Ordina

How a Belgian MSP Uses Digital Transformation to Preserve Its Edge

FAST, EASY ROLLOUT

SEAMLESS CUSTOMER COLLABORATION

INCREASED USER SATISFACTION

“In retrospect, we should have done this implementation before. A tool is just a tool, but it can ensure that people work better together. With Xurrent, our people are more satisfied at work, which means we can provide better service. Certainly for service providers, it pays to work together on a tightly integrated ecosystem. This is the way of the future.”

Jo Geeraerts, Business Unit Manager BPS, Ordina

Taking a Digital Lead Over the Competition With a Future-Proof SIAM Solution.

Ordina is an independent IT Services Managed Service Provider (MSP) active in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The company devises, builds and manages solutions for the automation of business processes and ICT by connecting technology, business challenges and people. With an annual turnover of more than 369 million euros, around 2,650 employees and 8 offices, the company is one of the major players in the Benelux. Ordina was founded in 1973 and its shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam.

Ahead of Change

Ordina presents itself to its prospects and customers as a digital transformation partner. With great people, services, technologies and tools, they strive to keep their clients ahead of change. With growing reports that their current service management solution – an on-premise TOPdesk implementation – was no longer adequate, they decided to conduct an audit.

A new solution was to bring Ordina service management to the cloud. TOPdesk was consulted for a current version of their software, as well as ServiceNow and Fresh Service, but the choice quickly fell on Xurrent. For several reasons.

• The user interface: Ordina wanted an attractive product that would immediately guide their internal and external customers through the Ordina IT service delivery journey
• Flexibility: Easy adjusting to workflows and methods without customizations
• Approachability: Both Xurrent and the partner InfraVision were easy to talk to, transparent and quick with answers
• Integration: A complete integrated solution without the need to keep purchasing and installing separate modules
• New features: The continuous development and rollout of new features that become available automatically
• And: SIAM. The world revolves around services, in every sector. In order to be able to implement integrations with external parties easily, Ordina is going to get the advantage it is so keen to give its customers

Jo Geeraerts

Business Unit Manager BPS, Ordina

“I strongly believe in the SIAM philosophy, as it ties in seamlessly with our slogan ‘Ahead of Change’. We see from the market that there is growing traction on the SIAM idea and for service providers it is already becoming a unique selling point. For some customers it is even a requirement to be able to work with them. I am convinced that we are now getting ahead of the competition.”

Implementation

The implementation of the Xurrent Service Integration And Management solution at Ordina was done by InfraVision, an experienced partner of Xurrent. According to Jo Geeraerts, Business Unit Manager BPS at Ordina, the service organization had an immediate click with the implementation partner. “They have an unassuming approach, are very available and approachable, and know their trade. If we had to start over, we would change nothing. InfraVision had a clear step-by-step plan and a flexible approach, which is now clearly reflected in the results.”

Xurrent is based on standards, so every implementation is the same. This makes it very easy for Ordina to integrate with customers that work with Xurrent as well. In four months, the service organization has set up a working system that sees new users and departments added every week. 

Within those four months, they also made all necessary integrations, like single sign-on (SSO), SAP SuccessFactors for the HR department and Microsoft Intune. Xurrent is used as the single source of truth, enriched with data from the other tools. The Infravision integration platform functions as middleware between these components.

Training

For the transfer of knowledge to our teams, InfraVision has undertaken the first training courses, particularly the administration training. Ordina’s product owner then took over for the preparation of specialists and end users. With the help of the partner and the standard Xurrent training, this also was a smooth transition. The product owner has already gained enough knowledge of the system to independently onboard new customers and employees and to provide demos.

Scope

• Request Fulfillment
• Incident Management
• Knowledge Management
• Configuration and Asset Management
• Service Level Management
• Change Management

Go Live

The kick-off of the project was at the beginning of June 2020, and in October the system went live with one business unit plus some external customers. The company-wide launch took place in January. From that date, most parts of Ordina work together seamlessly on the same Service Management platform: IT, Service Desk (which manages the digital workplaces for the entire Ordina Group with over 3,000 workplaces), Supply Chain & Optimization, Security & Privacy (on a separate domain), SAP, Robotics and Facilities.

Jo Geeraerts: “Next in line are HR and the remaining business units. And of course all existing external customers, either through integrations or via Trusts, if they also use Xurrent. From now on, we will offer Xurrent to all our new customers. Using Xurrent will not only help us with collaboration but also with acquisition.

Results

At the time of writing, Ordina has not yet conducted any quantitative research into performance indicators, such as speed, costs or employee satisfaction. But the informal feedback from the users is extremely positive, especially about the userfriendliness and transparency of communication. The famous thumbs up in the Self Service portal are also highly appreciated, it provides a good insight into user satisfaction and is already used to improve internal services. The overall acceptance is impressive.

One of Ordina’s biggest wins is Knowledge Management (KM). It gives them the opportunity to communicate indirectly with the end user, without the need for a request or incident. This, in turn, gives them more control over operations. Jo Geeraerts adds: “Our Supply Chain & Optimization unit – which provides niche services to customers in service and project form – sent us an email to thank us for the results and the priceless new opportunities that Xurrent and its knowledge management now give them to further expand their business. How is that for acceptance?”

Another winner is the reporting module and all its features. In the previous system, Ordina had hardly any reporting options, and now they can draw up reports themselves and create and share dashboards (for example via QR codes). The mobile app also functions wonderfully, and, in their words, “everything just works.”