CASE STUDY
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CASE STUDY
Introduction
Companies offering IT related services are expected to offer high quality, and professional services to its clients and subsidiaries due to competition and also so as to build a good reputation. Therefore, there is need to standardize and conduct frequent checks on its services to ensure they are without flaws. There a re special companies designed for this purpose. They conduct a research on the company’s operations and services offered then highlights the The case study is about a company, Zurich, an insurance company that offers its services to various parts of the world. It has 60,000 employees in its branches globally and its services are also much appreciated in European countries such as Portugal, Russia, Turkey and Austria. To keep this business at peak, Zurich needs to put a lot of emphasis in improving quality of service offered and offering new solutions to customers.
The case study is about a company, Zurich, an insurance company that offers its services to various parts of the world. It has 60,000 employees in its branches globally and its services are also much appreciated in European countries such as Portugal, Russia, Turkey and Austria. To keep this business at peak, Zurich needs to put a lot of emphasis in improving quality of service offered and offering new solutions to customers.
Zurich, being a leading IT service provider, needs to work towards improving its infrastructure. Due to this, it decided to move into a new Center of Excellence. Being such a big company with such bulk on its employees, a sophisticated software is deployed to take care of the organizations activities. This software was to improve Zurich’s activities and systematically improve sales and number of customers.
Despite the efforts laid by Zurich, the results obtained from these improvements was not very appealing. There was need to find a better solution that would raise its ranks above its competitors, increase the number of clients and offer incredible ITIL services to its clients. For this reason, there was need to involve a reputable ITIL specialist company to aid in detecting the flaws within the organization and to recommend on the steps that should be taken to improve ITIL services.
Section 1 of report (Module 2) where improvements can be verified
Discuss the selected ITIL processes and their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for successful implementation as identified in the case study. (25 marks)
After Zurich request for Pink Elephants services, there was a great improvement in the services offered. There are several identifiable processes where improvements could be verified. They include Transition planning and support, change management, release and deployment management and service validation.
Release and deployment entails the release of a new feature, service or software by an organization to either increase the number of sales or to improve customer service. Release and deployment is linked to other processes such as Change Management. Zurich is a leading insurance company that offers its services to customers globally. PinkSCAN assessment was conducted to identify flaws and recommend appropriate changes to the offered services. After a period of 18 months, a subsequent PinkSCAN can was conducted on the premises of their Center of Excellence and it revealed that the organization had realized a dramatic improvement in the IT services they offered. This is the process maturity assessment.
Key indicators are tools that are used to measure the performance of an organization in relation to the set objectives. Release and deployment key indicators include percentage of release success rate, percentage of release defect rate, number of known release errors, percentage of approved releases that do not result in an incident, percentage of releases implemented in the approved release implementation window. All these indicators highlight the progress of the newly released service or software. In this case it is the new software deployed by Zurich to manage its activities.
The percentage of release success rate is an indicator of the total releases that have been successfully deployed and accepted as standard. The case study clearly indicates that the subsequent PinkSCAN revealed that availability of services had greatly improved. High availability of services attracts potential clients and helps in maintaining previous ones. After the initial PinkSCAN assessment, the management team decided to set new and tough objectives that would assist in meeting the recommendations of Elephant Pink. By following the objectives to the letter, they got an overall positive feedback from their clients.
The percentage of release defect rate indicator is a measure of the number of releases services that have received a negative feedback from the clients due to the failure of the process. A successful implementation of this process would help improve the fragmented service delivery of Zurich.
The number of known release errors is a measure of the known errors that have been identified after a successful deployment of the software. The Innovative Online Zurich HelpPoint Customer Guidance was deployed to increase the interactions between clients and the company to improve on the quality of services offered. From the case study we can draw conclusions that the number of known release errors was a major contributor in increasing incident management. Incidences can now be detected early and appropriate measures employed to deter its implications.
The percentage of approved releases that do not result in an incident is a process that seeks to detect the releases that have not raised an issue since its deployment. To be able to achieve this, customer feedbacks are critically assessed to determine the specific services that satisfy the customers the most. A proper implementation of the process will aid the organization in spotting the best selling and the most satisfactory services that clients prefer. The ITIL services will then be further improved to attract more clients.
The percentage of releases implemented in the approved release implementation window is a process that aids in identifying the releases that were approved within the implementation window.
The Head of Service Management at the European Centre of Excellence states: “The first step in our improvement journey was to understand where we stood today.”
Which ITIL service lifecycle can undertake this requirement and how is this typically executed according to ITIL best practices? MODULE 2
With references from the case study, give examples of how Zurich executed this service lifecycle.
The ITIL service life cycle is a series of steps that can be implemented to ensure a business offers unique and high-quality services compared to its competitors. It has five phases. Service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation and continual service improvement. Each phase in the lifecycle is dependent on the inputs and customer feedback. As stated by the Head of Service Management at the European Center of Excellence that the first step in their improvement journey was to understand where they stood then, appreciating one’s starting point is a key factor to driving you to success. Zurich implemented the ITIL lifecycle and it had tremendous effects in transformation and change.
For an organization to implement ITIL processes to benchmark its services, it ought to conduct a background check on its operations to determine where the company currently stands. This process is essential to any businesses offering IT-related services that wants improvements in its operations. Service strategy focuses on the needs of the clients and the services offered to cater for clients needs. The service strategy also conducts research on the existing IT infrastructure of the organization required to offer the listed services to its clients. In addition, the cost that the organization incurs to deliver the services to its clients should be investigated. These processes aid in realizing the current position where the company stands so that benchmarking of the ITIL services may proceed.
The second phase of the ITIL service life cycle is service design, a critical phase of the process which
