UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions, owned 100 per cent by UniCredit, is the global company dedicated to providing services in ICT, Operations, Real Estate, Security and Procurement. It oversees activities in 11 countries. Each country uses different, highly customised and localised software solutions creating a challenging asset management system across the Group.

Unifying IT asset management At the beginning of 2008, an important initiative was launched to improve operations management and governance. To consolidate current assets and facilitate future European expansion, the initiative started with a project to unify IT asset management.

Objective Needed a centralised industry-standard platform to manage all IT assets for the Italian headquarters as well as Austrian and German branches, following a series of acquisitions to drive down costs

ApproachIdentified an appropriate technology partner based on its international delivery capability and a previous working relationship

IT improvements• Offers a flexible centralised industry-standard

asset management tool to replace each local country’s solution

• Integrates fully with existing SAP and business applications, improving the hardware procurement lifecycle

• Combines with existing IT Service Management (ITSM) applications, improving the quality of asset data distributed among systems

Business benefits • Provides a more efficient centralised asset

management system and a more flexible procurement process

• Eliminates the costs associated with running several local warehouses, simplifying logistics across the supply chain

• Offers branches a pay-per-use service, aiding budgetary control, lowering end-user costs and improving financial performance

HP customer case study UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions implements a centralised European system for IT asset management

Industry Financial services

UniCredit business integrated solutions deploys single software platform to manage European IT assets

“With HP Asset Manager we now manage all IT assets with a standard software package and thanks to expert solution implementation provided by the HP Software Professional Services team, we improved adoption which enables us to meet our goals of standardisation and operational efficiency.” —Paolo Fenini, head of the fleet management service and Massimiliano Palma, head of the asset management development unit, UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions

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“Using different software applications for IT asset management in each country means investing on service and maintenance,” explains Massimiliano Palma, head of the asset management development unit, UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions. “We had to train people for each system.”

The project had three objectives: optimise systems management, lower costs by consolidating the personnel involved with asset management, and decrease end-user costs at the branch level. The solution needed to integrate fully with the SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications and other existing business software. It also had to support change within each operating region and accommodate local customisation for each country. By deploying a centralised, industry-standard system, UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions felt the project would transform capital and operational expenditure, improving the financial performance of each branch.

“Each customised system was difficult to integrate with other applications and less secure due to the reliance on different local vendors. We needed a single industry-standard solution that we could deploy and maintain in different countries,” says Palma.

Attracted by its extensive international network and with a fruitful relationship forged during previous software projects, UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions approached HP for a solution. HP Software Professional Services recommended HP Asset Manager software to automate and maintain control over capital investments.

Winning people overThe software’s functionality and flexibility together with the knowledge provided by HP Software Professional Services helped UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions maintain the correct balance between standardisation and customisation. Customisation involved developing a user interface and suitable operating tools for each country by designing appropriate screens, workflows, wizards, reports and approval sets. The deployment team also had to satisfy the countries’ different regulatory requirements.

“The main challenge was to manage change within different countries. It was important to encourage a high level of adoption as the culture and habits within each European country are very distinct. We had to convince people who were familiar with their old software that the new solution was the best choice for the Group,” says Palma and Fenini. “In response, we started a test programme in Italy with the local bank and as staff we had to adopt HP Asset Manager.”

The situation was different outside of Italy. In Germany, a large and powerful customised system had evolved over many years, while in Austria there was a lightweight standard application which performed perfectly in branches. Consequently, it proved more difficult to convince managers and users in Germany and Austria to replace their software. “Matters were complicated due to the old customised software satisfying the local needs of our newly acquired companies,” says Palma.

Customer solution at a glance

Application

• Asset Management

Software

HP IT Performance Suite – IT Operations Management

• HP Asset Manager software

• HP Service Manager software

• HP Universal CMDB software

HP Services

HP IT Performance Suite – Services and Support

• HP Software Professional Services

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To overcome this resistance, UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions and HP carefully demonstrated how implementing HP Asset Manager was more than a software deployment; it was a new way of driving real performance from IT. HP primarily overcame this challenge by working with the organisation’s staff as a team, delivering training sessions and customising the product to satisfy each country’s specific requirements.

“From the outset, communication between central staff, HP personnel and the branches was transparent. This in effect created a cohesive single team with high levels of trust, a key component for any project,” comments Palma.

Centralised asset management to improve cost optimisationUnder this new strategic IT initiative to improve the efficiency and speed the delivery of IT services, UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions acquires all hardware assets and provides them to each branch for a fee. When branches in a particular country require assets or services, they simply choose the items from a catalogue held by HP Asset Manager. Each country has a specially tailored catalogue. Centralised management via the Group eliminates the time-consuming processes required to deal with numerous external suppliers.

“With HP Asset Manager, we now provide a standard service from our headquarters and manage assets comprising 570,000 hardware items. Around 17,000 branch personnel employ the system and there are approximately 200 concurrent users,” comments Fenini. “Managing hardware and software with one team is more efficient and, as we continuously monitor the installed base, aids the software lifecycle.”

There are financial benefits too:

1. Creating a pay-per-use, on-demand procurement process. UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions is using most of HP Asset Manager’s features and the Procurement Module integrates fully with its SAP applications to manage the financial lifecycle of hardware devices. The solution also integrates fully with other IT Service Management (ITSM) software, such as HP Service Manager and Universal CMDB (UCMDB) software. Branches use these integrated solutions to report and request assistance with IT incidents or place a hardware order. The next step could be for a Contracts Management module to help the company consolidate the number of vendors associated with asset management.

2. Centralising asset management is a major step forward towards handling corporate assets and accelerating the procurement process within a cloud computing environment. When branch customers select a product or service, the system only accepts the order if they have the correct authorisation. It then automatically checks whether the purchase exceeds the branch’s approved budget. Following authorisation, the system assesses product availability at the central warehouse and the goods enter the logistics chain. If the warehouse does not hold the product, the system sends a request to an account manager who places an order for the required goods.

“Under this new highly-flexible business process, branches order and pay for assets and services on-demand without having to manage costly and space consuming local warehouses. At a Group level, the system automatically checks all costs against budgets, delivering an efficient asset management process,” says Fenini.

Over the next three years, UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions has planned to deploy HP Asset Manager to other countries, starting with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the UK. The asset management team will also introduce additional features to help other parts of the business within Austria, Germany and Italy.

“The positive experience achieved in Italy, Germany and Austria, will facilitate the future solution implementation,” concludes Palma.

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Strategy, Planning, and Governance

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IT OperationsManagement

Information Management

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HP IT Performance Suite

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© Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

4AA3-8807EEW, Created April 2012; Updated September 2012, Rev. 1