Reference VRT

Company description

The Flemish Radio- and Television Network Organization (VRT) is the public broadcasting network of the Flemish Community. The VRT’s objective is to reach a maximum number of media users with a wide range of quality programs that excite and satisfy the interest of the media users. The VRT offers audiovisual programs and services to the general public on all platforms, apart from commercial and political influences.

Background

A reorganization of the department Technology & Innovation (T & I), which also included a number of sub-departments, had led to a loss of coherence and efficiency. There was no clear view on the maturity status of the organization and the coordination of existing and interacting processes was suboptimal.

The customers of the Department Technology & Innovation (T & I) had very high needs and expectations, given the critical services that had to be ensured by departments like "Operations" and "Service Demand". User satisfaction level was low and improvements were difficult to implement in a clear and measurable way. Poor service level issues had the potential of becoming business-critical.

Role of our team

Xedis stepped in to provide operational excellence with a rational and pragmatic approach in line with the mission of T & I. Our goal was to raise maturity levels of T & I by reporting and applying improvements. This would lead to an increase in service levels and staff and customer satisfaction.

In order to offer quality services in a predictable, measurable and reproductive way we needed to take on a multi-dimensional role. T & I expected from our team:

  • to anticipate in an efficient, effective and flexible way to a specific and a global framework of the department

  • to be efficient by using existing frameworks, methodologies and best practices in a professional and a pragmatic way

  • to be effective by providing expert advice, experience and assistance throughout the organization during the various projects

  • to be flexible by having a team of consultants available in different roles and responsibilities during the mission

Approach and Processes

At the start of our mission we needed to find structural solutions for the severe incidents which occurred regularly on the infrastructure. In order to do so, the weak spots in the daily operations were identified and consequently dealt with by setting up and implementing the appropriate ITIL-process.

After this situation was contained we moved to setting up an entire process framework through tactical and strategic processes. At this stage specific tasks and responsibilities included:

 

  • Setting up, streamlining and implementation of ITIL processes

  • Running a maturity study based on COBIT and CMMI as a starting point

  • Containing cultural change and human resistance channel

  • Development of communication strategies to support the mission

  • Handling missions within the TIA program

  • Tool Migration from HP OpenView to Omni Tracker V10.

     

Our tasks included processes on the operational, tactical and strategic level.

 

  • < >: Configuration management, incident management and change management

    Tactical: Demand management, service owner management and project management

  • Strategic: Governance bodies and enterprise architecture

 

Results

 

Our approach resulted in many measurable positive effects and changes such as:

 

  • A significant decrease in all types of incidents

  • Documentation of the infrastructure with help of a CMDB of 28.000 related components

  • Fixed process ownership throughout the entire technology organization

  • Increased user satisfaction through clear communication guidelines

  • Making all teams and staff of the underlying service tool with the help of an approach targeting transition

  • More transparency of projects and portfolios

  • Rational prioritization of project and services by using quadrants

  • Revived élan for the architecture through a process-oriented approach, contribution of the right lead architects and business engagement

 

Next to this it is interesting to stress the changed way of thinking about Technology (including IT) at VRT. In the past, IT's main goal was to support the business by efficiently managing systems, improving service levels to users and driving costs out of operations. Today, there is the focus of advancing towards business-adding value by developing flexible capabilities to support growth, automating business processes, and facilitating mergers and acquisitions. Success is measured by how effectively IT can help the business support opportunities and respond to new challenges.

Contact us to find out we can achieve similar success and guide transitions in your organization!