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DESTIA (FINNISH ROAD ENTERPRISE) ENTERS ITIL ERA WITH EFECTE SOLUTION
2006-03-06
Destia (The Finnish Road Enterprise) is a leading Finnish infrastructure service company, specializing in the design, construction, management, and maintenance of traffic routes and the traffic environment, along with related products and services. Destia has around 2,300 employees and 200 offices in Finland, with international operations facilitated through subsidiaries and partners.
In 2005, the company launched a project with the goal of developing internal ICT quality systems and enhancing the profit center. For the foundation of the quality systems, the company selected ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library), which has already become a de facto standard in the field.
Better Comprehensive Management As a Goal
The IT environment of Destia comprises around 1,800 workstations, and servers and other active equipment. Some aspects of operations, such as IT support, are outsourced to third parties. Other IT services are produced by the 23 strong staff of Destia’s IT Management division.
The IT Management environment functioned fairly well from the outset, and many processes had solid specifications. However, it was perceived that there was room for improvement in the comprehensive management of Destia – for example, in the definitions of roles for different parties and the commitment to common goals. Additionally, an inadequate tracking and reporting system made the management of a multi supplier environment more difficult.
After analysis, planning, and the setting of goals were complete, the development project progressed to ITIL training and, further, to the selection of the solution supplier. "Our goal was to improve the performance and cost effectiveness of IT Management and increase the quality of the services. The ITIL solutions enabled connecting the different areas as one functional entity, and we wanted to develop our operations based on that,” says IT Manager Seppo Saastamoinen. “We compared different options and finally decided on Efecte’s ITIL solution, because it was comprehensive and obviously a solution that supports ITIL and conforms to the related standards,” he continues.
Comprehensive Overhaul of Processes
Efecte’s ITIL solution was used to create processes for Destia that conform to ITIL best practice and are customized to support FRE’s own processes. Efecte’s solution currently works as a strategic element in IT Management. The internal IT department and external service providers report to the Efecte system, which allows all information to be centrally and comprehensively managed in one location, with Destia retaining control over the whole system. The project included the creation of a service catalog for the IT Management division, defining 200 IT services and applications.
“The challenge in this kind of a large project is to field it both internally and externally to our partners and suppliers. The operation must be made to conform to genuinely specified processes, after which it will be possible to perform the main task of IT management: providing proactive added value for the business operations,” says Saastamoinen.
“Significantly Increased Sense of Control”
Through the project, IT Management has comprehensive knowledge of operations. For example, customer support has seen a significant change – it can now be monitored in real time, and the reporting has improved. Additionally, the parallel development of the ITIL project and the profit center has made it possible to verify and untangle the interdependencies in the cost structure.
 “Through this project, we have gained a significantly increased sense of control. We now know exactly which services to buy and whether the agreed service levels are being realized, which has enabled us to cut unnecessary costs. The monitoring of invoicing has also become much more efficient,” says Saastamoinen. “It has been easy to organize our operations with a domestic partner, especially when the third parties affecting our operations are also domestically based. With Efecte’s solution, we can keep control in our own hands even if we were to change suppliers,” he sums things up.
Destia is a pathfinder in infrastructure services and the leading developer of services related to traffic routes and the traffic environment, producing added value for its customers in an interactive, profitable manner. www.destia.fi
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