The challenge

As one of Denmark’s largest employers with 45,000+ employees, 3000 managers, 7 different administrations and each with its committees, the City of Copenhagen had to find one solution to streamline its processes. 

After implementing the ServiceNow platform together with Devoteam 6 years ago, they decided that they needed to prioritise user experience and UX design to boost employee satisfaction. They wanted to revamp the look of the existing platform.

The solution

To help the City of Copenhagen achieve its goals, Devoteam experts on UX stepped in and helped design a new HR ServiceNow portal by listening and responding to employees’ needs.

Thanks to the newly redesigned platform, users found it more intuitive and easier to use. The result was not only higher user satisfaction but also the reduction of operational costs because now users were not only able to use the portal better but also felt more comfortable doing so.

The perfect partner is a partner that can do something we can’t do ourselves. Devoteam brought both UX design and ServiceNow platform and those two elements together have been a perfect package for us.

SOLIDEO, or Société de Livraison Des Ouvrages Olympiques, is a French public body set up with a major objective: to deliver the 62 structures and development projects needed to stage the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will be held in Paris in the summer of 2024.

At the heart of this ambitious and strategic project are multiple challenges.

As France prepares to welcome the rest of the world from 26 July 2024, it is imperative that this development work, which includes the construction of the athletes’ village, the media cluster and the competition and training venues, is carried out on schedule and within budget.

This challenge is not limited to spatial planning; it’s quite the contrary. It is reflected in the IT projects being carried out by SOLIDEO through the need for cyber resilience. “To ensure that we meet our deadlines, costs and ambitions, we obviously need to ensure that the flow of information is extremely efficient and secure”, says Thibaut Chagnas, Deputy Managing Director and Company Secretary. So, in order to guarantee the smooth running of operations and the delivery of the works by the end of 2023, the public institution must deploy the highest possible level of security to prevent any vulnerabilities or security flaws constantly and to guard against attacks on its environment.

So, to meet its ambitions and strengthen its cyber security, SOLIDEO is turning to Microsoft, one of the institution’s long-standing partners, to replicate its on-premises VMware infrastructure in the Azure environment to benefit from the reliability, flexibility and capacity for innovation offered by the cloud.

The compliance of its cyber policy, the skills of its teams, and the robustness of the infrastructure deployed ensure complete data security when attacks are perpetuated – the ‘if’ question is irrelevant given the scale of the institution’s mission. “We benefit from all the advantages of the cloud: the extreme scalability of the proposed solution and the extreme security of the system, with a minimum of 3 replications of data transferred to Azure”, says Dominique Renard, Director of Information Systems Security.

Flexibility and security: Azure VMware Solution combines the best of both worlds

“Where there’s a major challenge, there’s a target”, says the DSSI. “From ransomware cybercriminals, but also malicious state actors who do not share France’s ambitions. The assets we need to preserve are our information systems and the highly sensitive data we handle. We are also alert to any destabilising actions, such as the compromise of an official social network account or a breakdown of our website”.

To meet its major IT security challenges, SOLIDEO wanted to equip itself with a robust infrastructure and a scalable solution. So it turned to Microsoft to upgrade its business continuity and recovery plan. What was needed? The plan must be compatible with its current infrastructure and meet its data protection and cyber threat prevention requirements. “As a public institution, we were very sensitive to the security implemented by Azure VMware Solution in terms of data protection. Our data is hosted in the European Union. On the one hand, there is protection for the container that hosts our data. On the other, there is protection for data transmission between SOLIDEO and the Microsoft servers”, explains Dominique Renard.

Security was one of the main reasons SOLIDEO gave for choosing Azure VMware Solution.  “This solution meets all the security requirements. From a legal security point of view, being a public institution, it had to comply fully with the RGPD”, adds Jordan Vidal, Systems and Security Engineer.

Deadlines are the lifeblood of SOLIDEO’s mission, so in addition to these first two priorities, there is also a need to keep service disruption time to a minimum in the event of an incident, whether intentional or not, so that the activities of users, whether employees or project managers, are not hindered in any way.

