Sage UK achieves cost savings and increased efficiency through IT automation from Kaseya

• Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
• Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
• Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems

• Software
• Professional Service

• Business Operation
• Facility Management

• Remote Asset Management
• Energy Management System
• Predictive Maintenance

• System Integration
• Software Design & Engineering Services
• Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

Sage UK’s internal IT team consists of 160 individuals, 75 of which are in direct support roles. The vast nature of the business, its regional spread and number of staff, means that the IT department have to deal with over 7,500 tickets or requests for their time per month. 48 per cent of these problems are first line issues such as forgotten passwords or application updates, but 52 per cent have to be passed to specific teams (either by specialty or location) to be resolved, e.g. sending out a piece of hardware to a particular office or dealing with more technical back-up issues. The business has grown largely through acquisitions over the years, which gave the organisation a major and unique challenge. IT systems became disjointed and disparate and were never fully unified into one all-encompassing solution used across all areas of the business. This created a dead-end for the IT department, who were left with legacy service management software which was too customised to be relevant to the burgeoning business. In not taking into account the newly acquired companies, the system was no longer functional – a situation not ideal for the IT team, management, or end-users. IT challenges were increasing but the manual system in place remained the same. Sage’s IT team also had to manage the growing use of laptops and employee desire for remote working within the organisation, which added to their management considerations. Henceforth, Sage UK was looking for a solution which would strike a fine balance between customisation and scalability, while at the same time easing their workload and delivering a seamless extraordinary end-user experience.

Sage provides software and services to over 800,000 businesses in the UK and Ireland. Its range includes software to manage business' finances, run payroll, manage customer and supplier relationships, plan the business and support the HR function. In the UK and Ireland alone, Sage employs almost 2,500 people across 21 sites and the ever-expanding team of highly trained people, which includes industry experts, accountants and entrepreneurs, are all passionate about doing the best thing for customers. Sage UK’s internal IT team consists of 160 individuals, 75 of which are in direct support roles. The vast nature of the business, its regional spread and number of staff, means that the IT department have to deal with over 7,500 tickets or requests for their time per month. 48 per cent of these problems are first line issues such as forgotten passwords or application updates, but 52 per cent have to be passed to specific teams (either by specialty or location) to be resolved, e.g. sending out a piece of hardware to a particular office or dealing with more technical back-up issues.

Sage UK originally approached Kaseya, an IT systems management company, in 2008 looking for a power management solution. The company was tasked with running an effective Green Initiative as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program and to become more aware of how its running was impacting the environment. Sage UK incorporated Kaseya’s Desktop policy Management module, which automatically switched off end-users PCs when not in use. The solution is on course towards helping Sage save £50,000 per year in electricity bills: a major step towards carbon footprint reduction. Sage then looked to Kaseya to further aid its organisational running and following a successful pilot period, on June 20th 2011 Sage went live with a customised version of Kaseya’s Service Desk solution (branded Sage Inservice). Kaseya Service Desk is an ITIL-designed solution that provides a comprehensive and flexible web-based helpdesk environment. The module consolidates all incidents, requests and problems in one tool while enabling IT professionals at Sage UK to resolve issues by utilising Kaseya’s IT Automation platform. The platform routes tickets automatically to the appropriate role or initiate agent, based on unique business rules.

• The automation process reduced the requirement for manual intervention, reducing the time it would have taken to physically visit each machine.
• It will also allow the IT team to be more pro-active with patch, or system, updates – being easily able to roll them out, instead of reacting to issues and having to run updates manually.
• The highly customised automation solution enables Sage UK to bring together the geo-dispersed network of offices and management tools under one IT helpdesk solution.

• Kaseya’s power saving automation module is on course towards helping Sage save £50,000 per annum.
• Kaseya’s Service Desk module Integrated with the Desktop Migration functionality could lead to savings on desk moves of around £250 per move.