Implements software for global ITSM operation

Chessington, 18 May 2010 – Media heavyweight The Economist Group has outlined benefits to its IT since adopting Sunrise Software’s Sostenuto as its new global IT service management application a year ago.

IT Services Manager Mike Goodson said: “We have successfully put in place a global application, which provides our management team with access to information at the click of a mouse. The improvement in our performance as an ITSM operation has also helped raise awareness of IT among our staff.”

The project, which aimed to bring consistency among the various global offices, introducing service level agreements (SLAs) and reporting, involved a thorough selection process: “Initially, we began by using Gartner for a list of suppliers,” he said. “But we soon felt that, aside from a few, the products referred to were overkill for what we wanted. We needed to take a pragmatic approach and were interested in the ‘Audis’ and ‘Mercedes’ of the ITSM world, not the ‘Bentleys’. We had three or four demonstrations from different vendors, and Sostenuto really stood out for us. It was not just the look and feel which scored highly, but we also liked the fact that every part of the software is interconnected. Sostenuto just flowed, and looked eminently professional.”

The team adopted the aspects of the ITIL framework which were appropriate for its needs. With operations in Europe, Dubai, Hong Kong and New York, one of the project’s critical success factors was to get the respective teams and managers on board, which they achieved through online training sessions.

“We started by implementing incident and problem management, then introduced change after a few months, said Mike. “We tailored the system to some extent, to suit our requirements, but now it just runs itself. The way Sostenuto displays the different areas of functionality is really clear, which means that new people joining the team can pick it up easily.”

The Economist Group staff are able to log their own calls in Chameleon, Sostenuto’s self-service interface. “Self service has brought a great deal of transparency to our IT,” explained Mike. “Issues simply cannot be swept under the carpet, and this has given the business a lot of confidence in our service.”

Working with Sunrise
“This has been a positive experience throughout,” said Mike. “Sunrise have delivered at all levels, right from process design to going live and a few months later, helping us implement our change processes, as well as providing us with first class support. This is the kind of project you would always wish for: seamlessly smooth and delivered on time.”