“We have duplicated all the SOLIDEO systems on the Azure system, with extremely frequent replications”, says Dominique Renard. “Today, in the event of major system failures, we can transfer data between systems in just a few minutes, which is exceptional.”

From a functional point of view, SOLIDEO now has end-to-end encrypted communication on its on-premises infrastructure and on the infrastructure it has deployed in the Azure cloud. This redundancy means it can be more responsive in the event of a service outage at its main site, since it can now switch to the cloud without difficulty. All without any degradation of service or end-user experience.

A solution that’s easily deployable and operational

As the existing on-premise platform was already based on VMware technology, the choice of Azure VMWare Solution was a perfect match for the establishment’s needs and enabled IT investments to be rationalised. “There’s a real portability between SOLIDEO’s VMware-based virtual machines and the Azure cloud. So it’s a perfect fit”, notes Dominique Renard.

This choice made it easy for IT teams to deploy and use the solution, enabling them to continue to manage the environment using the same tools, while modernising their applications with services that are natively present in the Azure cloud. “It was important to us that the solution was easy to deploy and transparent for users. With Microsoft and VMware, we also feel we have the support we need to meet the challenges of the 21st century, not only because of their reputation, which is a guarantee of trust, but also because of their maturity when it comes to cyber issues” adds Caroline Tang Song, Systems, Networks and Security Engineer.

As a Microsoft consulting partner, the support provided by Devoteam M Cloud’s Alfun teams “was determined in meeting expectations, implementing the changeover to the cloud and ensuring a smooth transfer of skills”.

A lasting and evolving partnership, like the project itself

SOLIDEO is also a company that pushes back the horizons in all areas, whether they involve buildings or new technologies. With major societal and environmental issues at the heart of its mission, the structures designed by the company are part of a sustainable, durable and innovative approach. With a low carbon footprint, places will remain to live and work after the Games, redeveloped as housing or business premises.

In line with this ambition, the work carried out by SOLIDEO and its partners, whether they are involved in providing support or supplying technology, is a long-term project. The choice of Microsoft Azure VMware Solution was based on its scalability potential. While the solution was initially designed to address a specific problem at a specific time, its scalability means it can meet tomorrow’s challenges. “We work with the support teams to adapt as best we can to the issues and risks identified, but also to those we might not have thought of”, says the ISSD.

For SOLIDEO, Microsoft’s reputation is an opportunity to open up its teams to new horizons and enhance their skills, particularly in cybersecurity issues, a subject on which the organisation is uncompromising. With this in mind, the company has set up a continuous monitoring system that enables it to adapt to potential changes in cyber threats. “What’s important is the transfer of skills and the future so that we can always adapt to new threats”, concludes Dominique Renard.

The challenge

GlobalConnect, established in 1997, is a European internet provider serving both business-to-business and consumer markets across the Nordic region. They also offer services to telecommunications carriers.

During its recent mergers, GlobalConnect faced challenges aligning their way of working and incorporating Norway, Denmark, and Sweden into one platform as they had different setups in each country. The company is quite complex, with different types of customers and configuration items, requiring a high level of automation. 

Devoteam’s task was to understand GlobalConnect’s needs, work methods, and processes in their current systems and translate them into ServiceNow language.

The solution

GlobalConnect collaborated with Devoteam to implement ServiceNow, creating a unified platform for their operations in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.

Throughout the project, Devoteam provided their expertise and skills on the system, challenging GlobalConnect’s decisions. Devoteam consultants also guided GlobalConnect to work efficiently with the system, resulting in GlobalConnect fully leveraging the potential of ServiceNow.

The result is a scalable solution enabling GlobalConnect to onboard Germany and Finland as part of the platform, operating seamlessly within ServiceNow across all five countries.

What we saw as a reward for choosing Devoteam was that they came with great knowledge of the system. They had serious competencies as far as ServiceNow goes, and they also challenged our decisions.

The challenge

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is a government agency in Saudi Arabia that was established in 1970 to uphold citizens’ rights and oversee the administration of the country’s court system. The MoJ’s primary mission is to ensure the justice environment is based on Islamic law and provide, organize, and develop judicial and notarial services.

