Client
The Client is a global information company providing information for the financial services, media and corporate markets. Although best known as being one of the world’s largest multimedia news agencies, more than 90% of its revenues are derived from its financial services business. The group operates in over 80 countries world-wide.

Project
The continued growth of the business through acquisitions across the world had led to a fragmentation of the IT infrastructure and associated delivery model, resulting in a lack of central control.

The Client understood that they needed to change the existing IT Service Delivery Model to incorporate greater flexibility and improve overall responsiveness.

A recent review of the IT Service functions, including infrastructure support and service delivery had been undertaken, but had not delivered a strategy that gave clear direction to delivery.

Xantus was appointed to manage the programme moving forward and clearly define the Scope, Goals and Objectives and develop an appropriate strategy along with an initial business case.

Approach
Xantus proposed an analysis of requirements against both the high level ITIL sets and the functional elements of service design to ensure that the scope considered was in the correct context.

The Xantus team initially engaged in data gathering to understand what technology currently existed, how it interfaced within the company and what costs were being incurred through its usage. This data gathering took place over all commercial supplier arrangements and existing service arrangements, including the Service Support Model and the Service Delivery Model.

Xantus’ objective was to find a solution that provided a commercial approach which would fit into the strategy recommendation that would be flexible enough to match the changing business requirements.

The outcome was a detailed Road Map of the IT requirements to build an efficient IT Service Delivery Model.

Benefits
Xantus developed a six step strategy to achieve best in class delivery of IT Services which clearly articulated the journey to achieve the recognised industry path towards virtualisation and automation.

Early in the process, it was clear that the Client would need to work closely with their suppliers to identify whether the defined strategy was capable of being delivered and supported.

Xantus managed the engagement with the Client’s Strategic Suppliers in order to understand the best practice models employed by the suppliers, and the best practice in the market place. This had to include solutions that had actually been delivered as well as some of the blue sky thinking that the Suppliers were developing.

Based on the information available, Xantus produced a high level Business Case that identified a potential for 22% savings over three years by adopting the defined Service Delivery Model.

Feedback
Xantus helped the Client’s IS&T organisation establish an initial business case for the transformation of the Service Delivery function. The Global Head of IS&T Infrastructure and Services commented “We relied on Xantus to inform us about current IT market trends, and to work with us to establish some base data on our current service delivery.

We chose Xantus because of their agility and track record. They are open-minded in the way they approach challenging projects, and have a unique background and skillset which combines people who really understand IT, and IT delivery, with a deep awareness of the direction our industry is taking. The expectation is that the resulting programme will radically shape the way our service is delivered to our customers.”

More Information
For more information and a full version of this case study, please contact Catherine Sanders at Xantus on 0161 495 2330 or email catherine.sanders@xantus.co.uk