Creating a More Standardized and Streamlined Continuity of Service  

Ministry of Defence

Creating a More Standardized and Streamlined Continuity of Service  

Renewal of IT Service Management at the Netherlands’ Ministry of Defence

The Challenge

To continue running its ICT services efficiently, the Dutch Ministry of Defence needed to modernize its IT Service Management system. By working with Eraneos, there was an opportunity for it to standardize and streamline the service and make it even safer. It was of utmost importance to get this completed in a relatively short time, and by doing so, determine the minimum its users needed while preparing for a standardized working method.  
 
To ensure the project was realized with success, our goals were, therefore, to determine the minimum necessary functions, find possible improvements to the existing working method, and make optimal use of the functionalities that a standard system offers. On top of this, the entire project would need to be carried out in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant that most meetings and all training would have to take place online.  

Laying the foundation for the growth of all service management and control processes, including cooperation with the market 

The approach

The mantra for this project was “agile where possible and Prince2 where necessary”. The latter was important due to the stringent requirements for project management within the area of defense. Three teams were put together that were responsible for hosting, configuration, and implementation of the system, respectively. These teams worked under architecture and executed the long-term plan, which gave them enough room to act across different situations. 
 
During the final phase of the implementation, we made use of BusDevOps, which ensured users were heavily involved in optimally configuring the system and the associated data on a daily basis. We also decided to make maximum use of the standard available functionalities, so we could speed up the implementation, keep maintenance as low as possible and take full advantage of the platform. 

The Dutch Ministry of Defence defends the Netherlands, its interests, and ally countries, with its soldiers standing up for others and providing support during disasters. In this way, Defense contributes to peace, freedom, and security in the world. More than 68,000 military personnel, civilians, and reservists work at the Ministry of Defense. In a time of increasing digitization, information technology is of vital importance to the organization. The safety and flexibility of Defense personnel in the Netherlands and abroad partly depend on this.

The result

As a result of working with Eraneos, the Dutch Ministry of Defence now has the ServiceNow platform at its disposal, which lays the foundation for the growth of all service management and control processes, including cooperation with the market. 
 
The implementation has also given the organization the confidence to implement IT standard services across the board. This was an important pillar in the implementation of the digital strategy of the Ministry of Defence. 

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