Transition Management

Working at the heart of a major, £270m programme to migrate 1800 servers to a new datacentre, the challenge was to ensure all servers were delivered into BaU with full support and configuration data in place. This was done by creating and implementing a factory process for all migrations, capable of tracking the status of any individual server and permitting up to 30 concurrent migrations a week to take place. Gateways were set to ensure the process was followed accurately and to permit easy and effective identification of problem migrations. All servers were delivered to time and budget, with no operational failures.

Integrated Service Support

The client was a Big 5 consultancy delivering a major programme of change across the whole of the MOD. A helpdesk service was built to support the delivery of the programme to the end user departments. The helpdesk had to operate to full ITIL standards - this was achieved by integrating incident, problem, change and configuration management into the helpdesk function, then by adding release and service management functions. The entire service was delivered to time and budget and continues in use now, nearly 8 years after its launch - although the overall programme it supports is now drawing to a close.

Effective Change Management

The client was an MOD Agency with multiple sites across the UK. IT support was delivered from a central location. Building on an existing helpdesk and configuration management function, a fully functional change management system was built and put into operational use. Once it was settled, and the Change Advisory Board established, links from the change system to procurement and configuration management enabled highly cost-effective purchasing plans to be developed, resulting in a significant overall saving. Furthermore, centralising change management allowed the closer integration of the other IT services, further saving revenue costs.

Helpdesk Improvement

The client operated a centralised helpdesk supporting a wide range of applications service of varying degrees of criticality. While reasonably efficient at incident management, the helpdesk could not deliver analyses of incidents so that the root causes could be identified and corrected. As a result, the same faults would recur and require repeated corrective actions. The helpdesk support software was analysed and reconfigured, utilising a greatly simplified and integrated set of fault codes. This enabled the helpdesk and support teams to classify faults and repairs more efficiently: more importantly, it highlighted the root causes of the reported incidents, so allowing strategic corrective actions to be put in place. Overall, routine faults were reduced by around 30% in the first year as a result.

Integrated Service Delivery

The client was a major media organisation. Although day-to-day support was effective, they had little understanding of their overall infrastructure and were at risk should a major failure occur: they are also buying equipment without first understanding what was available for reuse. An integrated set of processes to link configuration, availability, capacity and business continuity activities together and to relate them as a whole back to the Service Levels demanded by the business were developed.