In 2020, Saudi Arabia’s MoJ found itself facing two main challenges: the first was to develop its role in keeping Saudi Arabia at the forefront of the region’s digital transformation, and the second was to maintain its levels of service provision during a global pandemic.

MoJ needed to combine a series of siloed systems into one universal platform that would connect both IT and business services. It also needed to simplify the process of integrating and managing excessive workloads through a user-friendly interface. Success for the MoJ would depend on building effective, efficient, reliable, and well-developed technical and business processes. 

The solution

Working with IT service management specialist Devoteam, the MoJ developed a strategy. Automation would mean identifying and delivering repeatable, measurable, and auditable workflows, with twin objectives of optimizing efficiency and increasing the department’s oversight. 

The MoJ had already invested in ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) as a replacement for its legacy IT support system but soon discovered that ServiceNow solutions had the potential to develop and automate other core processes. 

Adopting a platform approach, the MoJ and Devoteam built a team dedicated to supporting shared services and reducing time-consuming manual processes, using the Now Platform and ITSM as the basis for the overall process. Tasks ranged from simple email replacements to the development of complex applications capable of coordinating the work of entire departments.

The challenge

Nye Veier is one of the organizations responsible for delivering Norway’s ambitious 20-year, €25 billion road and railway building program. Owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport, Nye Veier is cutting travel times, connecting cities and communities, and reducing accidents. The organization has the authority to decide which roads should be built first, based on a calculation of socio-economic benefits, for the nation and for the businesses and communities along each route.

A key challenge for Nye Veier was the need to acquire large areas of land for its road-building projects. The impact on land and property owners along the route of a new road could be significant. 

Nye Veier is committed to a fair, transparent, and rules-based land acquisition process. But historically, the identification of landowners on a proposed route, and the communication, negotiation, and reaching of agreements with them, were slow and inefficient.

This contributed to delays in the completion of projects, increased costs, and the slower achievement of benefits for citizens and businesses. 

While Nye Veier was making use of some digital tools in its land acquisition activities, these were not standardized or integrated. There were many manual processes, paper-based records, and Excel spreadsheets. Assessing and managing the performance of projects and people was difficult without centralized data and insights. 

The solution

Nye Veier decided to reimagine the complete, end-to-end land acquisition process and create a single, modern, fully integrated digital platform. To help achieve its vision, Nye Veier appointed developers from ServiceNow Elite Partner, Devoteam. The result is eGrunnerverv – or eLandAcquisition – a custom-built low-code application based on ServiceNow App Engine, Customer Service Management, and Integration Hub. eGrunnerverv was launched in 2022.

eGrunnerverv has transformed the way we handle land acquisition and there’s much more to come. It gives us a huge volume of data and insights that enable us to manage projects, and the organization as a whole, much more efficiently and successfully.

The snapshot

The challenge

Bachem is a Swiss industry leader in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields specializing in the development and manufacture of peptides and oligonucleotides. With over 50 years of experience and expertise, Bachem provides products for research, clinical development and commercial application to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide and offers a comprehensive range of services.

As a company driven by innovation, they desired to enter a new stage of automation. Seeking to digitise two aspects of their day-to-day operations, the client was looking for the right partner, which could deliver the maximum business value in only two weeks’ time.

The solution

Devoteam was there to answer the challenge. In order to showcase the power of the ServiceNow App Engine platform, our team took Bachem’s vision and used the framework of the impactful low-code tool to deliver the prototypes of two simple-to-use applications.

Core System Extension App

The first, utilised to track orders and manage their lifecycle, is based on an integration with a third-party system and provides a simple-to-use interface. Aside from the clear overview it provides to its users, its main features include a process flow with configured actions based on user interactions, tailored reports in PDF or Excel and automated notifications.

Customer-facing App

The goal of the second application prototype is to simplify the form collection process with the use of a customised question wizard, which generates a one-page, electronically-signed document.  It features a process flow managing stages of the form creation and form fill out, system generated signature based on user action, native PDF export capability and multiple UI rules, managing form based on selected use. Additionally, required stakeholders can receive automated notifications.

