Given the rapidly evolving nature of the IT and service management domain, it is essential for organisations to embrace and utilise cutting-edge and adaptable technology solutions powered by artificial intelligence. To address this need in South Africa, Onyx Management Solutions (OnyxMS) has formed a strategic partnership with Servicely, the industry’s leading intelligent service management platform.
OnyxMS introduced Servicely to the King Price internal IT’s shared services department, known as the Porcupine Union, which offers support services to the various subsidiary brands under the King Price brand name.
Needing a single platform to manage all the functions required in King Price’s complex environment, Porcupine Union engaged OnyxMS and Servicely to provide a holistic approach and end-to-end platform, enabling the insurer to improve service delivery as it seeks to expand.
Porcupine Union’s Partner: IT Operations, Francois Swanepoel, explains that the company manages King Price’s IT function in South Africa as well as that of NEXT, a Danish insurer with a digital insurance offering. They’re also busy creating platforms and systems for a new European insurance brand, easySure, which will launch in Denmark this year, with plans to expand into five European countries within five years. The plan is to leverage Servicely’s single system of record architecture to provided end-to-end visibility across the enterprise.
One of the major business drivers for looking at a new platform was to allow for the system to scale as the service offerings and company grew. Servicely was able to accommodate this growth as it enabled Porcupine Union and its IT clients to service multiple clients off a single platform, creating a single system of record, allowing it to properly manage incidents, requests and change requests through a clear understanding of service levels, but also making sure that it follows best practice standards and processes of the ITIL Framework within the environment.
Swanepoel says: “With Servicely as a platform, we’re able to extend its range outside of the service desk to include, for example, HR management. This allows for the smooth onboarding of new staff members as well the off-boarding of movers and leavers. With that, we’ve been able to successfully build and enhance our asset management system as well as streamline the process of onboarding new staff.
“The integration layer within Servicely makes provision for us to integrate into systems seamlessly and very, very cost-efficiently.”
Deploying Servicely has accommodated and facilitated the company’s growth spurt and has enabled Porcupine Union to provide an enterprises platform with rich reporting capabilities to provide better services to King Price as well as its downstream clients.
With the recent heavy rains and flash floods in KZN, the insurance industry saw a major increase in the number of calls and incidents reported. “It was imperative that King Price was able to engage with us seamlessly during this already traumatic time,” says Swanepoel.
In South Africa, OnyxMS is implemented by a local, women-owned organisation that focuses on building homegrown skills.
Integration for simplicity
Ronann Noble, Onyx Management Solutions Founder and CEO, says the level one women-owned company was the implementation partner for Servicely, an Australia-based company. “Being one of a number of SMEs in this sector in South Africa, we needed a differentiator in the market and we found that with the Servicely platform. Our solution fits the South African market and makes economic sense from both cost and value-add points of view.
“Our motto is to do what we do well, so we have grown the Servicely skillset within our team and are ready to support our clients from SME to enterprise,” says Noble.
“We wanted to make sure that we can add capacity on request,” says Swanepoel, “And the OnyxMS team has been able to provide this.”
Noble explains that the team comprises senior ITSM consultants and engineers who develop, implement and support the suite of on-demand IT service management applications offered through the cloud and modern software as a service (SaaS) offering.
“These applications are licensed on a simple and economical annual subscription basis. The subscription includes all software patches and upgrades without incurring a recurring maintenance cost for the duration of the contractual period.”
Noble says Servicely is redefining the IT management market, providing a new opportunity for organisations to fix their age-old problems, but also providing the platform to tackle service management challenges that have been perceived until recently as too complex to realistically address with software.
Servicely believes that an organisation, regardless of size or complexity, requires a "single system of record" for all processes being used to acquire, deploy, manage, assess and retire business services, as well as the underlying infrastructure on which an organisation depends. Effective IT service management is all about implementing processes with as much automation as possible, remaining flexible to your business requirements and responding to reporting and workflow needs.
Noble adds that the in-house team of senior architects and consultants is trained in the design and implementation of this leader in AI technology. “With our fully fledged Project Management Office, we ensure service delivery excellence, post-sales service support and delivery.”
Growth aims
Swanepoel explains the ramifications of the planned expansion of easySure: “Potentially, in a few years, they are looking at opening or launching insurance offerings in multiple European countries. As Porcupine Union, we are looking at scaling the business and the services. Service delivery is a top priority as we provide clients in different countries with the support that they need.”
This will be done via a self-service portal as well as Sofi, the Servicely intelligent virtual agent, which will allow users to service themselves, potentially resolving issues without spending a lot of time on hold with a help desk.
The partnership between OnyxMS and Servicely has shown the potential to be a long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship in delivering service delivery excellence to the South African market with cutting-edge and innovative technology.
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