AEGIS Insurance adopts modern IT service management solution

AEGIS thrives on ITSM, seeks to modernize with help from ServiceNow
The AEGIS IT Office of the CIO consists of PMO, IT Governance, Compliance, IT Finance, Service Management, IT Strategy, and Procurement departments. The IT team wanted a modern solution for service management but also wanted capabilities to meet their needs in project management, compliance, IT finance, and other areas. Self-service and transparency for IT and its internal customers were also needed.

Himanshu Pandya, Sr. Manager at AEGIS says, “The business case and the value proposition of having one integrated system to manage the majority of our processes was a no-brainer.”

“We realized that we could do a lot more a lot faster with ServiceNow,” says AEGIS IT Project Manager, Steve Sikora. AEGIS IT understood how much it struggled with unstructured email, phone calls, and centralized documents, such as spreadsheets in the course of its day-to-day business. They wanted a better way to systematize and automate work requests and processes. “It’s about productivity and the ability to monitor and track the world that you’re responsible for,” explains Paul Hartmann, Compliance and Security Manager at AEGIS.

ServiceNow delivers a customizable, automated business solution
AEGIS began using ServiceNow to run the business of IT. It also wanted to create a centralized portal for employees to make various requests solve issues through a knowledge base, check the status of requests, and find information during an emergency. Once AEGIS automated IT functions, it quickly realized the potential of the Now Platform® to automate other business processes.

“We went to the three-day admin class for ServiceNow and we had the Incident Management and Change Management applications up and running a month later,” says Steve. Within a month, ServiceNow was live for IT. From there, the team began developing a centralized self-service portal and started creating custom applications on the Now Platform to meet specific business needs.

AEGIS applies service management across the enterprise

• Out-of-the-Office Management – Rather than simply depending on away messages generated by each person’s email account, AEGIS can centrally manage out-of-office scheduling and approvals. Previously, the team used a custom developed tool, but found it to be too limiting. The application created on the Now Platform is much more robust, with a back-end table containing 28 different reasons why an individual can be out of the office.
• The workflow behind this application assigns an appropriate approval process—for instance, vacations are handled differently than an education request. Everything is tracked and reported through a dashboard and analyzed in various reports. Calendars show others when a person is out of the office for planning purposes or to help find someone. The application integrates with HR and payroll systems as well.
• Governance, Risk, and Compliance for IT – Using ServiceNow Governance, Risk, and Compliance, the team was able to start monitoring IT compliance and risk by importing the entire IT risk matrix, as well as their controls and control tests, into ServiceNow. The team created both the manual and automated controls needed to help ensure compliance. Now, everything is integrated within a single system. Chain of command and separation of duties can be validated with a single look.

• Business Continuity and Emergency Preparedness – Through the self-service portal, the team developed an anytime, anywhere, disaster-proof method to get essential information to dispersed employees and provide business continuity through the request and approval functions. Having lived through the disruption of hurricanes, the team wanted to ensure that the company would run without interruption, even during a catastrophe. The site provides information based on the role and level of each employee. In addition, evacuation and recovery plans were developed and can be pushed out to the portal as needed. Other emergency documents are also delivered through the portal.
• Security Tracking and Monitoring – With some customizations to ServiceNow® Problem Management, the team created a way to track and monitor security related incidents. AEGIS needed the ability to track everything from a lost mobile phone to attempted hacking attacks. This facility gave them the ability to assign a root cause and track resolution of the security incident to the appropriate individual or group.
• IT Financial Management – With customizations to the out-of-the-box financial management application, the team developed various financial applications, such as:
  
  
  • IT Budgeting – A fully functional budgeting tool that gives the CIO online, real-time budget information, without having to wait for the data to be generated and supplied using a spreadsheet. This updated application allows the IT managers to input their budget information, based on budget lines, and gives the IT finance person the ability to enter actuals against budget lines.
  • Purchase Orders – AEGIS modified ServiceNow® Asset and Cost Management and uses it for generating purchase orders, alongside a print capability solution from the ServiceNow Share site.
  • Vendor and Contract Management – IT Vendors and their contracts are managed using ServiceNow® Vendor Performance Management. The integration between Contracts, Vendor and Financial Management functionality further validates the benefits of the Now Platform.
• IT Project and Portfolio Management – By customizing ServiceNow® Project Portfolio Management, the team has developed an IT project portfolio management solution that delivers the status of IT projects at a glance. This application allows project managers to provide status updates on the projects they manage and, through the use of email notifications, communicates the status to IT leadership.
• Managing Facilities with Service Automation – Using ServiceNow® Facilities Service Automation, the AEGIS IT team changed the model for making requests and reporting issues to the facilities division from an email- and call-based process to an employee self-service portal.

In addition, emails from employees to facilities can be automatically converted into facility requests. These requests are then automatically assigned to facilities team members. Urgent issues are prioritized for immediate response and the workload and performance of each team member can be easily tracked. Managers have insight into what each person is working on, how quickly they were able to respond to requests, and how long various issues take to resolve.

AEGIS success with ITSM leads to demand for more throughout the company
ServiceNow ITSM is now part of the AEGIS IT strategy. AEGIS IT understood how an automated service model could apply to almost every department and function within the company. Moving away from email, phone calls, and spreadsheet applications to an automated system—where everything is integrated by a single data model and management structure—profoundly changes the way work gets done.

It also brings a new level of reporting and understanding. Moreover, the cloud-based SaaS delivery model of ServiceNow is considered a significant benefit.

“Almost all of the time we spend on ServiceNow is to develop or test enhancements to features and functionality. We don’t have to spend any time dealing with the server configurations, patches, or upgrades. To me it doesn’t get any better than this from a productivity and time-to-market standpoint,” says Himanshu.

Demand for ServiceNow ITSM is spreading across the company. Based on the success with the Now Platform, other divisions have begun asking for solutions.

“For us, getting this rolled out shows that the product works beautifully. It’s growing organically,” adds Himanshu. Paul concludes, “If a group is using a spreadsheet to maintain data and organize work, it should be brought into the Now Platform. That makes it actionable, and we can track it and report on it.”

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