ClientThe Barcode Warehouse Industry Mobile solution provider ServicesServiceNow ImplementationBuild new asset management system

Challenges• Improve operational effectiveness• Consolidate different systems and replace service desk• Improve competitiveness

Benefits• Improve efficiency, lower costs, provide higher service levels• Greater visibility over operations• Develop unique automated asset management system

The Barcode Warehouse (TBW) is one of the UK’s leading mobile device managed service and barcode solution providers. It has implemented an innovative application of ServiceNow for service and asset lifecycle management. This has allowed TBW to increase operational efficiency, improve service delivery to customers, and together with mobile device management tools enhance visibility over mobile assets.

The Barcode Warehouse deploys ServiceNow for unique service and asset lifecycle management

“ We have achieved key goals of improving operational efficiency and lowering costs, providing an even higher level of customer service, and building a competitive advantage in the provision of data analytics.”

CASE STUDY

Executive Summary

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Building a robust operational infrastructureTBW provides managed services, enterprise mobile device technologies, barcode printer systems, labels and RFID tags. However, TBW relied on legacy systems to manage the inbound and outbound flow of assets and to log service calls. To improve efficiency and increase the robust nature of the service offered to customers, TBW needed to invest in its operational infrastructure.

CASE STUDY

“ We chose ServiceNow as it offered a configurable solution that could immediately meet our core requirements. We chose Gold Services partner TeamUltra as they had the expertise to build the functionality to meet our complex asset management processes.”

Martyn Broadhead, Sales & Marketing Director at The Barcode Warehouse Limited, picks up the story:

“It was important to consolidate a number of systems and requirements onto a single platform. For example, we used one system to support our service desk and another to help track our assets.

Our existing infrastructure has been heavily customised over time and ‘out of the box’ service management systems couldn’t meet our diverse needs. We wanted a platform that was sufficiently flexible to grow with us and bring automation to a number of different business processes.

We chose ServiceNow as it offered a configurable solution that could immediately meet some of our core requirements. We chose Gold Services partner TeamUltra as they had the expertise to build the functionality to meet our complex asset management processes.

TeamUltra delivered a solution that has enabled TBW to replicate and enhance the functionality from our current systems whilst extending the automation to lines of business outside of our core managed service offering.”

TBW needed a scalable system that was capable of managing thousands of mobile devices. Broadhead adds:

“TeamUltra built an intelligent asset management infrastructure using ServiceNow in several unique ways. They worked closely with our IT team under a very tight deadline with a challenging set of requirements. With significant commitment from across the project team, the first phase was completed in just 13 weeks.

In addition to Incident, Problem and Change management, a significant amount of work went in to map our unique operational asset processes such as bulk management and tracking of our assets.

This was a pre-requisite for replacing the existing service desk which means our staff can now manage customer calls and requests in a more efficient manner.

For example, when the service desk operator logs an Incident any associated tasks are automatically created and allocated to the right team. This automation ensures that we cut down manual activity and provide a better, more streamlined

Creating a new asset tracking system in 13 weeks

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Broadhead says, “We now capture more information from the customer when an Incident is generated. This has enhanced the robustness, accuracy and quality of our asset and Incident data.

ServiceNow feeds into a data warehouse along with other internal data sources, Broadhead notes:

“This provides us with a rich source of data to analyse in order to better understand our business, and aid future decision making such as identifying recurring problems.

It also drives a new dashboard product for tracking assets which presents information to our clients in dynamic and innovative ways. Our ability to report to customers on service delivery status and performance is vastly improved.”

During User Acceptance Testing, TBW showed the system to one of its major customers. Broadhead states:

“Getting feedback from key customers enabled us to sense check what we were doing and feed into the on-going enhancement process which meant we delivered a market ready offering.”

ServiceNow was also integrated with TBW’s main courier partner. This has two advantages:

• ServiceNow can automatically print outbound dispatch labels with barcodes for tracking and supporting documentation for the courier which eliminates further manual effort for TBW

• ServiceNow exchanges information with the courier’s internal systems so that the service desk can track precisely where an order is and who it was delivered to.

service to the end customer. It also reduces the chance of errors during fulfilment.

The implementation was extremely successful from my perspective given the deadline and what we were trying to achieve. TeamUltra essentially built a new ServiceNow application to meet our specific requirements for efficiently and accurately tracking and managing the lifecycle of the assets. We are now in a phase 2 and are refining and enhancing the system.”

TBW stage, gold build and kit many of the mobile devices that it provides to customers. ServiceNow was enhanced to record and track the assets including particular builds and work in progress states for the devices. Adding further complexity is the need to associate an asset with a specific network, SIM card or charger.

TBW also offer a next day technical exchange service for faulty devices. When a customer requests a replacement, ServiceNow creates an Incident which generates the necessary tasks to prepare a device with a particular build and accessories and then ship the ‘kitted’ item to the customer, so the user can literally switch on and began their workflow task. Similarly, tasks are created if an on-site fix or assistance from the device manufacturer is required.

Broadhead adds, “We are building a detailed Knowledge Base in ServiceNow of the different Incident types. Greater automation has increased our operational speed and efficiency, for example ServiceNow creates a corresponding task to manage receiving faulty devices at the same time as an Incident is logged.”

Automatically managing tasks

Creating a new product

Integration with external couriers

Enhancing operational efficiencyBroadhead sums up the business benefits that ServiceNow and TeamUltra have delivered:

“We have achieved our three key goals of improving operational efficiency and lowering costs, providing an even higher level of customer service, and building a competitive advantage in the provision of data analytics.

We have made significant process improvements. By applying greater levels of automation to the asset flows we have reduced the operational cost of processing assets and the early indicators are that we have positively impacted on our unit transaction costs.

We can bulk process the onboarding for hundreds of devices. As they go through each part of the staging process, we can automatically allocate the units to a specific office within a particular location which saves an enormous amount of time.

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“ We continuously invest in our operational capabilities and we now have an enterprise grade service management and an innovative asset lifecycle management system. ServiceNow is our strategic platform for process and service management, and TeamUltra are our strategic partner to deliver this vision.”

ServiceNow gives us greater control over our operations. We have better visibility over our assets and can track precisely where any asset is at any given point in time. This information can be communicated directly to customers without having to contact the courier.”

Broadhead explains the benefits TBW have enjoyed:

“We continuously invest in our operational capabilities and we now have an enterprise grade service management and an innovative asset lifecycle management system. ServiceNow is our strategic platform for process and service management, and TeamUltra are our strategic partner to deliver this vision. The project has board level visibility and ultimately it has gone down well with our customers too.

We are committed to looking at how we can expand the scope of ServiceNow so that we can bring automation to other lines

of business such as managing our warranties and extended warranties. This will deliver further benefits from our investment.

We have pushed the boundaries of ServiceNow and we couldn’t have achieved this without the expert technical assistance of TeamUltra. The engagement has proved successful and we are well positioned to launch several new product offerings secure in the knowledge that our technical infrastructure will support whatever operational requirements we throw at it.

We have developed a solid commercial and working relationship with TeamUltra and I would recommend them to companies looking for a ServiceNow partner that can not only implement a standard Service Management system but can go one step further and build powerful automation capabilities to help improve business processes, no matter how unorthodox they may appear.”

sales@teamultra.net www.teamultra.net +44 (0)1628 638001

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