Users are supported by a service desk, with BT providing all first-line support – which can involve handling as many as 1,450 calls a day. Raising the level of service to internal customers was a key objective for BT, and within just six months of working with Computacenter BT was able to make significant improvements.

For example, in the first year of the contract, the SLA for the national repair service improved from 64 per cent to as much as 93 per cent. BT has also been able to enjoy other benefits. A key objective is that Computacenter reduces the cost of managing BT’s desktops by a guaranteed amount, and in the first year of the contract BT saved more than £7 million.

This ability to make ongoing cost reductions relies heavily on the continuous improvement business process re-engineering (CIBPR) that is being undertaken by Computacenter. As Ashley explains: “CIBPR helps identify where efficiencies and savings can be made by continuously reviewing standards and processes across all of BT’s sites. Not only does this help ensure that service improvements are constantly being achieved, it also ensures that the services we deliver to BT evolve with the changing needs of its customers throughout the duration of the contract.”

By using IT service management best practice and recognised tools such as ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library), Computacenter has helped BT to provide a significantly better desktop service to internal customers – and at a reduced cost. The service provided now is more efficient and ‘joined-up’, there are more management controls in place, and budgeting is simpler thanks to a transparent cost per user.

The desktop managed service contract is just one element of the partnership between Computacenter and BT. The two companies are also committed to combining their expertise and resources to help deliver IT and desktop management solutions to businesses and public sector organisations. “Having created the industry benchmark for the management of our own desktop, we are now extending the partnership with Computacenter to help address the needs of our customers,” comments Pierre Danon, CEO of BT Retail. “By combining our strengths and skills, we are able to offer customers a comprehensive suite of services and solutions to meet their IT and communication requirements.”

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BT - Managing the desktop

Delivering effective, continuously available desktop services has massive cost implications. Many organisations are turning to external service providers to make efficiency and productivity gains, and the desire to ‘do more for less’ was a key driver for communications and technology giant BT.

BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications and technology services and one of the largest private sector companies in Europe. With an annual IT spend of around £1 billion, it had already taken a number of steps to reduce its IT operational costs, including using the network to drive desktop management best practices such as remote monitoring, helpdesk remote support, builds and application packaging. However, it was keen to enhance these savings even further.

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As BT explained: “We have a large desktop/laptop estate widely dispersed in the UK with 7,000 home-workers. Managing all aspects of this environment internally was making less and less sense.” BT also had other goals that included improving service levels, and transforming and growing external opportunities.

"Having created the industry benchmark for the management of our own desktop, we are now extending the partnership with Computacenter to help address the needs of our customers"

The most effective way to achieve these goals was for BT to outsource some aspects of the management of its desktop environment. This approach also enabled BT to benefit from industry best practice, and to build a partnership with a desktop services provider for external opportunities.

Computacenter has a strong working relationship with BT dating back nearly 10 years. It competed against four other firms to win the five-year contract.

As Penny Edwards, service implementation manager at Computacenter, explains: “The managed service contract covers a range of areas, including provisioning, installation, maintenance, PC refresh, disposal and support – all of which needed to be seamlessly transitioned without any impact on the end users. This alone was a massive challenge, plus we were working to a very tight timescale.”

Some 347 BT engineering staff and 90 contractors made the transition to Computacenter under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings, Protection of Employment) regulations, which protect employees and their contractual rights when staff are transferred from one company to another. “Communication was fundamental to the success of the staff transfer and their integration with Computacenter,” explains Dave Ashley, sector services director at Computacenter. “The engineers being transferred had worked at BT for an average of 25 years, so it was essential that we helped them cope with and accept the change.”

The success of this process is best demonstrated by the improved performance, and the fact that more than two years later, 99 per cent of the transferred staff have remained at Computacenter. Computacenter’s performance is measured against numerous service levels, covering everything from hardware and software provisioning to desktop installation and repair.