Process consistency to underpin growth
OVHcloud is a global player and the leading European cloud provider operating over 450,000 servers within 40 data centres across 4 continents to reach 1.6 million customers in over 140 countries. The Group offers customers the latest-generation solutions combining performance, predictable pricing, and complete data sovereignty to support their unfettered growth.
In an 'as-a-service' world, operational efficiency is everything. While OVHcloud recognises that enterprise customers will have very different requirements from tech start-ups, it wants to bring global scale and consistency to its service, giving customers complete peace of mind. It is also aiming to create distinct SLAs for different market segments.
The OVHcloud customer support function is a vital part of its operation. It aims to offer effective, efficient and impactful assistance to increase loyalty and accelerate OVHcloud's transformation while securing profitability.
"Our customers need to be able to access help quickly and the navigation process must be as smooth as possible", says Stéphanie Jacquet, Head of Operational Excellence and Digital Customer Services at OVHcloud. "Response times are key. Customers need to be able to find the right information instantly, and navigation has to be seamless".
Creating an end-to-end vision
ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM) has replaced the previous homegrown solution at OVHcloud, establishing a new platform and approach to service. Importantly, it allows the business to automate common requests, connect global service delivery teams and meet ever-evolving customer needs efficiently.
The solution was designed and deployed with the assistance of Capgemini, a ServiceNow partner and OVHcloud's global integration partner. Crucially, CSM is hosted on-premise, in line with OVHcloud's strategy for a sovereign cloud managed and hosted in Europe. This supports the business's strategy of having a local presence with a global process.
"Before ServiceNow, our customer service department was relatively isolated—at least in terms of tools and technologies", Stéphanie explains. "We had one tool for logging tickets, another for documentation and a whole host of others for processing requests. Our aim was to have a connected end-to-end vision of the entire customer experience and ServiceNow is making that possible".
Working closely with OVHcloud, Capgemini built a rich working knowledge of the environment, with technical insight into the company's goals. This was critical in helping to set up a strategic project focused on creating a dedicated Centre of Excellence, nicknamed The Factory, that would leverage the ServiceNow engagement. The Factory now mixes out-of-the-box features offered by CSM with bespoke tooling, giving OVHcloud a broad digital foundation with a range of functionalities, shared processes, and accessibility options.
"We chose ServiceNow because it offers a comprehensive ecosystem", says Stéphanie. "There is a help centre, community forums, the ability to consult documentation and the option to log cases and escalate them to technical experts. We can also measure customer satisfaction".
Quick responses support wider goals
CSM is now used by over 500 agents in 11 contact centres worldwide, handling 18,000 cases a week across seven languages.
"Agents now have very high levels of responsiveness. They receive customers' requests and immediately provide initial support", says Maxime Urbaniak, Team Leader and Managing Customer Advisor at OVHcloud. "An important benefit is the ability to have meaningful communication between teams. It enables us to react quickly and bring added value to the end customer".
It's also a solution capable of scaling and supporting larger business goals, which will be a critical factor as OVHcloud looks to accelerate growth globally, specifically in Asia and North America.
"Working as a long-time partner has given us a clear sense of OVHcloud's priorities", says Habib Nouar, Projects and Consulting Lead at Capgemini.
"With a focus on streamlining customer workflows, we can help them reach their goals and harness the full value of ServiceNow".
Agile processes, impressive progress
Progress is evident. In just one year, OVHcloud saw an 80% reduction in case resolution times and an 83% reduction in the average speed of answer to reach a 25% global increase in service quality.
Average issue-resolution time has fallen from five days to just one, while the number of logged cases has been cut by 10%, despite a significant increase in customer numbers. The benefits also extend to OVHcloud staff; agents are happier, more engaged and more productive, with an increase of 33 points in employee satisfaction survey results since the launch of the ServiceNow CSM platform.
"ServiceNow has removed friction and enabled us to become more agile, especially in administering in-house services and managing requests", says Jessy Gancel, Platform Owner and ServiceNow Internal Competency Centre Lead at OVHcloud. "We have moved from having different tasks carried out by different teams to a unified, personalised experience".
Adding real value
OVHcloud is committed to developing the ServiceNow engagement further. The Factory currently comprises a team of 10 ServiceNow experts and is managing most upgrades in-house, with plans in place to create new integrations and refine the platform further still.
The addition of ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) is also bolstering key areas such as incident handling, and problem and change management.
"ServiceNow has boosted the maturity of our ITSM and CSM processes by creating a catalogue of in-house services and orchestrating all actions that were previously performed by scattered teams", says Jessy. "It's ensuring that we add value to our end-to-end service".
In tandem, CSM and ITSM are moving OVHcloud closer to its goal of a unified support platform. The result is a business with fewer silos, greater clarity around service delivery, and a consistent communications message. From a customer perspective, it will enable OVHcloud to articulate a clear service proposition for different segments, with distinct SLAs for enterprise and SME customers.
"The value provided by ServiceNow is undeniable and real, and can be measured directly in the ServiceNow solution", concludes Axel Mac Namara, Chief Customer Officer at OVHcloud. "We have processes adapted to each customer segment, and we continue to develop the platform itself to include other teams at OVH and centralise even more information".