Efficiently managing IT in an expanding group

Tradition and innovation
The company, owned by the Lavazza family for four generations, is one of the world’s leading coffee manufacturers. Established in Turin in 1895, it has always been distinguished by its innovative approach: from the development of the first coffee blends for domestic consumption to the recent launch of the first voice-controlled espresso machine based on the Amazon Alexa. The group is now present in more than 140 countries and employs more than 4,000 people.

Increase in IT complexity
Between 2015 and 2018, Lavazza acquired six companies and created a new business unit. The resulting increase in IT complexity revealed the limits of the solutions that were previously being used. Demand management activities were managed through email exchanges and telephone calls which made it difficult to keep track of requests and project progress. Service management relied on the use of different portals that were not integrated, making it impossible to identify the causes of disruptions.

New portals
Lavazza identified ServiceNow as the most capable of meeting its requirements with characteristics such as market leadership, flexibility, and direct integration between the various modules. Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) was used to create a portal to manage IT projects and requests, while IT Service Management (ITSM) was used to develop a portal focused on the IT service.

Strict cost control, service improvement
The SPM portal handles requests relating to new IT solutions and the enhancement of existing solutions. It allows staff in the IT department to manage these requests—and the associated budgets—more easily, keeping track of project progress. The ITSM portal allows users who open tickets to communicate directly with the agent resolving their queries. It also gives agents access to data, allowing them to identify and eliminate the cause of any disruptions.

More activities with unchanged resources
Lavazza can now manage the significant increase in complexity more efficiently, ensuring effective governance and strict control of the company’s economic resources. It is now considering the possibility of developing other portals based on ITSM and potentially adopting IT Operations Management.

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