How Bilpartner Lowered IT Support Costs By a Whopping 50%

Challenges

BilPartner had been working with same Managed IT partner for many years. Unfortunately, both the customer-vendor relationship and the quality of their managed IT operations had aged poorly. Especially the latter had a negative effect on BilPartner's day-to-day business. Due to a slow and unstable IT environment, BilPartner's IT team was forced to connect with their IT supplier's service desk far too often. And since BilPartner's IT infrastructure was far from modern, system errors tended to be hard to solve, labour-intensive and - overall - far too costly. Invoices had gone up in both frequency and cost. BilPartner's management team decided this was no longer a viable way of running their IT organization. Changes had to be made, and alternative solutions had to be explored.

Goals

Recommend feasible and cost-efficient alternatives for Managed IT services.
Stabilize IT operations and significantly reduce amount of support tickets.
Reduce overall support costs for entire IT operations.
Install proper wifi solutions on all three office sites.
Agree on Service Level Agreement (SLA) with clear expectations.

Solution

In short, BilPartner's IT operations had to be modernized. No more unstable and unreliable IT infrastructure. No more spotty wifi across their three sites. No more support tickets going back and forth without any swift and effective resolutions. BilPartner's staff simply needed a much better IT organization to enable - not disable - their daily work. In spite of BilPartner's urgent need for IT improvements, for the customer it was important to make these changes gradually.

So, over the course of several months, we took BilPartner's IT operations through these steps:

Understand the current situation by talking to IT and staff stakeholders.
Recommend the right types of modern technology solutions.
Support IT requirements specification, system selection and procurement.
Ensure proper installation and configuration of new IT systems.
Document new and improved IT-related processes.
Install new wifi solution at all three office sites.

Results

Before we started working together, we found BilPartner's IT operation in an expensive and rather neglected state. From the management team, to IT users and staff; the frustration with the current state was palpable. Work was interrupted far too often. In general, working efficiently was almost impossible. And the invoices from their IT partner had become too high and too frequent.

Even with a limited budget, we found ways to gradually improve BilPartner's aged IT environment. Our IT consultants helped with selecting and implementing the right modern technology solutions to enable efficient daily operations. Ultimately, the effect of our modernization efforts were even better than what BilPartner had hoped for.

The number of support cases has dropped dramatically by no less than 80%. Overall IT support costs were sliced in half. As planned, after we'd finished installing the new wifi solution throughout their three office sites, internet connectivity was flawless. In other words, BilPartner's staff were finally able to do their work as expected, without unnecessary interruptions or IT hindrances. In the end, proper IT operations are meant to enable - not disable - your people.

As an extra benefit, we managed to identify several opportunities for cost savings during the IT selection and procurement process. By investing these IT cost savings into marketing and sales, BilPartner even found a way to sell more cars and speed up revenue growth!