The automotive sector is often described as one of the most competitive arenas in the global economy. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the real sharp end – in the dealerships that sell the cars and maintain them. In an era of over-capacity, reduced margins and intense competition, customer care is a priority that has to be balanced against operational efficiency to ensure business survival. One company that has found the answer is Norway’s MøllerGruppen. To help run their network of 150+ VW Group dealerships across Norway and the Baltic countries, they have deployed a highly automated IT environment from HP. Improved service levels for customers and users is one outcome, while sharply reduced costs is another. Watch out, Volvo and Saab!
Following a rapid expansion from their Norwegian homeland into the three Baltic countries, MøllerGruppen (MG) were quick to realise the importance of providing the highest quality IT services to their 150+ dealerships. With a mix of in-house and third-party software running all critical business functions, applications consistency was essential so that dealerships could offer the same standard of customer services, access the same applications and provide reports in the same format.
Following a detailed internal review, MøllerGruppen decided to take a fresh approach to IT service management by replacing proprietary solutions (that is, bundling selfmade management tools with outsourcing services) with open solutions, leaving MG with alternative options.
Their primary objective was to improve business efficiency by reducing risk (removing dependency to one provider’s ability to deliver service) and reducing costs, while becoming better able to react to structural changes in their industry. The first major challenge to overcome was software distribution and installation. With over 100 servers and 3,000 clients in the widely dispersed environment, the rollout of updates for business-critical applications was highly dependent on the software distribution solution and service. And with nine scheduled releases a year – plus patches – it inevitably meant that MG would benefit from getting an open solution and at the same time reducing costs.
After a selection process, HP was the vendor chosen to design and implement an integrated IT Service Management architecture that fully met the requirements in the tender documents. MøllerGruppen already had very positive experiences of HP through previous deployments, and they also visited two HP Software reference customers to see at first hand the benefits offered by the HP Business Technology Optimisation (BTO) suite.
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