A Case Study: Shell International Exploration & Production (SIEP)

How the implementation of Red Box helped Shell International Exploration & Production structure their Service Management processes and deliver a better service to their customers

When it comes to Service Management there is one aim: improving the service delivered to customers. While the aim is simple, the process of attaining that aim becomes increasingly complex in a world of constant business process reengineering and organisational change. To ensure customers receive the service they demand, an IT department needs to know not only who and where they are and their IT requirements, but also take on board the business requirements associated with different user departments.

Based in the Netherlands, Shell International Exploration and Production B.V (SIEP) is responsible for research and technical support for the exploration and production companies throughout the world. At the moment, SIEP's employees are divided over several buildings in Rijswijk and the central office in The Hague. However, "Our goal is to have all employees centred in Rijswijk by mid 1997," explains Anneke van Teijlingen-den Hertog, systems manager at SIEP. In addition to 900 Shell employees, SIEP employs about 400 contractors.

Service Management has traditionally played a key role within the IT department and, according to van Teijlingen-den Hertog, SIEP has been familiar with the ITIL processes for Configuration and Change Management, Help Desk and Problem Management for many years. To support these processes the company developed several applications in house, running on Digital VAX hardware, in addition to a packaged Help Desk solution.

In 1993, however, Shell Rijswijk decided to move away from the proprietary Digital VAX hardware and migrate its computing platform across to a client server Unix environment. At the same time it was becoming clear that asset management information was insufficiently up to date to sustain expected levels of Service Management.

"We needed to adopt a new support tool for configuration management," confirms van Teijlingen-den Hertog. "The maintenance of the in house developed packages was difficult, time consuming and expensive. And the applications were too complex."

At the end of 1993 Shell Rijswijk undertook a study to replace the three old in house applications by one configuration application with the ability to run on a Unix platform. "At first we tried to develop this application in house," she explains. "However, it became clear quickly that it was very difficult to encompass all the user demands into one application. It was impossible to program and integrate all the required functions in an easy and controllable way."

As a result, Shell Rijswijk reappraised its strategy and, by mid 1994, had decided to assess existing packaged solutions for Service Management, focusing specifically on applications that supported Configuration and Change Management. Explains van Teijlingen-den Hertog, "We decided that a functionally rich packaged solution would enable Shell Rijswijk to benefit both from proven technology and the support of a specialist software development company."

Having assessed the functionality of various packaged solutions, Shell Rijswijk was keen to find a software development company with a robust track record. "We wanted a supplier that was a solid organisation, thus ensuring continuity, quality and flexibility of the on going application solution," she says. In addition, there was obviously a need for a solution that supported the ITIL approach. Shell Rijswijk opted for the Red Box Service Management product from Ultracomp, purchased through local distributor Syntegra.

The SIEP user population comprises some 1,800 work-spaces of 1400 Pcs connected over a Novell network and 400 Unix workstations with central servers. This population is supported by the information technology and services department which has 125 employees divided between 45 Shell and 80 contract staff. The IT department is divided into five teams - Administration, Office, Workstation, Network and Seismic. The Administration team is responsible for configuration management, charging and tariffs, budgeting and purchasing.

In addition to implementing the Configuration and Change Management aspects of the Red Box solution, Shell Rijswijk also needed to develop interfaces to other core applications. These included an interface with the personnel database for a daily update of the user table; an interface with a general services database for a daily update of the location and department table; an interface with the general printing application for a daily download of print users; and a monthly running interface with a charging application. These interfaces were successfully developed and are now integral to the solution.

"One learning point was that Configuration and Change Management need dedicated, well trained administrative experts to keep the database up to date," says van Teijlingen-den Hertog. "It is not fair on a site our size to expect the Help Desk staff to integrate these tasks into their daily work. In our administrative team we have two staff dedicated to Configuration and Change Management."

Once the asset database was set up it was decided early in 1996 to replace the Help Desk tool. "It was clear that we could gain benefits from integrating Configuration Management with the Help Desk," she says. Plus, "The old application was inflexible, with limited expansion possibilities and the reporting capabilities of the solution were inadequate."

Having tested the Help Desk element of the Red Box application to ensure its functionality and applicability for the organisation, SIEP started a process of redescribing its Help Desk and problem management procedures. "We translated this in to a Red Box workflow and implemented the solution in June 1996," she says.

Initially, SIEP decided to have first line support working with the Help Desk module and second line support with the Problem Management modules. However, "In practice this was proven to be the wrong way to handle this. Often the second line support staff was involved in sorting an incident and it was a nuisance for them to have to create a problem for something that was no more than an incident," says van Teijlingen-den Hertog.

Within two months SIEP decided to create a new workflow which enabled second line support staff to work with the Help Desk module, ensuring they could decide themselves which incidents needed to be transferred to Problem Management. "The flexibility of the Red Box solution ensured that we could easily readjust our processes at the Help Desk," she asserts.

Since the introduction of the Red Box solution, van Teijlingen-den Hertog maintains SIEP has gained significant benefits. "We have a better and more consistent overview of assets and a complete overview of incidents and problems," she says. "We are also able to measure the performance of our service provider and our own staff, with better reporting for management and customers."

As a result of the internal reorganisations, SIEP experienced 1,300 moves last year - almost treble the normal volume. As a result, the system has been used only for new installations. "We have everything ready on Change Management to deal with all the moves," she confirms. "Once the reorganisations are complete we will then use complete Change Management for moves and for system changes."

The aim is to eradicate the paper flow between the Administrative and Installations departments. "Using the Red Box messaging system, the respective departments can update data fields as necessary," she explains. A move which, in addition to improving productivity, should also overcome the dangers inherent with loss of paper base records - such as delays and errors.

Indeed, the inherent ability to use the information collected within Red Box to provide detailed reports has already gained significant recognition within the department. SIEP has used the third party interface to Red Box to integrate its own in house developed Powerbuilder based reporting function, designed to meet its specific needs - as a direct result of the realisation from the 100 strong Red Box user population of the value of the information now available.

"Users can now ask their own queries of the system as and when they want," she claims. "In addition to a set of standard reports, they have the facility to tailor these reports themselves."

This is proving extremely beneficial, particularly in the area of Change Management. "If we are planning a software upgrade of, for example, software running on Silicon Graphics workstations, users can request: the number of Silicon Graphics workstations we have in place and their internal memory configurations which obviously impact a software upgrade," she says. As a result, with full product knowledge, there are no hidden problems when the machines are upgraded.

This year, SIEP intends to introduce the Operations Control module to, "Fully integrate the Red Box tool into our processes." And, the next development planned is to use web technology to provide customers with a view of the Red Box database. "We receive 2,100 calls a month at the help desk and there is always a danger of customers losing touch with what is happening to their particular problem or request," confides van Teijlingen-den Hertog. "This is particularly the case when they are travelling. Providing web access means they can enter their incident number, from anywhere in the world, and assess the current status of their problem. This is a very effective means of ensuring customers have up to the minute information."

And, she concludes, "The implementation of the Red Box product has helped SIEP to structure our Service Management processes and certainly helped to deliver a better service to our customers."

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