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The challenge

When the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) was formed through the amalgamation of three other ministries – the Ministries of Labour, Social Development, and Civil Services – the legacy was a confusing mix of service management solutions and technologies. Multiple systems, lack of platforms’ dictionaries, and the need of automating business services became a major challenge, on both employee’s side and the vendor’s side. The solution was clear – two main ITSM systems had to be consolidated into a single platform, accessible to all employees and customers.

The solution

Instead of using one of the existing systems and amalgamating them, Devoteam has suggested to the Ministry to use a new system, ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM), that would give the organisation better service in terms of customer experience and agility, and finances. The project has been delivered within 6 months since the beginning. Apart from consolidating the systems into one single platform, there was also a visible improvement when it comes to IT workflows for incident, problem, change, request and knowledge management. The portal has been also capitalized by adding functionalities to serve as a one-stop shop for employees.

Localizing the chatbot to support the Arabic language, and customizing topics to support employees in creating requests/incidents, events, promotions, platforms, etc. had a huge impact on employee experience throughout the organisation. Working became easier and more clear thanks to the number of new advancements also for the management teams. Thanks to the available reports and dashboards, they now have a proper insight into the performance and improved visibility.

They had intended to use one or other of their existing systems or amalgamate them, but we told them we had a new system, ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM), that would give them better service in terms of customer experience and agility, and also financially.

TUC RAIL is an engineering and project management office specialised in rail infrastructure, mainly working for the Build Department of rail infrastructure manager INFRABEL. They have a focus on project management of large infrastructure programs, carrying out feasibility studies and drawing up technical plans.

TUC RAIL decided to follow a cloud-first strategy. Part of this strategy is to renew its existing applications and platforms in order to move them to the cloud. The company already had a Business Intelligence platform in place but lacked the scalability and agility that was needed. Moreover, not all the data was included in the existing BI platform. Rather, data was spread out, stored in silos and scattered across different platforms. BI reporting was thus based on a limited data set, which contributed to data inaccuracies.

Legacy platform hindered agility and accurate data analysis

TUC RAIL values the power of data, however, the existing BI platform was not robust enough to handle the technology of newer applications (API, XML, JSON, etc.). Other complications arose such as complicating factors such as data storage limitations and processing power. Furthermore, the self-service Business Intelligence solution was difficult to maintain because it did not include the required applications to enable independent report set-up. 

TUC RAIL understood that they should redesign and redevelop the architecture of the Business Intelligence platform to improve data integrations, resolve ongoing compatibility issues and increase agility.

Updating the existing platform was not an easy task taking the complexity of the data landscape into account. TUC RAIL decided to rely on the consultations and the collaboration with Devoteam to make the correct decisions on prioritizing the project action schedule and the investments that were needed.  

Setting up the right cloud architecture 

To streamline TUC RAIL’s existing IT landscape and facilitate the transition towards a fully integrated and agile BI platform, Devoteam brought a strategic partnership with Microsoft to the table.

In the initial phase, Devoteam and Microsoft set up a PoC that gave TUC RAIL a clear view of the scope and outcome of the project. 
The architectural design, and the technical aspects of the platform were co-created piece by piece with Devoteam and the BI team of TUC RAIL. Together they developed a data platform in the cloud that matched TUC RAIL’s requirements, without losing sight of the budget and timing.

Devoteam assisted TUC RAIL with the development of a future-proof data platform with state-of-the-art automations. The new platform is compatible with modern technologies and can rapidly convert data formats and structures to improve efficiency.

Becoming data-driven and agile thanks to future-proof data platform
Now, management of TUC RAIL has access to dashboards with actual and reliable information, which helps them to make better decisions. The platform is also more user-friendly for employees. The self-service Business Intelligence platform allows them to set up dashboards based on real-time data. This helps to share and communicate information based on accurate reports.

The data platform can easily integrate with other platforms and store large amounts of data from different sources in real-time. This makes it easier to retrieve and complete datasets and generates substantial wins in terms of operational efficiency. 

