The case study below describes how Aviva Life Insurance Company selected HEAT Software and created customized reports with Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to measure the performance of their Operational IT Services delivery.

Industry:  Insurance

Objective:  Customized Reports with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Using HEAT Software        

Aviva Life Insurance Company Selects HEAT Software and Creates Customized Reports with KPIs to Measure Performance of the Delivery of Operational IT Services

Customer Profile

Aviva Life Insurance Company (Aviva) is the U.S. subsidiary of Aviva plc, the world’s oldest continuously operating insurance group and a leader in the arena of global financial services. 

Its 350 US employees, based largely at its home office in North Quincy, Massachusetts, work with a national network of independent professionals to distribute their annuity and life insurance products to customers in all 50 states. Assets under management of Aviva Life Insurance Company have grown to $4.6 billion, and this growth has increased steadily.

Aviva Life Insurance Company’s ultimate parent, Aviva plc, is one of the 10 largest insurance groups and one of the 100 largest companies in the world.

Business Need

As a growing business, Aviva Life Insurance Company needed to evaluate how its IT Department was supporting the company’s business objectives and strategies. The standard of “managing by fact” was being applied to the IT Department, as it was to other departments within the company. 

Why Aviva Selected HEAT Software

The Aviva IT Client Services team required a trouble ticket system which would allow them to log, track and respond to technical issues reported by its employees.  They also needed to report on real-time metrics that are critical for the success of their operational IT support. The software solution also had to be cost-effective, meet their immediate needs, be expandable going forward, and be easily customizable by their own technicians. The award-winning HEAT call logging and tracking program fit that model and would allow them to begin a manageable project that would evolve and phase in over time.

They liked the fact that HEAT possessed all the essential functionalities, yet also had advanced modules available to accomplish more sophisticated processes, for when they were ready. For example, the “out-of-the-box” HEAT included the core capabilities for asset tracking and knowledge management; they knew that once they formalized these areas they could step up to the fully robust HEAT Asset Tracker and HEAT Plus Knowledge modules.  They have since added these modules as well as HEAT Self Service.

Aviva also selected HEAT software for its compatibility with the company’s operational IT services that span varying platforms including general office automation, voice-over-IP, UNIX, Oracle, various web based applications and mainframe systems.

The Process

The Aviva IT Client Services team had a clear support model in mind before implementing the software tool. With the help of SMA Management Systems and using ITIL best practices as a framework, their IT team was able to configure and implement HEAT software to support their IT service management model. Within a few months of using HEAT, it was rolled out to various other support areas.

Aviva’s next step was to hold discussions between IT Management and the COO to determine the metrics that would help all gain insight into the trends and performance of the delivery of operational IT services.

Having invested the time in the appropriate configuration of HEAT, they were able to create their own customized Crystal Reports to extract the information that provided them with key performance indicators (KPIs).

Their monthly reports reflected some of the best practices as described in ITIL. These KPI reports focused solely on operational IT services; they had separate KPI reports for IT development.  Some characteristics of the operational reports were: availability of systems (critical and other), differentiation between incidents (break/fix) and service requests (standard changes), and performance measurement in defined time periods (e.g. help desk hours) against targeted resolution times.

The IT department continues to prepare the KPIs on a monthly basis.  Using Crystal Reports as a query tool they enter the results into a PowerPoint presentation for the overall IT KPIs spanning both operational IT services as well as all IT development projects.  They then present them in a roundtable discussion attended by the COO, the CIO and the key IT managers.  The COO looks at the KPIs from a business perspective in “business language” and holds the IT department accountable. 

Positive Impacts

The response from management has been extremely positive. The KPI reports support an objective discussion based upon facts and have so far highlighted quite a few trends that had previously gone by unnoticed.  The process allows for refining the reports as indicated.

The reports have also had a positive impact on the IT department. Applying one standard reporting structure across all operational IT areas has taken away much of the mystique often associated with different technical platforms or user communities. The KPI reports have been a real boost to efforts for one uniform support process across all areas of IT and have done much to unify the support staff in working towards targets common to the team. The IT staff now sees the purpose of recording its work in a timely and accurate manner and has a better appreciation of how its work affects the overall service that a customer receives.

Analysis of the KPI results identified various trends that the IT department could act upon more effectively. For example, the reports revealed that one area of calls always stayed open a lot longer than others. Upon reviewing this they realized that this was a procedural issue that they were able to change so that they could complete similar calls a lot quicker going forward.

Indirectly, the reports have resulted in change in the allocation of resources to the IT department.  Now that they are able to report consistently, they can spot trends associated with the impact of the launch of a new system. And, having such facts available has allowed them to provide objective figures with regards to the additional effort required for future projects and associated resourcing requirements.

The KPI reports have certainly bolstered the professionalism of all operational IT support. It allowed them to move away from the subjective arena of “management by perception” to the objective arena of “management by facts.” That does a lot for the credibility of any department and helps build confidence in the services provided.

Summary

Aviva Life Insurance Company has taken an important first step that has allowed them to manage their IT department by fact, spot trends over time, and evaluate how it is supporting the company’s business objectives and strategies.  By having clear requirements for the HEAT service management tool with reporting in mind, they were able to have a rapid implementation and continue to achieve greater success, through modifications and the addition of new HEAT modules, even after the system went live.

About SMA Management Systems

Since 1984, SMA has provided help desk and support center solutions to Fortune 1000 corporations, small and medium-size businesses, educational institutions, healthcare organizations, government and not-for-profit organizations. SMA’s focus is to enhance business processes and productivity with best-in-class software products and implementation services.

SMA consultants apply their hands-on experience in building, evaluating, and managing help desk operations. SMA consultants ensure successful support solution implementations through services such as help desk assessments, knowledge management needs evaluations, product integrations and configuration, installation and management consulting, SLA development, Crystal reporting, and help desk software training.  SMA has been recognized by the Gartner Group for its technology consulting, staffing and organizational methodologies; SMA was also been granted the #1 HEAT Partner award in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008 by FrontRange Solutions.

SMA is headquartered in White Plains, New York and has offices across the US.  For more information on SMA, call 888.762.5989 or visit www.smasystems.com.

Contact us for additional details on these services or to arrange a preliminary meeting with one of our consultants.