Case studies

Securing improved end-user services at lower cost for Syngenta

key fact

Syngenta is a Swiss-based biotechnology company that produces market-leading crop protection products and seeds which are designed to increase crop yield and quality. Operating across some 430 sites in 92 countries, it employs 28 000 people

Reducing operational spend on deskside services and service desk provision by more than 40%, also increasing service quality

Challenge

Syngenta’s ‘better for less’ vision was to reduce the burgeoning cost of IT services for end users by between 30% and 40%, and at the same time to improve service level, quality, and user satisfaction.

Mason Advisory was called in to find a way of achieving that vision, and then to execute the plan by finding the right suppliers and helping the business transition successfully to the new model. The new model needed to cover all user-facing IT services, including end-user devices, mobility, service desk and desk-side support services.

Solution

We worked closely with Syngenta stakeholders to develop a detailed picture of the service requirements so that we could begin to look for more efficient solutions.

We helped Syngenta to create a blueprint for the ‘end-user workplace’. As part of this phase, we undertook a baseline data capturing exercise to understand and benchmark the current service delivery model, volume quantities and metrics. We needed to understand exactly how the company’s overall end-user service costs broke down across its four main geographical regions – Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America and EMEA – and individual sites, ranging from offices to manufacturing plants and farms.

Our team then defined and categorised the differing user personas, and developed the desired model for supporting those personas, as well as identifying the organisational requirements and dependencies for reaching that future state. We also ensured that the future model was aligned to the business plan and technology roadmap.

After progressing through the first phase, it was clear that deskside services would be our initial focal point as these services had the best potential for achieving the biggest savings. Deskside services handle user issues which require the physical presence of an engineer to solve a problem – this could be in relation to the user’s device, network, printer connections or software configurations. We devised a pre-qualification questionnaire to help us short-list possible deskside suppliers, and then managed a number of briefing sessions. We subsequently created the request for proposals, with a supporting scoring and evaluation approach.

After supplier selection, Syngenta wanted to minimise the risks and costs by completing the transition to the new provider within two months. A transition this complex – across hundreds of sites with cultural, language and time differences – would typically take around six months. Our flexible working model and close relationship with Syngenta enabled us to support the implementation and go-live phases within this tight timeframe.

While the new supplier was being bedded in, we were asked to help Syngenta renegotiate the service desk contract with the existing supplier and to develop and implement the flagship Genius-Bar-style walk-in centre at its corporate headquarters in Basel. Our involvement expanded to include not only the specific design and service integration, but also liaising with the stakeholders charged with building works, architecture and planning. This state-of-the-art centre was launched at the beginning of 2018 and met with resounding success – so much so, that other sites from across the world wanted to introduce this ‘walk-in’ concept to their regions.

Outcome

The transition to a new deskside service provider has helped Syngenta to produce significant cost savings – exceeding the original 30–40% target.

Renegotiations of the service desk contract with the existing supplier were successfully completed which included the transition of the service desk from Sofia in Bulgaria to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This also contributed to the final cost savings target.

End users liked the state-of-the-art walk-in centre so much that we are now in the process of rolling out another 24 centres at Syngenta sites across the world. The blend of new services including toolsets and walk-in centres has meant that customer satisfaction figures have gone through the roof.

The close partnership with Syngenta over the past three years has helped the organisation to define and shape its end-user services for the future, taking the next-generation service delivery model from concept, through implementation, to successful go-live.

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