Company Overview

Provinzial, a leading German insurance provider headquartered in Münster, offers a wide range of insurance products, including property, casualty, life insurance, and asset management services with over 1,300 agencies and Sparkassen branches.

The Challenge

Provinzial faced significant operational challenges with its legacy IT service management (ITSM) systems. These included:

• Fragmented tools: Multiple IT tools and platforms across different regions caused inefficiencies and a lack of standardization.
• High maintenance costs: The decentralized infrastructure required significant resources for maintenance and support.
• Limited automation: Manual processes dominated incident and service request handling, leading to delays and higher workloads.
• Cloud adoption pressure: A shift to a “cloud-first” strategy required the migration to a modern, scalable SaaS solution to ensure cost predictability and operational efficiency.

The Solution

To address these challenges, Provinzial chose BMC Helix ITSM Suite in the cloud, focusing on a modernized, consolidated ITSM framework. Key components of the implemented solution included:

• BMC Helix ITSM Cloud Platform: Ensuring centralized control over incident, problem, change, and service request management.
• DWP Advanced (BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced): Empowering employees with a self-service portal for streamlined access to IT services and request handling.
• BMC Helix Virtual Agent Advanced: Introducing a chatbot-powered service desk for real-time incident management and reduced dependency on manual ticket handling.
• iPaaS integration: Replacing custom-built integrations with BMC’s Integration Platform as a Service for seamless connectivity across tools.

Provinzial followed an agile methodology with sprint-based progress and continuous feedback integration, ensuring that the end-user experience was prioritized throughout the project lifecycle.

The Results

The transition to BMC Helix ITSM delivered significant improvements across Provinzial’s IT operations:

• Increased operational efficiency:
  –Reduced manual service desk tasks through advanced automation and self-service options.
  –Enhanced end-user productivity with faster issue resolution and streamlined request handling.

• Cost optimization:
  –Estimated operational savings of approximately €27,000 annually due to reduced service desk effort from automation capabilities.
  –Decreased system maintenance demands by shifting to a fully managed SaaS solution.

• User experience transformation:
  –Faster incident resolution via LiveChat and BMC Helix Virtual Agent Advanced.
  –Improved transparency for users regarding service status and progress.

• Strategic alignment:
  –Successful alignment with the “cloud-first” strategy, ensuring long-term cost predictability and flexibility for future IT expansions.

The go-live of BMC Helix ITSM marked a major milestone in Provinzial’s digital transformation journey:

• Standardized IT service management: Unified and centralized ITSM processes across the entire organization.
• Empowered employees: The self-service portal enabled staff to manage service requests independently, minimizing support dependencies.
• Scalable cloud platform: Provinzial is now equipped with a future-proof, cloud-based ITSM environment that supports business growth and technological innovation.

Looking ahead, Provinzial is committed to continuous innovation with upcoming initiatives, including:

• Advanced automation: Exploring expanded automation capabilities with BMC Helix Virtual Agent Advanced and additional service request optimizations.
• Self-service expansion: Further enhancing the DWP platform with enriched knowledge articles and enhanced automation.
• BMC HelixGPT and agentic AI integration: Introducing BMC HelixGPT in combination with BMC Helix Virtual Agent Advanced for artificial intelligence (AI)-powered incident management and automated query handling. This next phase will also explore agentic AI, where the platform can proactively handle complex tasks, make data-driven decisions, and autonomously resolve recurring IT issues with minimal human intervention.
• Continuous improvement: Agile iterations will continue, focusing on user feedback to refine and expand ITSM capabilities.

Provinzial’s commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction remains strong, positioning the company as a forward-thinking leader in modern IT service management.