Selecta unifies users onto a single portal

Consolidation of IT services across Europe
In 2020, Selecta launched a major, organisation-wide initiative to transform its operations and create a modern workplace. A central element of this change was a comprehensive redesign of the enterprise’s IT landscape.

Given the immense scope of Selecta’s operations, spanning 240 sites across 16 countries, the company’s IT services strategy had become fragmented. Different countries and locations worked in siloes with their own solutions and processes, leading to inefficiencies and making centralised oversight impossible.

Andreas Hanzlik, Global Head of Network & Platform Operations at Selecta, explains: “We wanted to consolidate onto a single service desk solution with the same processes for the entire company. We knew that unifying IT services would both enable our staff to be more productive and give us a level of transparency into incident tracking that we previously lacked.”

Modernising IT services on such a large scale was a considerable undertaking, and the challenge was further compounded by urgency. In order to align with the organisation’s broader transformation, the project had a tight deadline. With that in mind, Selecta needed both a leading-edge solution and an expert partner to deploy it.

Digital transformation at speed
When it came to choosing an IT services platform, Selecta did not have to look far. A number of its sites were already leveraging ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM), and it quickly became clear that the solution offered all the capabilities that Selecta needed—it was just a matter of rolling out the platform across the entire business.

“We already knew ServiceNow and were convinced by the platform”, says Roland Ludwig, CTO at Selecta. “It’s the must-have for an outsourced global service desk.” To lead the implementation, Selecta partnered with Sword Group, a digital transformation specialist with a wealth of successful ServiceNow deployments under its belt.

“I’m a big fan of using products out-of-the-box, rather than creating something bespoke”, says Andreas. “Sword Group has a lot of experience deploying ServiceNow for other clients, so we were keen to take advantage of their expertise and follow the best practices they’ve developed.”

Thanks to these best practices, Sword Group successfully completed the deployment across the entire business in just nine weeks, easily meeting Selecta’s deadline with time to spare.

“It was the fastest implementation I have ever seen”, adds Andreas. “Sword Group quickly designed, implemented and transitioned our IT processes in a pragmatic way so we could get immediate benefits from the ServiceNow solution.”

With ITSM in place, Selecta now has a unified service desk for the entire organisation. Regardless of which business unit or geography they are in, all staff can submit tickets through the same, user-friendly portal.

In turn all incidents, requests and assignments across more than 50 applications can be tracked through a single dashboard, providing an unprecedented level of transparency, and enabling improved management of operational priorities.

“Raising an incident is quick and easy with no obstacles”, says Philipp Stauffer, Product Lifecycle Manager at Selecta. “You can always see its status and history, and the overview is excellent.”

A better experience for users and clients
Today, 92% of all incidents and requests within Selecta are created on the new ServiceNow portal. And thanks to the streamlined incident flow and assignment process 91% of those requests are resolved either directly, or after a single reassignment—minimising the time and resources needed to resolve service issues.

“The way that we respond to issues has completely changed”, confirms Andreas. “Now that we’ve broken down the silos, we can pull in the right subject matter experts from across the business to bring services back up as soon as possible. Each and every improvement in this area helps us deliver a better experience to our clients.”

Feedback from internal users has also been overwhelmingly positive. Over the last nine months, response time satisfaction has increased by 32%, and overall experience satisfaction has risen by 26%. What’s more, user adoption is growing fast, with 18% more requests and 24% more new development requests made through the portal each month.

“Using the platform is comfortable and convenient”, says Philipp. “It’s easy to find out how to request hardware maintenance or manage applications. It’s a well-structured and intuitive experience.”

“I like the simplicity of the dashboard”, notes Roland. “You have a completely virtual and interactive tool set so you can focus in and gain a full understanding of what’s going on in the organisation.”

Continuous improvement
The initial ServiceNow deployment was only the beginning of the Service Operations strategy. Since then, Selecta has continued to work with Sword Group to deepen its utilisation of the platform. For instance, it has implemented automatic incident creation based on alarm monitoring, expanded its service catalogue by 50%, and it has just launched eBonding with ServiceNow and Freshdesk.

Looking ahead, Selecta has plans to adopt additional capabilities such as ServiceNow Discovery, ServiceNow Field Service Management, ServiceNow IT Business Management, and mobile app support.

“Thanks to ServiceNow and Sword Group, we’re now back in the driver’s seat of our own business strategy from an IT Digital Transformation point of view”, concludes Andreas. “We’ve been able to transition and optimise IT support and operations in all our geographies within a few weeks without any business disruption, while delivering a user-friendly portal, enhancing our end-users’ experience, and laying the groundwork for continuous improvement.”

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