Success Stories

VMware Service Manager goes with the territory for Northwestel

Northwestel provides telecommunications solutions and entertainment services to a population of 115,000 Canadians across 4 million square kilometers of remote and rugged landscapes, spanning the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Northern British Columbia and Alberta. A subsidiary of Bell Canada with a proud heritage in telecommunications, the company’s mission is to ensure that ‘Northerners’ can enjoy the digital age with reliable, high-quality links to family, friends and information around the world.

Northwestel has recently introduced a new range of wireless, video and Internet products and services comparable to those available in the more densely populated South. The challenges of terrain, climate and inherent cost of serving vast yet sparsely populated areas mean that Northwestel’s people and processes are constantly reviewed. In 2008 an in-depth assessment was carried out, specifically looking at the company’s ability to act as the prime ISP (Internet Service Provider) in the North. The study highlighted the need for improved IT and Network Service Management (ITSM) processes, with Change Management identified as the most pressing issue. As a result, Northwestel decided to adopt ITIL best practice processes for IT Service Management (ITSM).

Improving efficiency with ITIL

Over 50% of the company’s 600 strong workforce is directly involved in designing and maintaining its telecommunications and digital services infrastructure. With 140 service technicians making service calls and maintaining the network and lines, the decision to implement a centralized Service Desk structure and standardize processes was hugely significant for the whole organization as Eva Wieckowski, Associate Director, ITIL Strategy and Implementation, explains.

“Northwestel’s core telecommunications business has grown organically over time, leading to a fairly informal approach to improving and maintaining services. But with so many new lines of business coming on stream, it was clearly impossible to continue in “free for all” mode without adversely impacting innovation, time-to market and the reliability of vital revenue-generating services. Acquisition of companies with significantly different or no processes further complicated things.”

“With the Board firmly backing ITIL, we were swiftly able to create an environment where technical and business users across the organization were speaking a common language and using standard processes to get things done. Without doubt, finding the right ITSM software to support this wholesale transition was a key factor in the positive outcomes that we achieved.”

VMware rises to the challenge

A rigorous appraisal of the market led to the selection of VMware Service Manager.

The solution met Northwestel’s key criteria for rapid and cost-effective implementation along with future scalability and a proven track record in delivering excellent technology and support.

Wieckowski continues, “We found VMware very open and easy to work with right from the start. The company responded to all our requests and provided many outstanding customer references. In fact, we were extremely impressed by how enthusiastic the clients were about the whole VMware relationship.”
By the end of 2008, VMware was working closely with Northwestel on the design and implementation of its Change Management processes for all of their technologies and business users. VMware Service Manager Workflow was used to visualize and customize each specific process as required. And with fully automated approval processes in place, stakeholders were soon benefiting from complete visibility of proposed Changes.

Visibility improves service levels

“Changes were frequently made to the infrastructure for purely technical reasons:
the business didn’t have a voice and the impact on services was often overlooked.” comments Wieckowski. “With VMware Service Manager we have been able to implement mandatory standards across the board, including test plans and rollback procedures, and a Change Advisory Board has been set up to adjudicate on major projects based on business needs.”

Northwestel is also now able to involve its enterprise clients in the planning and implementation of Changes that may impact vital services, leading to a much better relationship with these key customers.

Following the successful introduction of Change Management, Incident Management was rolled out in Spring 2009, replacing 8 separate logging systems. The improved visibility delivered by VMware Service Manager immediately proved a significant advantage for the Internal and External Service Desks, which together handle in excess of 65,000 Incidents per annum.

Producing results

Using Service Manager provides Service Desk technicians with instant access to over 100,000 customer records, previously held on 5 disparate systems. Data relating to Telecommunications and Cable infrastructure has also been integrated with the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Technicians can now see when several Incidents are, for example, related to a particular node or to a cable that may have been cut, making it much easier to organize repairs by field engineers operating across vast ‘patches’ of territory. Indeed, supported by this type of smart technology, the organization is confidently working towards its 3-year target of cutting the time it takes to restore a service impacted by an Incident by 25%.
According to Wieckowski, “Introducing ITIL-aligned Incident Management has enabled us to improve service levels and efficiency without increasing staffing levels. The selfservice Portal and skills-based routing of calls have already contributed to a dramatic drop of 17% in the call abandonment rate, which means happier customers. And overall, we have already smashed through another first-year goal, having reduced the total number of Incidents occurring by 3% in 6 just months.”

Improving first line resolution rates remains a target for 2010 with the introduction of Problem Management and a focus on Knowledge capture and re-use. A Service Catalog is already underway and Service Level Agreements will be phased in over time to drive continuous improvement and closer dialog with both the business and enterprise customers. Reflecting on progress to date, Wieckowski is clearly delighted, “Northwestel has experienced a cultural ‘whirlwind’ in the past year, but implementation-wise it has pretty much been plain sailing. I can’t say enough good things about how proactive and customer-focused VMware has been at every stage. Working in partnership with VMware consultants has been a pleasure, and they have been instrumental in helping us to realize and exceed our ambitious Year One ITIL project goals.”

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VMware Service Manager provides ITIL Service Management and Help Desk solutions including Incident Management, Problem Management, Configuration Management, Change Management, Release Management, Service Level Management and Availability Management software. Copyright © 2010 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.