Case Study Isabel Group

Transcription

1 Case Study Isabel Group We re very proud of our ISO/IEC certification as one of only three companies in Belgium Sabrina Defraene Chief Operational Officer Isabel Group Isabel Group Isabel Group is a Belgian company founded in 1995 by four banks, the present shareholders. Over the years Isabel Group has grown to be the leading provider of multi-bank internet services for professional users primarily in Belgium. Isabel Group ensures customers including major companies, SMEs, schools, the self-employed and government agencies can choose the best products and services offered by over 25 banks at the best conditions. The headquarters of Isabel Group are in the center of Brussels. The company invests more than a third of its turnover entirely into innovation. Customer Benefits Processes are more efficient Efficient process integration Higher level of maturity Isabel is continuously improving services The documentation of processes provides a solid baseline Maintain and grow Isabel s presence in a consistently changing market One such investment has resulted in Isabel Group meeting the requirements for the ISO/IEC standard. This is a significant achievement, since Isabel Group is only the third company in Belgium to have achieved certification. Organisation Profile Industry: Users: Customers: Founded: Financial Services 75, , Services: A leading provider of multi-bank internet services.

2 Pink Elephant is an international knowledge leader in the field of business innovation and business change. With advisory and IT services, Pink Elephant draws the best out of its clients, by translating knowledge and creativity of the people in these organisations into tangible results. About ISO/IEC ISO/IEC :2011 is the international standard for IT Service Management. It specifies requirements for the service provider to plan, establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain and improve its Service Management System (SMS). The requirements include the design, transition, delivery and improvement of services to fulfil agreed service requirements. The Necessity of Using Standards According to Sabrina Defraene, Isabel s Chief Operational Officer, the ISO/IEC certification wasn t really the goal Isabel Group set out to achieve initially. We were looking for ways to improve our efficiency and internal processes to achieve a higher level of maturity within the organisation. With a certain level of maturity regarding internal processes, Isabel Group can respond better to trends in the market and keep its market leading position. The better the service and the higher the maturity level in your organisation, the more you can stand out from the competition Defraene believes. If we have a solid baseline in our Service Management processes and continuously keep improving them we are much more able to maintain and expand our current position in the market. We were looking for ways to improve our efficiency and internal processes to achieve a higher level of maturity within the organisation. In order to improve the structure and maturity of Isabel s internal processes, the company wanted to use a worldwide standard as guideline. According to Defraene, the ISO/IEC standard came closest to what they were looking for. Isabel Group aimed for compliancy to the ISO/IEC standard by structuring its Service Management processes: receiving the certification was, at the start of the project, seen as a nice to have but not the specific target. The focus was on improving and structuring processes. But as the project progressed, Isabel realised they could reach the level of maturity required for certification; both as an acknowledgement of their hard work and to prove to the outside world that Isabel has mature service management processes compliant with a globally recognised standard. The better the service and the higher the maturity level in your organisation, the more you can stand out from the competition

3 Pink Elephant as advising partner Pink Elephant was involved in the ISO/IEC certification project from start to finish. Pink Elephant already had a long standing presence within Isabel Group delivering a variety of projects and fulfilling interim management roles. Defraene explained, Isabel has been working with Pink Elephant consultants for quite a while, since Projects have included tool vendor assessment, the transition of one service desk provider to another and bringing the new team into Isabel Group HQ. Roles fulfilled have varied between Service Desk Management to Head of Service Management. All the consultants from Pink Elephant who were and are seconded here are of such a high level regarding their knowledge and skills there was no need to look elsewhere. Implementing There was a core project team of four people. Paul Jeffries Principal Consultant at Pink Elephant, was part of the core team together with Vincent Bouillon, Service Operation Manager at Isabel Group. In March 2015, the ISO/IEC project started, aiming to be fully implemented in 12 months time. But where do you start with a big project like this? Bouillon explained. We began with setting milestones on the timeline, which were reviewed every two months by our executive sponsors, the COO and CIO. Then we started on the first task: documentation, an important part of ISO/IEC 20000, since you have to prove that your processes work just the way you described them. All the consultants from Pink Elephant who were and are seconded here are of such a high level regarding their knowledge and skills there was no need to look elsewhere. After that, all the processes within Service Management had to be mapped and divided amongst nominated process owners. Jeffries added: It was decided to define the processes pretty much from scratch taking into account Isabel s current way of working and the requirements of ISO/IEC This approach ensured that the things Isabel did well continued to be done and the things that needs improvement were designed in line with the standard. In terms of process ownership, we ended up with 22 separately defined processes, but of course we didn t want that many process owners - most process owners own multiple processes.

4 Audits During the implementation of ISO/IEC 20000, Isabel performed internal audits to establish if the project was on schedule and processes were compliant to the standard. It was also to simulate and prepare for the external audits, Jeffries explains, so everyone knew what to expect and to make sure every process was functioning correctly according to the standard and process documentation. Bouillon adds: The initial goal was at the end of the year to be at a level where we would have no major non-conformities against the standard in any of the processes. The external audit is conducted by an independent Registered Certification Body (RCB). The audit is divided into two primary stages. Stage one checks that all the necessary documentation is in place and of a sufficient quality. It s during this stage that the auditor determines if a company is mature enough to go for certification. Stage two of the external audit is interview based and covers every process. This stage is conducted over several days after which Isabel was found to be compliant to the standard s requirements and were awarded ISO/IEC certification in March ISO/IEC certified We re very proud of our ISO/IEC certification as one of only three companies in Belgium, Defraene says. It proves that we do everything we can to improve our services to our customers and that we have a solid base of internal processes. With all processes compliant to the ISO/IEC standard, it is easier for Isabel Group to adjust to the changing financial legislation. At the moment we are working on a project to be compliant with the new Payment Service Directive legislation, where we can fall back on the processes we implemented for the ISO project. As Isabel Group already has standardised processes and documentation, it is likely only small changes need to be made to those processes to be compliant with the European legislation. The initial goal was at the end of the year to be at a level where we would have no major non-conformities against the standard in any of the processes.

5 Staying compliant The new way of working based on the ISO/IEC standard meant a change in the daily work of Isabel Groups employees. Some were a bit hesitant, Defraene says, since the way we were working before ISO/ IEC wasn t wrong. Why should you change something that s working fine? That was a mindset we needed to change. By involving the right process minded people in the organisation the message about ISO was spread. People are glad in the end that there is guidance on how we do things they have the documentation of all the processes to fall back on. The effort doesn t end with receiving the certification, in fact, that s where it starts according to Jeffries. You have to stay compliant. Every six months there is an external surveillance audit undertaken by the RCB to review that you are still operating in a way that is compliant to the standard, to ensure you are continuously improving your processes and that your documentation is still of a good quality and represents how things are actually performed. Every process owner has defined a set of KPI s for their processes to report on the fact that they remain compliant to ISO/IEC and continue to be fit for purpose. Every month these KPI s are reviewed to identify potential improvement opportunities. Efficiency and compliancy Bouillon addresses the importance of efficiency whilst implementing a standard such as ISO/IEC The fact that you met the requirements doesn t mean your processes are efficient. That s why we decided to define processes from scratch, so you can design them to be both compliant and efficient. He also says the continual service improvement is a difficult mindset to achieve within a company. Once you have the certification, you have got to keep improving. That process must become a habit, business as usual. It s challenging, but once the process of reviewing and improving is fixed in people s mindset it works out great. Why should you change something that s working fine? That was a mindset we needed to change. By involving the right process minded people in the organisation the message about ISO was spread. People are glad in the end that there is guidance on how we do things they have the documentation of all the processes to fall back on.

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