and education for all IT employees before the go-live were carried out based on practical examples from blu Systems. After the go-live, so-called “Hyper Care” appointments were offered, where the IT staff could ask blu Systems for advice on ticket handling with actual tickets and examples if desired.

Scope

  • Request Fulfilment
  • Incident Management
  • Knowledge Management
  • Service Level Management
  • Change Management
  • Time Tracking
  • Escalation Management
  • Project Management
  • Service Catalog

Integrations

Azure AD & Single Sign On.

Departments using 4me

Currently, all of the IT department, including Security, uses 4me.
Bernd: “In my view, it would also be a perfect tool for our HR department. Nothing concrete is planned yet, but HR could possibly follow.” 
 
In the Health Security Safety Environment (HSSE) and Finance departments, the implementation of 4me is also being considered. On the one hand, to answer user queries and, on the other hand, to track tasks (resulting from the various audits) and their completion.

Results are above expectation

Bernd is delighted with the switch to 4me: “The project was a complete success; I was pleasantly surprised to see that we achieved even more than we expected at the start.”

“4me is simple to use, very effective, super-efficient, and comes with an insane number of features and benefits out of the box.”

“We finally have a complete overview of the status of our services and can track exactly where which tickets are hanging and why. Most importantly, we can verify the promised performance to the business by meeting SLAs, a capability we didn’t have before. Being able to track services and their performance makes it easier to make decisions and set priorities.”

“What really helps is the service-oriented structure of 4me. We now want to integrate the new webshop into our service catalog to offer the end user an even better experience and to improve our processes.”

“The fact that we can easily manage things ourselves means we can move fast and quickly implement a new service when needed. We can even create automation rules ourselves. If we have any questions, we also benefit greatly from the 4me developer community.”

“4me Auto Translation and the intuitiveness of the tool have both helped to remove important barriers and improve collaboration.”
 
The IT specialists quickly familiarized themselves with 4me and enjoy working with it. They like the front end, speedy and easy end-user interaction, and straightforward end-user feedback.
 
Bernd explains: “The quality of the tickets has improved, work is done more accurately, and we also see that the number of open tickets is much lower because, with 4me, you are automatically reminded that a ticket is still open.”
 
The reports and dashboards show TAL Ol IT in real time where services perform well and where the performance is less, which makes everything easier to manage.
 
“The improved overview and more efficient processes save us a lot of time and money; it is clear how our services perform, where tickets are, and what people need to do, resulting in improved productivity and better service experiences.”

“4me has enabled us to automate requests and processes easily and efficiently across companies on a complete and easy-to-use platform. The possibilities of 4me seem endless.”

“4me is simple to use, very effective, super-efficient, and comes with an insane number of features and benefits out of the box.”

Bernd Muetzelfeldt
Chief Information and Communication Technology Officer at TAL Group

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