Company Overview

MAHLE is a leading international development partner and supplier to the automotive industry with customers in both passenger car and commercial vehicle sectors. Founded in 1920, the technology group is working on the climate-neutral mobility of tomorrow, with a focus on the strategic areas of electrification and thermal management as well as further technologies to reduce CO2 emissions, such as fuel cells or highly efficient, clean combustion engines that also run on renewable fuels, such as hydrogen. Today, one in every two vehicles globally is equipped with MAHLE components.

MAHLE generated sales of almost 13 billion euro in 2023. The company is represented with more than 72,000 employees at 148 production locations and 11 technology centers in 29 countries. (as of 31.12.2023)

The Challenge

MAHLE needed to upgrade its IT Service Management (ITSM) solution to align with strategic objectives and increasing digitalization demands. Enhancing efficiency across all operations, including office environments, operational technology (OT) systems, and production plants, was a priority. Improved IT support for quality management, enhanced system performance, and better inventory management were necessary to meet the company's goals.

Given the high importance of business continuity, MAHLE has made significant investments over the years to ensure the ability to run continuous workloads (systems that run 24/7 on 365 days) in an exceptionally optimized and cost-effective manner. Therefore, they chose on-premises infrastructure over cloud solutions for better governance and lower costs. This decision allowed them to maintain strict compliance with data security and privacy policies while pursuing modernization goals.

As digital threats evolved, maintaining and enhancing cybersecurity became increasingly crucial, requiring a robust system to protect against these threats.

Ensuring 24/7 operations with minimal downtime was a top priority for MAHLE, necessitating a reliable and resilient IT infrastructure. Economic considerations also played a role, as balancing the cost-effectiveness of on-premises solutions with the need for advanced IT capabilities was critical. The upgrade needed to be economically viable while delivering the necessary technological advancements.

The Solution

MAHLE collaborated with Fusion Global Business Solutions and embarked on a comprehensive IT transformation journey. Key areas addressed included technology and architecture, IT processes, IT service portfolio, IT efficiency, and cybersecurity. Opting for a strategic migration to BMC Helix ITSM on-premises, or Enterprise Service Management (ESM), MAHLE ensured to comply with data regulations and to leverage existing expertise. One of the pivotal decisions was to adopt containerization for application provisioning. While simultaneously managing their daily tasks, MAHLE deployed within three months 3 BMC Helix ITSM environments – Development, QA and Production. MAHLE implemented advanced automation and AI-driven solutions to enhance IT service delivery, ensuring faster response times and minimal downtime. This approach addressed all their concerns. 

By keeping the system on-premises, MAHLE ensured adherence to its stringent data security and privacy policies. The MAHLE ‘IT security by design’ is ensured by strict security policies and the automation of backend safety processes. Stephan Groth, Director Global Enterprise Architecture Management at MAHLE confirms, “We are very proud that every third IT service request is fully automatic, which means the entire process happens fully machine-documented without human touch, including auditing of higher access rights.” 

MAHLE continues to benefit from the existing infrastructure's cost-efficiency. Leveraging their existing knowledge of BMC systems minimized disruption during the migration process. BMC Helix ITSM's containerized architecture provided a foundation for future scalability as MAHLE's needs evolve. 

Stephan Groth adds, “Helix ITSM is the heart of everything in MAHLE IT. When coordinating KPIs or generating reports for continuous improvement, we look to our BMC solutions. It's responsible for holding and authoring all customer-facing processes. We also use it for change management and problem management, making it the heart of our core IT operations. It processes everything related to IT, and all relevant tasks are intentionally put on this system. We've established a foundation in BMC Helix for information about the company, IT, and our infrastructure. For any process that requires coordination, KPIs, and reporting for continuous improvement, we always look to BMC Helix ITSM first and often rely on its solutions.” 

The Results

The migration to containerized ITSM yielded significant benefits for MAHLE. 

• Enhanced Functionality: MAHLE gained access to BMC Helix ITSM's latest features and functionalities, including Helix Dashboards and DWP Studio pages.
• Enhanced Efficiency: Containerization streamlined application provisioning and drastically reduced upgrade times by 90% (from 100+ days to 5-10 days)
• Improved User Experience: The upgraded solution offered MAHLE employees a more modern and user-friendly experience.
•  Improved Business Continuity: The scalable containerized architecture allowed MAHLE to adapt the system to fluctuating demands easily.
• Achieved rock-solid IT services supporting 24/7/365 operations across its global network, minimizing production downtime to three weekends annually. 
• Ability to automate 33% of IT service requests through self-service.
• Governance was key to MAHLE's ITSM upgrade. A cross-functional team ensured collaboration across departments for a smooth project.

By implementing BMC Helix ITSM, MAHLE has achieved continuous improvement, operational efficiency, and a unified global approach to IT service management. Leveraging automation and AI, the solution streamlines processes, expedites request fulfillment, and ensures consistent service delivery across the entire organization.