Electronics Distributor implements a global service portfolio solution to manage irresponsible spending in Information Technology

admin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:31:44 +0000

Situation
One of the world’s largest global distributors of electronic parts, enterprise computing, storage products, and embedded subsystems had recently implemented HP Service Catalog in HP ServiceCenter 6.2 with the combined effort of Request Management. During the previous years, the business had been overspending on technology services and products. As a result, the executive level mandated the entire organization to reduce the cost of spending in technology and make the business management accountable for services that their employees were requesting from the Information Technology department. The distributor wanted to place the power of employee self service and managing IT services into the hands of its business management.

Assessment
The distributor’s development team was able to manage the day-to-day operations of HP ServiceCenter and the HP Service Catalog product. Additionally, the team had received a few new enhancements around approvals and the ability to deny Service Catalog requests from the HP ServiceCenter Web Tier. However, the HP Service Catalog product was in its first initial release from HP, and only a few documentation resources were available to the distributor’s technical team for use in implementation. The distributor concluded from its initial assessment that it needed a resource to assist in the development efforts around the new HP Service Catalog requests. The distributor also concluded that it did not need a full-time resource to manage the project, but instead the distributor needed a technical advisor that had already implemented the HP Service Catalog software for a similarly situated enterprise level client.

Implementation
SmallCart Systems provided one of its senior level technical consultants to assist in the development efforts of the distributor’s HP Service Catalog modifications. Together, the team created and established a denial process that would be used in the event that a business manager was to deny an IT Service Catalog request from an end user. The project also needed modifications in the ability to process and calculate the cost of services requested across three different currencies: the Euro, US Dollar, and Japanese Yen.

Results
Within a one month window, the SmallCart technical advisor was able to develop solutions that met the distributor’s business requirements. The business was able to better handle and determine the cost of IT by implementing a global Service Catalog and by placing the approval process in the hands of the business management rather than technology management across the enterprise. SmallCart’s assistance with the distributor’s HP Service Catalog project was pivotal in reducing costs across the distributor’s organization globally.

“[SmallCart's] assistance in overcoming some issues we faced was great.” -Director of Automation

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Electronics Distributor implements a global service portfolio solution to manage irresponsible spending in Information Technology