The central cloud platform is both expandable and scalable, which will significantly reduce the lead time of future integrations. The data platform is also ready to set up future Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence initiatives. This creates opportunities for innovative projects and data experiments.

Thanks to the good collaboration with Devoteam and thanks to the use of Microsoft technology, TUC RAIL has now become a real data-driven organisation with agile and efficient processes.

The snapshot

The challenge

Activu’s solutions affect the daily lives of billions of people. As a long-established company within the field of developing visual collaboration technology for command centers, many of its clients were seeking an efficient way to connect their solutions to ServiceNow. Activu’s tech would add important information, drawn from connected systems on the network, to the tickets created by ServiceNow in order to give the customer the full picture of the most important issues – all on a single dashboard.

The solution

Devoteam brought its vast ServiceNow expertise to the table in order to create a simple solution for Activu, saving the company time and money. What our Integration Focus Group created was an application with a sleek interface and solid UX, which clients could effortlessly implement on their own.

Our team not only developed the solution but also guided Activu through the process the app needed to pass before it could become an officially certified ServiceNow Store Application.

The client’s context

How do you determine if the price is right? As a global pharmaceutical company delivering medication and treatments in 27 countries and across 3 continents, it can be difficult to establish a centralized and consistent process for product pricing. Traditionally, Daiichi-Sankyo would search for internal documentation manually to inform pricing decisions that were made in different regions. However, the time commitment to locate information across teams and departments became extensive. A lack of historical price data made it difficult to justify pricing decisions and often slowed contracts as different countries reached different conclusions. Daiichi-Sankyo needed a better way to facilitate cross-country and cross-regional collaboration while also centralizing data and best practices.

The challenge

A joint face: Microsoft and Devoteam work together to find a solution With no standard procedures for requesting new prices or making price changes in any one region, Daiichi-Sankyo turned to Devoteam’s growing M Cloud division that combines Devoteam’s broad industry experience and transformation skills with powerful Microsoft digital technologies. By engaging Devoteam M Cloud, Daiichi-Sankyo business units gained direct access to local experts in strategy and management consulting, as well as development studios to design a custom solution to their problem. Executives not only interfaced with Devoteam country leads, but jointly engaged Microsoft account teams in Japan and Western Europe to deepen Azure and Modern Workplace conversations. This consolidated partnership between Microsoft and Devoteam gave Daiichi-Sankyo newfound confidence in their choice to implement custom Azure cloud-based business processes to solve their ongoing pricing pains. proprietary Dynamics 365 Template for manufacturing.

The solution

Implementing a holistic pricing ecosystem in 27 countries Designing an enterprise-wide cloud platform for greater price transparency Devoteam M Cloud experts conducted a requirements analysis for the project, leveraging deep Azure product knowledge to inform the design and implementation of a new cloud-based pricing platform. Through agile and cloud native development services, Devoteam was able to create a centralized cloud database that could facilitate price tracking and standardize pricing procedures company-wide for greater data transparency and efficiencies.

Value of multi-area partnership Devoteam, a leading consulting firm focused on digital strategy, tech platforms, and cybersecurity, is a member of the Microsoft Multi-Area Partner Orchestration (MAPO) Program. This program has empowered their M Cloud division with the resources needed to scale quality support and cloud services across new geographic regions. For a global pharmaceutical company like Daiichi-Sankyo, having local experts in Western Europe and Japan to assist with implementing new enterprise-wide business processes has been critical to their digital.

Microsoft Solutions: 

• Azure App Service 
• Azure Functions 
• Azure DevOps 
• Cloud Solution Architecture and Solution Design 
• Design Thinking 
• Requirement Analysis & Design 
• Agile & Cloud Native Development 
• Container Development 
• Application Modernization 
• Application Performance & Platform Monitoring 
• CI / CD 
• Security Management 
• Cost Management

Daiichi-Sankyo’s new pricing model ensures every employee has access to accurate pricing data. The company is now able to easily communicate the rationale behind pricing decisions and can reference historic pricing approvals.