Case Study
How a $10B consumer brand reimagined IT with UST’s managed services model
OUR CLIENT
This client is one of the largest and oldest consumer product companies in the United States. With annual revenue that tops $10 billion, the company employs approximately 15,000 people and produces many of the most popular household brands on the market. With a vision of optimizing every aspect of their business, the client wanted to enhance their IT managed services. With UST’s invaluable expertise, the client aimed to address the IT challenges faced efficiently.
THE CHALLENGE
Wanted to replace the managed services vendor to improve IT technical support
The complex, multinational consumer goods manufacturer required help managing 70 business applications as companies in the consumer products industry face several unique IT challenges, such as supply chain complexities, e-commerce demands and seasonal peaks along with the need to frequently adapt their business models to keep up with the pace of digital transformation in consumer products. The best solution to address these challenges is to invest in robust, cutting-edge technology and solutions that are crucial to ensuring continued success. Although the company had a managed IT support services vendor to tackle the consumer products sector IT challenges, the IT team wasn’t satisfied with the service it received. The IT department sought improved communication and program management, as well as roadmaps to automate repetitive, manual IT tasks and modernize 60 aging, on-premises applications.
THE TRANSFORMATION
Engaged UST IT managed services for business applications to transform IT support services.
The long-standing consumer goods company tapped UST for a strategic IT partnership and to replace the previous IT service provider. To actively address the manufacturer’s needs for better communications, automated processes, and application modernizations, the UST team implemented these key programs:
Around-the-sun support services—This 24/7 program, which tracks with the time zones around the globe, provides the company’s IT team with highly skilled technicians to resolve level 2 and level 3 incidents and minor enhancements. With a team of 30 people based in Mexico, Spain, and India, there is always someone available to support the company’s global business applications.
Automation roadmap—To help the IT team become more efficient, UST created a strategic plan to methodically eliminate manual, repetitive daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.
- DevOps governance and implementation services—Although the company had taken small steps towards DevOps, it hadn’t fully embraced an agile development approach. UST educated the IT team on business agility principles and trained key people on roles, responsibilities, and governance best practices to lay a solid foundation for DevOps application development.
- Application modernization roadmap—To complement the DevOps effort, UST created a plan to modernize and streamline the company’s 60 aging, on-premises applications by migrating them to the cloud and consolidating multiple instances of the same application. UST assigned a small team of developers to accelerate the application modernization initiative while the manufacturer gains momentum with its DevOps effort.
- Managed IT support services maturity model—To help the company improve the overall effectiveness of its internal IT services, identify points of improvement, and ensure the IT department is aligned with the company’s overall business goals, UST implemented a maturity framework to benchmark and measure improvements in IT tech support services.
THE IMPACT
The deployed managed services team is driving IT transformation from a cost center to a business enabler.
With a successful track record of managed services from UST over the last two years, the company is strategically, methodically, and steadily improving its IT landscape, enabling increased productivity that leads to faster product development, reduced costs, and improved bottom-line results, as well as better overall IT services. In this coordinated global engagement, UST’s team of 60 people diligently worked on more than a dozen managed services projects, accomplishing an estimated 40% more work overall with the same number of people as the previous vendor. For example, the former vendor resolved approximately 2,500 support tickets per year. UST’s around-the-clock application support services team of 30 people handled 4,000 tickets in a year. This 63% improvement, in that initiative alone, is indicative of the benefits of managed IT services. In addition, the UST managed services initiatives have helped the company implement cloud security policies, automate application releases to reduce manual errors, improve application uptime and usability, and lower costs, enabling the IT department to shift from a cost center to a business enabler.