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Home Vision Public sector issue 02 Repeatable and predictable IT services

Repeatable and predictable IT services

By blending innovation and industrialisation, Computacenter helps customers meet their goals for greater cost control and competitive advantage

Organisations are setting increasingly aggressive cost reduction targets for IT managed services contracts.

In the past, savings of 10 per cent would have been sufficient to justify IT outsourcing or out-tasking. However, in today’s climate of ‘more for less’, savings expectations have risen to between 15 and 25 per cent.

Not surprisingly, cost reduction remains the prime outsourcing driver, with 70 per cent of Computacenter customers citing this as their original objective in a survey by EquaTerra*. Quality improvement was also highlighted as a key factor by 56 per cent of Computacenter customers.

Steve Parlett, Director of Contractual Services at Computacenter, comments: “As well as delivering immediate savings, organisations want their IT partners to guarantee year-on-year cost reductions along with service improvements. This requires a standardised and repeatable approach to service delivery.”

Predictable outcomes and costs

To ensure it can meet its customers’ financial and quality goals, Computacenter has established an IT Industrialisation Programme that optimises both internal and customer-facing processes, such as project delivery, incident resolution, staff transfers and relationship management.

As part of the programme, Computacenter has established six unique methodologies, which are founded on ITIL best practices and promote the use of automated and standardised processes and centralised facilities.   

“Industrialisation is now at the heart of everything we do,” adds Steve. “It enables us to continuously improve how we deliver IT services, which means less cost and complexity for our customers.”

As a result of Computacenter’s unique approach, organisations are better placed to meet their outsourcing goals. According to the report by EquaTerra, 71 per cent of Computacenter customers achieved their original outsourcing driver – the highest rating among 25 UK service providers.   

Visa Europe is just one of the customers already benefitting from Computacenter’s industrialised approach. As one of only eight strategic IT partners, Computacenter is responsible for the strategy, provision and support of Visa’s corporate workplace technology. This includes major incident, problem and request management for approximately 2,000 Visa staff across Europe.

Bill Mann, Head of Visa Europe’s Service Management Office, comments: “Computacenter’s industrialised approach means we can take advantage of competitive commercials and best practice while also retaining a service that is tailored to the specific needs of our business.”

Continuous improvement and innovation

The company's Shared Services Factory is at the hub of Computacenter’s Industrialisation Programme, and brings together technical competencies, physical assets and best practice processes with a service-oriented culture.

“The Shared Services Factory enables us to capture lessons learned from working with our 2,000-plus contractual services customers to create a portfolio of proven processes that minimise risk and maximise results,” commented Steve. 

These processes are continually being evolved as part of Computacenter’s industrialisation initiative, which helps drive service innovation as well as ongoing cost reduction.

Computacenter’s CEO Mike Norris comments: “Customers don't just want an IT service provider that saves them money; they also want a partner that enhances their competitive advantage. Therefore at the same time as standardising our processes, we have retained a ‘can do’ and flexible attitude to support innovation.”

This commitment to innovation was highlighted in the EquaTerra survey with customers marking Computacenter above the industry average for UK service providers.

“We look to partners like Computacenter to help us implement industry best practice and evolve an approach that, ultimately, will differentiate us from the competition and benefit market share,” adds Bill.

Computacenter also scored above the industry average for customer satisfaction, service quality, price, flexibility and governance, putting it among the top ten of most recommended outsourcers in the UK.

“In today’s competitive IT services market, it’s not enough to just satisfy our customers; we need to delight them. Our Industrialisation Programme enables us to deliver predictable costs and service outcomes while innovating for the future,” comments Steve.

*The EquaTerra UK Service Provider Performance study for 2010

We make IT more predictable, repeatable and affordable through the industrialisation of our services

Industrialising IT operations videos

Computacenter tops customer satisfaction league table for end-user managed services,
in a new European outsourcing study by EquaTerra

Request more information on Computacenter's Contractual services