Sostenuto software supports transformation

Chessington, 17 August 2010. Müller Dairy has announced a successful outcome for an IT transformation project which has spanned three years. The project has involved a change in culture and the introduction of proactive processes, in a comprehensive adoption of the ITIL framework, underpinned by Sunrise’s IT service management software Sostenuto.

Head of IT Stephen Kane outlined some of the measurable benefits of his department’s success, including the fact that the IT Service Desk’s Key Performance Indicator performance now exceeds 99% on an average week. The department now also scores a phenomenal 4.5 out of 5 for user satisfaction over the average month.

Müller Dairy, which is one of the food industry’s great success stories, is the number one yogurt brand in the UK, owing its success to its strong values and innovative approach. At the origin of the transformation was the recognition by Müller Dairy’s Executive board that a shift was needed in the role that IT played within the business. Kane was brought in with a remit to introduce ITIL and place IT in pole position.

Steps were taken to create ‘IT as a service’, by designating business partners from within the IT department to interface with eighteen functional areas of the business. An ITIL based service desk bridging different areas of IT was established and software solution Sostenuto was selected to manage the processes involved.

“During the selection process,” remembers Kane, “we started by looking at the enterprise solutions offered by large vendors such as SAP, CA and BMC, until the reality of the budget hit. Then we found Sostenuto, and by the time we’d carried out a thorough comparative evaluation, it became clear that Sostenuto offered a similar level of flexibility, but within a lighter, more manageable structure, and at a much, much lower cost.”

“A few years on,” he continues, “I can say that if anyone wants to understand ITIL, out of the box, at a great price, then Sostenuto is your solution, absolutely fit for purpose.”

In the wake of Müller Dairy’s success, a wider rollout of Sostenuto to the company’s German sites, as well as in its distribution centres in Italy, is underway. Longer term plans to draw up a roadmap for ITIL v.3 mean that IT and the business will be even more closely bound together in future.

After years of hiding in the corner, IT is now seen as the most important function in the organisation, not only driving change, but also acting as a benchmark for other departments, where the opportunity to use ITIL principles is becoming increasingly attractive.