Learn how adopting ITIL, installing flexible service desk product and adopting a company-wide focus on IT excellence has helped Endava lead the way in the services sector.

Endava is a shining success story for the IT services sector, listed No 17 in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 in 2010. With performance statistics which others in the industry can only dream of, Endava employs over 600 staff full time across the UK, USA and Eastern Europe, and boasts an annual turnover of £23 million and yearly growth projections of over 25 percent.

Endava delivers full project lifecycles, from application delivery and testing through to support, hosting and managed services for some of the world’s leading financial services, sports, media, telecommunications and professional services companies.  It adopted IT service management software Sostenuto from Sunrise a year ago, to support its high standards of service delivery.

Service management

In such a dynamic environment, the expectations placed on each and every department are high.  Delivering the best possible service to customers is top of the agenda across the whole company, and in particular its service management operation.

Dale Godfrey is head of service management within the managed services operation of the Endava Group, overseeing procurement, processes and supplier relations.  Godfrey introduced Sostenuto to the company a year ago, as the result of a procurement process aimed at raising the bar on service delivery.  Key criteria for the new solution were support for ITIL processes, strong asset management capabilities and a high degree of flexibility.

Having shortlisted five software solutions following the Service Desk and IT Support Show, his team piloted Sostenuto to assess its suitability for the business’s sophisticated service management requirements.

”As an IT services company, we need a highly flexible solution to support our clients,” says Godfrey.  “Sostenuto came up trumps because it is so customisable.  It was clear very early on that Sostenuto could be set up to work as we wanted it to.  The software is driven by rules, which came across clearly, even at the demonstration stage.  This means we are not strapped into taking on weeks of consultancy to make processes work the way our business requires them to.”

“Sostenuto is particularly user friendly,” he adds.  “It beats other systems hands down in the breadth of functions it offers.  The search function is excellent and makes life easier, and small things make all the difference, such as when you add notes to a call, the ability to select the email you are referring to means that you can have all of the information in the same place,” explains Godfrey.

Client demands

IT services businesses live or die by their service delivery performance, and for Endava the drive for improvement is constant.  With clients such as pension corporations, which need their IT systems to provide accurate information one hundred percent of the time, there is no room for error.  With such critical functions at stake, a failure to meet service level agreements can lead to severe penalties for Endava.

Lianne Lewis (pictured), who has responsibility for service delivery processes within the business, is heavily involved in the day to day running of Sostenuto, which is now used by over one hundred staff across all of the company’s offices.

“Our aim is to have Sostenuto underpinning all of our processes,” says Lewis.  “Because ITIL is built into the product, it is great at enforcing these processes for us, and we have been able to adapt the software to suit additional processes as well, such as those involved in the ISO 27001 standard for customer service which we adhere to.”

Reporting has been a very important area for Endava, both for supporting customer relationships and for gauging operational performance internally in order to retain the company’s highly competitive position.  Client support managers use reports generated from Sostenuto, as a tool for demonstrating value and performance in monthly client meetings.  Lewis also explains how improved communication achieved with Sostenuto has been beneficial.  “Our clients have seen a huge improvement in our communication with them, and this has really enhanced their perception of Endava.  Email notifications in Sostenuto work wonders for us.  We can tailor our messages for different customers, and make them look good as well.”

Working with Sunrise

“Sunrise is a very helpful company to work with,” says Godfrey.  “The service desk is brilliant, and really held our hand when needed from the moment we went live.”

There are extensive plans for extending the reach of Sostenuto within Endava, and the next steps include the introduction of further services such as change management, procurement, and project management.

“It has been a good ride so far,” concludes Godfrey.  “It is still early to provide statistics, but there is no doubt that Sostenuto will wipe the floor with the previous system which was in place.”