Our insurance client faced numerous service failures, largely due to manual procedures within the Technology Function and poorly defined Incident Management procedures. Initially seeking help from one of the big four consultancies, they were unsatisfied with their findings, leading them to approach us for assistance in reducing the number of IT incidents.
Instead of solely focusing on the Incident Management process like the previous consultancy, we conducted a thorough end-to-end review, analysing the following processes;
- Project Development Lifecycle
- Warranty periods
- Service Introduction
- Release and change management
- Incident Management
- Problem Management
Our investigation revealed several issues within the end-to-end process that led to significant post go-live failures. For instance;
- The requirement gathering lacked engagement from key stakeholders, resulting in problems during the service introduction phase.
- The testing cycle lacked clarity, leading to assumptions and oversight of critical aspects.
- The warranty period lacked proper sign-off from business, technology, and development teams, leading to unresolved issues.
- A tendency to “fix forward” caused a growing number of manual processes that strained supporting teams.
- The Technology Function were not engaged in the Release process, there was little to no challenge, this was partly due to not having any dedicated Service Delivery Managers
- The Change Board did not have the appropriate SME’s from the business, the Change Board was primarily made up of members of the Technology Function
- Although the Incident Management and Problem Management processes were aligned to industry best practices, there was a lack of understanding of what Incident Management and Problem Management did, and so teams would perform Root Cause Analysis as part of Incident Management thus delaying getting systems up and running quickly
To address these concerns, we proposed and implemented several controls, including;
- hiring two Service Delivery Managers
- enhancing the Release Management processes
- implementing a new Warranty processes with stakeholder signoff
- and and establishing a project to identify and automate or remove manual procedures. As part of the warranty process a procedure was introduced to track any manual work arounds and agree when they would be automated in a future release or accepted as ongoing BAU activity
These measures successfully prevented a failure that could have affected 4,000 customers and resulted in savings between £1.2m and £2.6m worth of lost sales. Our holistic approach and comprehensive solutions helped our client achieve their goal of reducing IT incidents and improving overall service reliability.
If you are facing similar challenges and need assistance in optimising your processes and implementing effective controls, we are here to help. Contact us today to discuss your specific need and explore how our expertise can drive positive changes and prevent costly failures in your business operations.
Let us partner with you to enhance efficiency, mitigate risks, and ensure a smooth and reliable service delivery for your customers.
