CLIENT
1
operating countries
1
employees
T-Systems is a division of Deutsche Telekom with a global infrastructure of computer centers and networks, operating information and communications technology for multinational corporations and public institutions.
CHALLENGE
With a permanent workforce of more than 46,000 employees, T-Systems are always looking for innovative ways to increase the efficiency of their operations and keep them running smoothly. Part of this involves enabling company employees to optimize their job performance by issuing them with precise task instructions and making scheduling information available to them at any time and in any location. To achieve the highest levels of service, T-Systems also required the capacity to report system problems both online and offline. To carry out these IT projects while reducing costs, T-Systems required a well-organized partner possessing considerable telecommunications experience and offering the value of an outsourcing firm.
SOLUTION
We began by setting up an offshore development center (ODC) to train personnel in specific technology and business areas to T-Systems’ specifications at a number of the client’s German offices.
The next step was the development of the project’s central component, a sophisticated incident management system. This was designed to organize workflow, gathering real-time information about damaged or malfunctioning telephone lines, terminals, and other equipment, and automatically generating job tickets for service technicians. The delivery of tickets was facilitated by the creation of a dedicated capacity management system – an intelligent resource scheduling system holding information relating to the profiles, skills, locations and availability of individual service technicians. Operating alongside, an equipment management system recorded the status of equipment at all times.
With these systems in place, we developed an external service interface to provide technical specialists with remote access to pending work requests via laptop or pocket PC. Once a job is completed, the specialist uses the interface to update the task’s status, and this information is returned to the equipment and incident management systems.
We went on to create a web portal to address the needs of customers experiencing difficulties with their service. Having submitted a query, customers are able to monitor its status online. In parallel, we also set up a call center where maintenance or repair issues can be phoned in where internet access is absent for any reason.
RESULTS
Since January 2006 a fully operative ODC has been operating at Reksoft, with over 60 engineers working full-time. Six months after the project’s launch, we had enabled cost reductions totalling 40%. Since then, the nature of the outsourced work-packages has changed from small change requests to large projects, with T-Systems delegating more and more responsibility to our ODC, and cutting back its own project involvement from 20% to 5%.
We have demonstrated a range of competencies in building systems for incident management, equipment management, capacity management, call centres, and web-based portals, along with other high-quality software programming technologies. Our continuing collaboration has already resulted in substantial improvements to T-Systems’ IT infrastructure, especially in relation to servicing and customer care issues, and all projects to date have been implemented on time and under budget.
TECHNOLOGY
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Borland Application Server
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Oracle Database
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Borland VisiBroker
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J2EE
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XML Beans
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IBM WebSphere Portal
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IBM WebSphere MQ
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CORBA
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ActiveX
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Microsoft .NET 2.0
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JavaScript
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Remedy ARS adapter
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Microsoft SQL Server
SERVICE
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Application development
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Application maintenance
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Application support
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Consulting
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Product development
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Testing