How Strategic Systems managed services streamlined IT support for $5 billion steel company

Our Client

This client is one of the largest steel processing companies in America. With annual revenue that tops $5 billion, the company employs approximately 4,000 people and its steel processing capabilities serve a variety of markets, including automotive, heavy truck, agriculture, construction, and energy.

The Challenge

Wanted to replace managed services vendor to improve IT technical support.
This complex, largest steel processor needed help managing 70 business applications. Although the company had an internal IT team in place, the IT team needed an extended IT partner who could help them show IT value to the Business. The IT department wanted better communications and program management as well as roadmaps to automate repetitive, manual IT tasks, Enhancements to the existing It applications, handling their support requests, and modernizing aging, on-premises applications.

The Transformation

Engaged Strategic Systems IT managed services for business applications to transform IT support services.
The long-standing Steel Processing company tapped Strategic Systems to help build the value of the IT services for quicker and better outcomes for the business. To address the manufacturer’s needs for better communications, automated processes, and application modernizations, the Strategic team implemented these key programs:

Around-the-sun support services—This 24×7 program, which tracks the time zones around the globe, provides the company’s IT team with highly skilled Consultants to resolve tickets and enhancements. With a team of 27 people based in India, there is always someone available to support the company’s business applications.

To help the IT team become more efficient, the Strategic Systems team leveraged by Offshore has created a go-to approach within the manufacturer’s IT Services.

• DevOps governance and implementation services—Although the company had taken small steps towards DevOps, it hadn’t fully embraced an agile development approach. UST educated the IT team on business agility principles and trained key people on roles, responsibilities, and governance best practices to lay a solid foundation for DevOps application development.
• Application modernization roadmap—To complement the DevOps effort, UST created a plan to modernize and streamline the company’s 60 aging, on-premises applications by migrating them to the cloud and consolidating multiple instances of the same application. Strategic Systems assigned a team of developers to accelerate the application modernization initiative while the manufacturer gains momentum in its SDR effort.
• Managed IT support services maturity model—To help the company improve the overall effectiveness of its internal IT services, identify points of improvement, and ensure the IT department is aligned with the company’s overall business goals, Strategic Systems implemented a maturity framework to benchmark and measure improvements in IT tech support services.

The Impact

The deployed managed services team drives IT transformation from a cost center to a business enabler.
With a successful track record of managed services from Strategic Systems over the past decade, the company is strategically, methodically, and steadily improving its IT landscape with increased productivity, reduced costs, and better overall IT services. In this coordinated global engagement, Strategic Systems’ team of 27 people diligently worked on more than a dozen managed services projects—accomplishing timely deadlines for the implementations of various acquisitions that the manufacturer was after. The internal SDR Count was reduced aggressively by more than 50% of the previous year’s count and is still improving. This improvement—in that initiative alone—indicates the benefits of managed IT services. In addition, the Strategic Systems’ managed services initiatives have helped the company implement cloud policies, automate application releases to reduce manual errors, improve application uptime and usability, and reduce costs—helping the IT department shift from a cost center to a business enabler.