Dedicated to delivery.
Hit enter to search or ESC to close

Overview

The client is a Fortune 500 company and represented in the S&P 500 Index, delivering modern technology solutions across the entire enterprise technology stack.

Background

The company have delivery centres and data centres that service clients globally. They work with B2B clients in several industries and market segments.

Challenge

Resourcing was a key challenge, with talent retention a critical issue, particularly across the Nordics region. This impacted service-desk efficiency, and the SLA’s they were required to meet.

Opportunity

The company needed to expand its IT Service Desk operations and capabilities throughout Europe and improve employee length-of-stay. Cpl and Covalen had a significant market presence in the Nordics region, The Netherlands, and Germany with several sites in Central Eastern Europe (CEE). It was crucial the client improved service desk capabilities and scaled up its IT operations with key talent. 

Solution

Despite their diverse client base, a consistent, streamlined approach to recruitment, HR and talent management was required—with effective systems and training to hire, develop, and retain resources. Increasing quality standards to achieve a variety of SLA’s was critical.

Covalen’s Approach

Design and delivery of seamless 24/7 service desk support to meet the unique needs of diverse end-to-end business users in multiple languages – English, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, German, French, Dutch, Polish, Spanish.

Resources – Covalen and Cpl Jobs created a bespoke workforce planning tool, Resourceful, to forecast headcount in line with service deliverables and longer-term business initiatives. Covalen strategically evaluated resources to ensure a key talent pool was always available.

Quality – The client asked Covalen to lead quality management initiatives. Covalen created a Service Desk Quality Framework, a bespoke system called Experior to assess, manage, and improve call and case quality from a service, team, individual, and process level.

Training – Covalen developed an entire catalogue of employee training consisting of specialised company-certified training programmes. This approach led to a rise in the numbers of skilled employees— with the competencies to deliver high-quality service levels and achieve client SLA’s.

Career Progression – Realising the need to retain talent within the organisation, Covalen designed an employee progression plan incorporating six areas of career progression within the client’s service desk operations. The progression plan included internal mobility, i.e. service desk employees deployed to other accounts and geographies, and succession plans enabling promotion within departments such as Quality, Coaching, and Training. This method equipped the business for transition and growth.

Leadership Development – Impressed with the results of the employee training programme and career progression path, the client recognised the need to develop and expand leadership capabilities. Covalen advised, created, and implemented a Leadership Talent path, which again gave rise to increased engagement levels.

Retention – Covalen improved length of service from six to 18 months. The engagement model was instrumental in meeting business objectives, fuelled by a highly engaged workforce prepared to move up the career ladder internally.

Business Process Excellence – Covalen streamlined all capabilities and developed a leaner service desk organisation, and the client benefited from Covalen’s bespoke employee change management system, Centralis document control. Training employees to create, update, and centrally store documents for every process including change control, Covalen ensured the business was prepared for business continuity (BCP) and transition.

Over two decades, the co-creation approach between the client and Covalen inspired a trusted partnership, with Covalen operating as an extension of the client’s business. Consequently, Covalen sustained the client agreement and account relationships following the merger and restructure.

Covalen has continually evolved with the changing client organisation providing value through increased efficiencies, reduced costs, and best-in-class service delivery.

Key Outcomes

  • Scaled resources up and down across geographies to achieve client business goals
  • Leveraging Project resulted in cost savings of $13.5 million within 3 years (Dublin)
  • Successful transition of multiple services desks to other locations
  • Cross-site support between Ireland, Hungary, and Tunisia
  • Collaborative approach with the client for Business Continuity Planning (BCP). This included a highly successful remote-working delivery model during the Covid-19 pandemic.
CTA Left Image
CTA Right Image

Excellence in service quality & performance

Discover more

Technology Industry Case Study

Case Study

4mins

16th November 2020