Sony: Service Management Standardisation

Sony was undergoing a significant reshaping of its European business operation. As part of the restructure, Sony was seeking to consolidate and standardise its European digital support and service operations.

Sector
- Private Sector

The Challenge

Sony was undergoing a significant reshaping of its European business operation. As part of the restructure, Sony was seeking to consolidate and standardise its European IT support and service operations.

The consolidation was targeting significant cost savings and had to deliver with no impact to the on-going business. This change programme was required to be delivered across a diverse and complex environment, consisting of 4,500 users and 5 languages across a total of 20 European countries.

We were therefore engaged to manage this end-to end-programme.

Sony is a global manufacturer of audio, video, communications and information technology products for consumer and professional markets. Sony Europe is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation with Corporate Headquarters located in Surrey. Its role is to manage and develop the company’s electronics business across Europe.

The Challenge

The Solution

By taking a holistic view and managing the end-to-end programme, we were able to provide the right solution for Sony. We assembled a team who had a wealth of experience in this area and so, with our expertise, were able to mitigate risk.

We implemented a standardised solution across the European platform for their internal IS solutions, which included a standardised desktop and a centralised Helpdesk function (Single Point of Contact) for the whole of Europe. This single point of contact took away the complexity of internal IS support.

A key component to the technology refresh was new email infrastructure. We managed the review, selection and the contract negotiation process for the outsourcing of the refreshed infrastructure.

We also managed a rigorous service transition and assurance process and defined a standard operating model for the European business, which could be scaled globally. The introduction of ITIL based service management processes increased service quality and availability and ensured continual service improvement.

The Results

The standardisation and consolidation of the European IT infrastructure, support and service operations resulted in significant cost reductions, more than €2 million.

The programme further ensured Sony had the appropriate systems and processes in place to deliver IT services in a consistent way and with a big focus on service quality.