Chessington, UK – 16 August, 2007
The London Branch of Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg (LBBW), one of the six largest banks in Germany, is using Sostenuto ITSM, Sunrise’s browser-based service management software, to manage the rapid creation of new applications as the business adapts to changing market conditions.
True end-to-end service management
With strong business growth in recent years, the pressure is on IT to develop and support new systems to accommodate this. As well as the core ITIL processes, Sostenuto now manages configuration items, change and contracts, and is currently being tested as a means to manage defects in software development projects. The end result is a system which truly captures the notion of end-to-end IT service management. For example, incidents can be linked and associated with change within Sostenuto. This will prove vital as the bank rolls out a planned migration of its core banking system.
Introduced in 2006 to replace a paper-based system for managing IT services and an in-house system for managing the development life cycle, Sostenuto has been central to the automation of ITIL processes, offering an auditable management process and helping to improve the professionalism of the department.
James Clear, LBBW’s head of IT, says that Sostenuto makes every action clearly accountable and it is being asked to carry more responsibilities across the business as more departments see the benefits. Sostenuto has been a “great success”, according to Clear, because it can be configured by the IT team to fit any process they might wish to create. “We are growing all the time as an organisation and we needed a solution that was flexible enough to accommodate our changing requirements.”
Transforming working practices
Clear gives several examples of how Sostenuto has transformed working practices. He speaks of how it highlights “IT problems at department, user and system level”. This has allowed the department to focus its resources on areas which needed attention but might otherwise be overlooked.
“Sostenuto uncovers lots of issues I would never have suspected and each time we become aware of one of these and resolve it, the improvement in our service is very clear to see. Sostenuto has also allowed the team to hold suppliers accountable. In the past we had a few occasions with calls that were logged with third party vendors that were not resolved quickly enough. Now, we can produce reports and provide them to the liaison officer to get these issues resolved.”
Finally, Sostenuto helps ease a process which many financial institutions are familiar with: the audit. By having all of their reports available electronically and in the same place, Sostenuto cuts through the piles of paperwork normally required to satisfy the auditors. Clear is confident that the next audit will confirm how Sostenuto has tightened up processes and improved accountability.
About Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg
With around 12,250 employees in the Group, Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg is the largest bank in the southwest of Germany. LBBW ranks among the six largest German banks and among the 50 largest credit institutions worldwide. LBBW’s head offices are located in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Mannheim and the bank also has various global locations.