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CustomersCase studiesWorkforce Management by Jos Straathof, Hewlett-Packard CDS
Workforce Management by Jos Straathof, Hewlett-Packard CDS
“Thanks to Protime, I get a good night's sleep.”
Keeping some kind of perspective over 450 employees is an intensive and time consuming affair. When these staff are distributed across 80 internal and 150 Customer specific cost locations, you are looking at something which resembles mission impossible. IT service provider Hewlett-Packard CDS Netherlands decided to take the bull by the horns and implemented Protime. Jos Straathof, Service Operations manager with HP CDS: “At the mere push of a button, we now have a full bird's eye view of our organisation. It is like a breath of fresh air.”
Straathof implemented Protime in 2008. He explains why he set out in search of an umbrella solution. “We measure our services in terms of 'hours' and in terms of 'cases'. In the former, we are talking about the number of hours our engineers operate onsite at the customer's premises at his request. In the latter case, we are talking about the number of hours we spend in response to specific customer requests. All of which tends to make our capacity planning a highly complex affair.” The rising number of staff involved was another factor that complicated matters. “In 2008, we employed 200 engineers, a number which has since grown at an accelerated pace. These events prompted an increasing need for steering in terms of planning and reporting.” In short: HP CDS was in need of a system that would enable the organisation's capacity to be charted with the utmost precision.
Swift implementation
HP CDS compared the offering of a number of suppliers, including Protime. “Our Belgian colleagues were already using the software. Plus we found that Protime was best geared to the business case. We decided to go for ProTeam as 'SaaS' or 'Software as a Service'. This enables you to log on to the system over the Internet, regardless of where you are, even if you are sitting under an olive tree somewhere in Greece. A perfect solution for our staff who constantly work from different locations where they are often unable to log onto the local server.”The system was up and running after three months: Protime was live on all HP CDS departments. “We have interfaced with our ADP payroll software and our Peoplesoft HRM system. The implementation went like a dream. We fine-tuned the system step by step in consultation with a Protime consultant. Initially, the system was met with a fair degree of resistance among staff. Quite a number of employees resisted the new system in the beginning. However, our engineers also now see the benefits it brings: it has eliminated the stack of paperwork they previously had to deal with.”
Who?
Hewlett-Packard CDS (Netherlands)
What?
Hewlett-Packard CDS (Netherlands) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard Netherlands. The entity handles the on-site implementation of IT services. HP CDS' 400 mobile engineers can be seen at work with some of The Netherlands' biggest corporations and government organisations. Each month, the business provides around 90,000 hours in services.
Alongside the entity in The Netherlands, HP CDS also operates in Belgium, Luxembourg, France, England, Ireland, Germany, Spain and Portugal. The Belgian and Luxembourg units have been using the Protime solutions since 2006.
