HCL BPO Streamlines IT Infrastructure
Priyanka Bhattacharya, EFY News Network
(Monday, February 12, 2007 6:49:35 PM)


The new IT management solution from HP is meant to provide the company a holistic view of the infrastructure to improve HCL BPO's customer service

Monday, February 12, 2007: It is known that organizations across the world have become dependent on IT to meet their business needs. This means that most organizations also need high quality IT services. With this aim to improve its IT service offerings to its global customers, HCL BPO decided to implement the IT Infrastructure Library system, which is a globally accepted approach to IT service management. The company tied up with leading IT vendor Hewlett Packard to set up what HCL BPO termed as Ensure IT, an infrastructure management solution.
Talking about need to go for EnsureIT, Ranjit Narasimhan, President & CEO of HCL BPO says, “There was need for an integrated Solution for providing a holistic view of the IT infrastructure in our company. We needed a solution that could maintain all hardware and software platforms through a single window. There was a need for drill down information to be available on demand. We needed service wise views to present an overall snapshot of IT performance delivered to the end-customer.” The company was looking for real time automated reports, which would enable accurate and faster decisions. “We wanted to monitor and measure thresholds pro-actively, so that we were prepared for mitigating risks of outages and changes needed from time to time. Proactive measurements and notification of system thresholds helps in reducing downtime, “he adds.

Thus the company invested Rs 1.5 crore into this project and partnered with HP. “We evaluated several vendors. We finalised HP as it complies to define ITIL standards in IT service delivery using automated tools. We were looking for a vendor that had a strong implementation experience in customising to BPO needs,” explains Narasimhan.

With EnsureIT, HCL BPO claims to be the first BPO in the country to successfully deploy the ITIL based management solution. This positions the company to expand its service offerings to its global customers. ITIL provides a cohesive set of best practice, drawn from the public and private sectors globally. It is supported by a comprehensive qualifications scheme, accredited training organisations, and implementation and assessment tools.

HCL BPO implemented three key modules namely the HP Service Desk, HP Network Node Manager and HP Operations for Windows. The HP Service Desk helps to manage the performance of I.T. team directly involved in servicing end-user requests. This helps the company to meet its SLA commitments with internal and external customers. HP Network Node Manager provides an instant snapshot of all network sub-systems in terms of their availability and utilization. “This helps us in managing a large and complex network connecting 13 delivery centers from various continents. At any given point of time, we can drill down to the minute level and measure the utilization or symptom of a problem,” informs Narasimhan. HP OpenView Operations for Windows provides comprehensive Windows-based event management for various applications and systems.

Spread across eight geographically dispersed centers and with a workforce of more than 11,000 employees, HCL BPO will now be able leverage EnsureIT as the single point of contact for end-user management. The newly deployed infrastructure management services harnesses 400 plus server and network infrastructure at HCL BPO.

Talking about the benefits of the partnership with HP, Narasimhan says, " HCL BPO is constantly looking for ways to optimise end-user satisfaction. The partnership with HP has made it possible for us to leverage our infrastructure better so as to maximize utilization, performance and improve response time. Our relationship with HP will be an an ongoing process. This collaboration can help us in benchmarking our I.T. service management to ISO 20000, and it would open more business opportunities in the ITES space."

With EnsureIT in place, Narasimhan plans to integrate business objectives tightly with IT services. This will ensure proactive monitoring of all infrastructure components and process oriented approach, which will lead to quick restoration of service. Through the new system, all stakeholders can get real-time information alerts through multiple channels including email, SMS and mobile. “We are going beyond infrastructure, which any way needs to be reliable. The combination of software, process and people will enhance trust as we can openly share performance with our clients. This will also ensure conformance to international standards of IT service management i.e. ISO 20000 and continuous self-sustained improvement for IT service delivery,” emphasises Narasimhan.