The organisation advancing biomedical research
Founded in 1989, Miltenyi Biotec advances biomedical research to shape the way cancer, autoimmune diseases and neurodegenerative disorders are treated. It develops products and services to support scientists, clinical researchers and physicians across the world. The company currently has over 4,700 employees across 28 locations.
What makes Miltenyi Biotec a unique place to work isn't just its focus on cell-based innovation and targeted therapies, it fosters a creative working environment driven by its pioneering spirit. And this isn't limited to research and product development, it's a philosophy the company applies to every department.
"Technology should be an enabler to innovation, not a barrier. There are lots of processes and systems supporting the work we do. We need to keep things running as smoothly as possible while making it easier for staff to navigate their working life," says Nils Pokorny, Group Leader of Enterprise Service Management at Miltenyi Biotec.
The organisation has been using ServiceNow IT Service Management since 2017 and as it implemented more solutions from the Now Platform, ServiceNow has evolved from an IT ticketing solution into a digitalisation platform used across several departments. In 2023, Nils' team rolled out Employee Center Pro with HR Service Delivery to unify employee services onto one platform with a single log in.
"We ran a survey to find out what users liked about the old portal and what was missing in terms of support," Nils recalls. "The feedback was that they didn't know where to get help and wanted an overview of the services available. The launch of Employee Center was announced around the same time—it was exactly what we needed."
User-friendly self service
The Miltenyi Biotec portal currently has more than 3,000 active users each month, with more than 50% of them visiting the portal at least once per week. While many employees are working in labs instead of a regular office environment, this is a clear indicator for great user acceptance.
When they log on from their web browser or via the Now Mobile app, they land on a slick page branded to look and feel like the company website. This makes it easy to navigate through the array of tabs and buttons to find the service they're looking for.
On the landing page everyone has a section called 'My active items', which keeps track of any open tickets, travel requests, hardware requests or pending approvals in one, simple dashboard.
"The portal can be seen as a layer of engagement that hides the workflow complexity of the underlying platform from the employees. It connects our entire suite of ServiceNow solutions as well as apps we built on ServiceNow. Employees can create a facility request, such as reporting a damaged door, request IT hardware, submit an NDA or initiate a project proposal," explains Nils.
As well as centralising HR, facilities and IT services, Employee Center also streamlines processes across departments. For example, if an employee needs a new TV screen for their office, they submit a request through the portal. Once approved, the selected screen and wall mount are prepared by IT staff. Assets are tracked and managed by IT Operations Management and the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Once everything is set up and delivered to the office, the facilities team gets a ticket with a task to install the device.
"We're adding new capabilities to the portal all the time. Our colleagues need to travel between global offices and for events, so we implemented the HR Service Delivery module to handle travel requests from the portal," Nils says.
The team also added a dedicated project management portal page where employees can submit proposals for research or organisational projects. Depending on the type of project, different approval and review workflows are triggered. Previously, these processes were managed on paper with actual physical signatures. Today, project proposals and projects are managed digitally through Strategic Portfolio Management.
And that's the beauty of the Miltenyi Biotec Portal, with ServiceNow, the team can continue to connect, automate, and optimise processes to improve the employee experience, meet them where they are and boost productivity.
"We're onboarding more teams and rolling out additional HR services, a knowledge base, and giving departments the option to have their own microsites where they can share articles and list their services," explains Nils.
Using analytics to identify areas for improvement
Miltenyi Biotec is not an organisation that leaves things to chance. To make sure the portal is delivering optimal self-service experiences, the team uses analytics to monitor usage, frequent search terms and click flows.
Since going live, the company hasn't experienced any major tech issues or incidents with the portal and processes are running smoothly. Staff are happy and thousands of cases are now handled seamlessly without spreadsheets or emails.
"I'm really proud of how we're changing the perception of ServiceNow from an IT tool to a company workflow platform. ServiceNow has grown alongside our business and we can now offer a range of services in one portal with a great user interface," says Nils.