Background:
A $500M specialty pharmaceuticals company wanted to adopt and improve upon their underlying operating processes while addressing organizational and technical issues within the Data Warehouse (DW). The Data Warehouse had no formal support structure and although the rest of IT had an Incident Management process in place there was no formal standard Change or Problem Management processes; some change management was practiced but in silos.
Goals:
- Improve customer satisfaction with the Sales Operations Group by creating a support structure to address common issues in a more proficient and efficient manner. The core goal was to get the communication mechanism out of email and into the ITSM toolset.
- Design and implement a Problem Management process to address repeat common issues across IT. The core goal was to identify root cause so that further Incidents could be prevented or at the very least workarounds be identified.
- Create a standard shared Change Management process across all of IT. The core goal was to provide insight on the amount of change within the company and provide traceability for audit requirements.
Accomplishments / Benefits:
- Designed an Incident Management (IM) process to meet the current and on-going needs for the Data Warehouse customer base; automated the IM process into the ITSM toolset; increased IT DW operational efficiency (operational support time was decreased from an estimated 80% work week down to an estimated 40% work week).
- Stood up an automated Problem Management process for both Minor and Major Problems. This has lead to a decreased total number of Incidents within the DW resulting in increased productivity and a greater focus on Project support versus fire fighting.
- Implemented an automated Change Management process for Standard, Minor, Major and Emergency Changes; Automated the approval process to gain approvals without the necessity of a formal Change Advisory Board (CAB); provided full traceability of Changes across IT to satisfy auditory requirements.