Case Study
Transforming the helpdesk for a retailer: How UST SmartOps intelligent automations increased the first-time fix rate to 97%
OUR CLIENT
This prominent European health, beauty, and pharmacy retailer operates nearly 2,000 stores. With a history dating back decades, the company offers a diverse range of products, including its well-regarded store brands.
THE CHALLENGE
Reducing IT ticket volumes and costs while accelerating resolution cycles
One of the largest retailers in the world sought to significantly reduce operational costs within its IT helpdesk. The customer approached UST with the goal of decreasing the volume of IT incident tickets and resolution time frames. The company also aimed to address these challenges:
- High incident volumes strained the IT Helpdesk, consuming substantial time and resources.
- Repetitive, manual tasks, such as password resets and account unlocks, diverted IT staff from more strategic work.
- The need to improve overall efficiency and reduce operational costs within the IT support function.
- The desire to digitize service desk operations to handle fluctuations in ticket volume and mitigate the impact of employee attrition.
To achieve these objectives, the retailer wanted to automate its service desk operations.
THE TRANSFORMATION
UST SmartOps enhanced support with AI-driven automations
UST employed its consulting framework, UST SmartStart, and machine learning (ML) algorithms to analyze the company's IT landscape and identify processes suitable for automation to achieve efficiency gains. This involved a detailed analysis of 260,000 annual incident tickets, an examination of telemetry data, and aligning the insights with the company's desired business outcomes.
A key focus was on automating frequently performed, time-consuming tasks, such as password resets, account unlocks, and access issues related to critical systems, like SAP, Mainframe, Active Directory, and Business Objects. These tasks typically involved generating random passwords, managing user information across multiple systems, and handling email notifications.
UST implemented the UST SmartOps intelligent automation platform to automate these processes. The platform was designed to read and understand email requests, automatically raise and close IT tickets, respond directly to users, and seamlessly integrate with UiPath robotic process automation (RPA) bots to execute the necessary workflows within Mainframe and SAP.
The engagement was structured under a capped 30% gainshare model, creating a mutually beneficial partnership that incentivized efficiency improvements.
THE IMPACT
A trifecta of business benefits
The strategic implementation of UST's intelligent automation platform delivered these significant, measurable improvements for the retailer's IT Helpdesk:
- 97% first-time fix rate (up from 78%)—showcasing the efficiency and effectiveness of UST SmartOps automations
- 95% savings in MTTR—drastically reducing incident resolution cycles
- 60% reduction in resolution effort—freeing IT staff to focus on more complex, strategic tasks
Could intelligent automations transform your IT support organization? Learn more about how UST SmartOps can help you.
RESOURCES
https://www.ust.com/en/industries/retail-and-cpg
https://www.ust.com/en/what-we-do/digital-transformation/automation