Českomoravská stavební spořitelna (ČMSS) is the leader of the Czech building savings market, having provided over 200 billion Czech crowns (CZK) worth of loans. Besides building savings it also offers mortgages, consumer credits, life insurance and other financial services. Apart from external financial experts the company employs over 650 of their own people for whom a new helpdesk system for processing of the IT-related requests was created.
Initial situation
The employees of the bank post ten thousands of IT-related requests a year. The most common are request for a purchase of new software, for entering new users into existing systems, for moving computers to other workplaces, etc. These requests used to be processed in a simple application without the possibility to monitor their status. The company management decided to introduce a new application to measure the time and performance of the request processing, to watch the work efficiency and to perform audits of the procedures within the IT department. The development and implementation of this application was done by Trask. The company has been selected in a tender thanks to meeting the necessary criteria on the new application, having the knowledge of Microsoft Office SharePoint technology, the experience in the field of business process management and related references. Trask has also been supplying IT solutions for ČMSS and, for example, has introduced an access privileges management system, Lotus Notes support and others, into the company.
The solution
Based on the assignment Trask has developed a helpdesk-style application built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server platform. Its task was to store all the order requests coming to the IT department from the internal ČMSS users. The project started with an analysis of the present situation and proceeded with the implementation of the solution and its testing. In April 2009 the pilot run was conducted and in June 2009 the live operations have commenced. At the same time the development of the upgraded version of the application began. The preparation of the bank's processing environment was a part of the implementation stage. This is why the following procedure was carried out: version zero of the application was implemented, it was commented on by the users, and using this feedback the system was tuned to meet all their requirements. Thanks to this procedure the final version was fully functional and has been providing the company with the desired results since day one.
As the need for more accurate IT-related request processing increased, the existing application was not suitable anymore. After assessing the available technologies we have chosen to use Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server platform and Trask, as the technological leader in the field. Apart from the obvious benefits to business the project allowed us to create a detailed map of the particular IT-related processes within our company and the existing processes were modified to comply with ITIL standard and related regulations.
Ing. Jaromír Říha, Head of Coordination and Security of IT Processes, ČMSS
Key benefits
In general, the more efficient system for processing of IT-related requests in ČMSS provides request processing for inquiries coming from all the company's employees including the possibilities of repeating the processing, measuring and auditability. It is now possible to monitor various information on each of the requests, watch the time it takes to approve it and to send reports to the employees responsible. Historic data are being stored for each of the requests and the requests can be tracked back in order to be analysed. Now the user who submits the request can participate in the request processing by accurately specifying his request and thus reducing the error rate. The users also receive more information on the status of his request by the means of notification messages. Therefore, the supervisors get a better idea of what their colleagues need. And, finally, the IT managers gain better overview of the performance of their IT department. Currently the new version of the application is being implemented, containing new types of processing requests. At the same time, the application-related user comments we have received so far are being compiled in the new version, so that the new application is even more user-friendly and efficient. ČMSS also considers the possible extension of the application to other departments besides IT. From the technical point of view, the application core is already a part of the solution used for the IT-related requests and the application is easy to expand and scale for up to thousands of users.
Technology used:
- Application platform: Microsoft Office
- SharePoint Server
- Operating system: Microsoft Windows Server
- Database: Microsoft SQL Server
- Number of users: 650