Lalux Assurances Introduces SLAs with Vivantio’s Service Desk Software Tool

Introduction

One of the leading insurance companies in the Luxembourg market worked with Vivantio to experience a smooth ERP migration, a record-fast ITSM software implementation and a more collaborative way of working that resolves service issues more quickly and effectively.

The Customer

As one of the leading insurers in the market, LALUX Assurances offers its private and professional customers a complete range of insurance solutions (property, car, home, health, savings, and business) for all branches. LALUX is recognized for its award-winning quality of service.

The Need

To perform optimally, the company recognizes that it needs to stay close to its clients and provide high-quality personal service. As such, it has the largest network of insurance agents in Luxembourg and employs around 2000 permanent and contract staff.

When Lalux decided that they wanted to migrate from an aging ERP platform to a more modern system, they knew that the migration would need to happen with minimum disruption to users across the country. If it didn’t, the exceptional levels of customer service they provide would be affected and both their clients and the organization as a whole would suffer.

“Originally we thought we might be able to handle issues during the migration with an open source bug tracker system put forward by our new ERP platform provider, but it was clear from early on that the system wouldn’t be sufficient,” says Frank Brandenburger, Chef de Service, Département Informatique for Lalux. “When this became apparent, we had to move fast. With all the other work going on around the migration, we needed to find an alternative that would be intuitive, quick to implement and easy to manage.”

After researching the local market with little success, Lalux discovered Vivantio in a Gartner review of service desk solutions (Gartner: The 2011 IT Service Desk Market Landscape).

“We looked at a number of potential partners but the solutions they offered were all too expensive and complex to use,” says Brandenburger. “Some, despite the expense, also had limited functionality. For example, they would provide ticketing, but that wouldn’t be integrated into any kind of change management solution. We wanted something much lighter, easy to use but with lots of integrated functionality. When we discovered Vivantio, we saw that their ethos suited our needs very well and we added the solution to our shortlist.”

The Solution

As soon as he started to trial Vivantio’s solution, Brandenburger was impressed. “The first thing that strikes you is the interface – it’s very easy to use and highly intuitive,” he says. “Some of the other solutions we tried were very clunky. It seemed like their design was 10 years out of date.”

Although Vivantio is most commonly sold as a hosted SaaS solution, Lalux was also attracted by the fact that it’s available with an onpremise option. “We needed this to meet particular compliance requirements in Luxembourg,” Brandenburger explains.

After selecting Vivantio, things then moved fast. Installation, initial configuration and training were all completed in just three days. Training was carried out by the lead Vivantio consultant, who also taught Brandenburger how to configure the system in line with Lalux’s specific needs. This was so straightforward that he was able to pass on the training to his team of service administrators very easily.

“The roll out was amazingly quick,” he says. “If we’d gone with one of the other systems, the whole process would have taken at least three weeks.”

Once Vivantio’s solution was implemented, Lalux started to benefit immediately.

“Suddenly we were able to trace all issues in a much more coordinated way,” Brandenburger explains. “Ultimately, the ERP migration went as smoothly as we could have hoped for.”

Since the migration, Lalux has also adopted Vivantio’s solution as its full time service desk management system. Feedback from the users – in most cases the employees on the ground – has been very positive.

“It’s a big benefit to our users that they now have just one consolidated number to call,” says Brandenburger. “This effectively removes the point-to-point way of working that we had before. As a team we can trace every call, and also get an automatic log or history of each call as it’s completed. Overall this means we now have highly efficient workflows and a more collaborative way of working that resolves issues more quickly and effectively. Users are also happy because they can trace the status of their service requests without having to make follow up calls. Of course, the administrators are also happy that they’re not receiving those calls, too.”

Among other value added benefits, Brandenburger cites ease of reporting as another bonus; “It’s now very easy to export data and use it in the way we want for reporting,” he says. “More than that, another key advantage that really stands out is that Lalux service desk introduced SLAs for the first time.

“The introduction of SLAs is a sign of how far Vivantio has brought us in a short space of time,” says Brandenburger. “The improved way of working has brought us extra confidence to make guarantees about the service we provide. For everyone across the business, that’s a real win-win.”