HVBInfo Chooses ASG-IMPACT® to Support Its Growing Need for Business Service Management (BSM)
Industry: IT (a Division of HVB Group)
Location: Germany, Central and Eastern Europe
HVBInfo is the IT provider for the German part of the HVB Group, the Central and Eastern European banking giant and one of the five largest banks in Europe. HVB Group has more than 66,500 employees, 2,100 branch offices, and more than 8.5 million customers.
Founded in 1991, HVBInfo employs 700 professionals in two different locations, and it has a 2004 budget of approximately $330 million (USD). HVBInfo supports 1,000 servers based in two data centers and another 1800 servers based in 700 HVB Group and partner bank branches. HVBInfo also provides services for approximately 40,000 HVB Group customers in Germany. HVBInfo has implemented an ITIL process model.
The Challenge
The European banking industry remains highly competitive. However, from an IT perspective,
satisfying the needs of the business and banking customers has never been more complex than it is currently.
Traditional IT tools and processes focus largely on technology, rather than on business
objectives. On the other hand, tools and processes focusing on intelligent Business
Service Management (BSM) enable companies to better align IT resources with
business goals to achieve financial and operational results. HVBInfo was
interested in this type of business process reengineering and identified it as
a critical need.
HVBInfo’s previous tools offered the management of individual technology components, with little insight as to how each component linked to the business’ bottom line. For example, HVBInfo had been using a product to manage Incident, Problem, Change, and Configuration items, but the results were not accurate. HVBInfo decided to look for another solution that could maximize its infrastructure’s ability to meet critical business objectives.
“Back in the mid-to-late 1990s, the banking world was much easier to manage than it is today. Now we have systems with 24/7 availability, a number of Web-based systems, online cash machines, and lots of applications that enable us to manage our customers’ information," says Karl Eichlseder, Systems Specialist at HVBInfo. "Accurate and complete documentation is essential if an IT provider is to be successful.”
The Solution
HVBInfo required an integrated solution for comprehensive Incident, Problem, Change, and Asset management.
ASG-IMPACT®
not only met this requirement, but also provided both an open architecture with an automated interface.
As a result, HVBInfo was able to combine service information management with systems management.
ASG-IMPACT is an advanced consolidated service desk solution offering service desk management, service request management, problem management, change management, asset management, service level agreement (SLA) management, and enterprise notification in one fully integrated system. It is the first distributed, open architecture, cross-platform business software solution capable of handling the increasingly complex technology management issues affecting today’s businesses. With ASG-IMPACT, companies can track and resolve telephone inquiries and problems, regardless of whether they are directed to the service desk or to other departments servicing internal or external customers.
An enterprise-wide approach to advanced service desk requirements, ASG-IMPACT systematically performs call logging, escalation, and resolution tracking. ASG-IMPACT’s distributed application design virtually eliminates the barriers between operating system configurations, storage devices, networks, and applications. Because of its common data model, ASG-IMPACT allows staff to operate applications across different platforms without any disruptions. The ASG-IMPACT SQL-based applications are distributed for applications and data in PC and mainframe environments.
Although HVBInfo considered competitive products, ASG-IMPACT offered strong integration of Incident, Problem, Change, and Asset Management in combination with open architecture. Plus, the product’s open architecture and flexibility of ASG’s development made it more attractive than its competitors.
Measurable Results
For HVBInfo, Asset Management is the basis for Business Process Monitoring. Having
completed its asset configuration, the company was able to configure the needs
of its business processes with the help of ASG-IMPACT. In fact, HVBInfo automated
the interface to its centralized and de-centralized network and system
management systems.
“With ASG-IMPACT, we can make customer data much more transparent and show the relationship between different components and assets in our environment. In combination with other service information systems, we are able to see the big picture of the services we provide for our customers,” Eichlseder adds. “ASG-IMPACT has allowed us to achieve these goals. Plus, the combination of system management with our existing asset management solution was able to improve our documentation quality.”
HVBInfo also benefited from having a very good relationship between its system specialist and ASG’s product management and development teams in the United States.
“When it comes to ideal vendor relationship, we wantregular contact, fast solutions for our problems, the chance to have contact with other customers in the same size, and above all else a fair partnership,” said Eichlseder, concluding, “Our experience working with ASG has been very positive. We have always been able to discuss any issues with the product management team directly, and as a result a lot of our needs and ideas have been realized and have improved the way that ASG-IMPACT works within our company.”
