The Bytes Technology Group, a subsidiary of South Africa-based Altron and the largest IT services provider in Africa, has chosen the Edge Service Management by Unisys solution to provide timely, cost-effective IT support services across various divisions within the group and to its major customers.
Bytes chose the cloud-based Unisys Edge solution to consolidate the management of IT systems and delivery of support services for its 41 business units and a number of its existing managed-services customers across Africa.
Bytes will also use Edge to provide a standardized approach to IT service management (ITSM) for new customers across the region.
Unisys will implement Edge at Bytes’ secure operations centre in Johannesburg so the company can deliver the new solution to its business units and customers as a private cloud service to replace a wide range of incumbent ITSM solutions. By moving to an on-demand, subscription-based ITSM solution, Bytes expects to streamline its services delivery and reduce costs associated with maintaining disparate service desks.
Rob Griggs, MD of Bytes Systems Integration, Bytes Technology Group, says: “CIOs today must provide services that enable individual workers to do their jobs more efficiently, avoid down time and drive revenue by improving customer service.
“We believe that Unisys’ Edge solution gives us and our customers a standards-based solution that can be implemented quickly, managed consistently and expanded easily to address those crucial business challenges.”
Edge is intended to enable Bytes to modernize and standardize its services management approaches and provide new capabilities including:
* An extensive catalogue of pre-built modules enabling the solution to be implemented in as little as 45 days, as opposed to the typical six-month lead time for ITSM projects;
* “Persona-based” service requests and catalogue management that enable end users to view and initiate services based on their individual organizational roles;
* A discovery module to automatically map new services to business processes; and
* A comprehensive Service Asset and Configuration Management service. Edge also provides an integration engine and a library of pre-built software connectors for simplified addition of new technologies.
Experts from the Unisys ITSM Advisory Practice will implement the Edge solution for Bytes and assist in the transitioning of current and future Bytes customers. The Advisory Practice will also provide training as new capabilities are added to the Edge platform.
Paul Gleeson, global vice-president: Edge Services and Client Experience at Unisys, says: “With its pre-built components and cloud-based access, along with Unisys’ services delivery expertise, Edge enables Bytes and its customers to realise the operational and cost benefits of ITSM more quickly than they could with competing solutions. Plus, they will be able add new services quickly and easily to keep pace with continually evolving business requirements.”
Built to global Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standards, Edge Service Management combines technologies from BMC Software ITSM products, including Remedy, ADDM and BPPM, with Unisys pre-built components, advanced analytics tools and proven service-delivery methodologies.
Spiro Zambelis, country manager for South Africa and Africa at BMC Software, comments: “We’re very pleased to be working with Bytes to extend our global alliance with Unisys into the African region. Together we provide solutions, such as Edge, that enable our customers to derive further value from their current IT investments and better understand how personalized services delivered anywhere, any time can create competitive advantage for today’s digital enterprise.”