Far from the clichés about the complexity and opacity of the cloud, CIOs who have outsourced and managed their information systems are delighted with their choice. Contrary to popular belief, this model is proving to be an opportunity for the IT Department to focus on projects for the business, as shown by the example of Serge Ferrari, world leader in composite materials..
For most companies, the digital explosion has accelerated the pace of change, forcing them to find new ways of working.
solutions to meet the demands of these changes. At the heart of the reactor, the information system
must respond to this need for agility in order to serve business projects as quickly as possible.
The fact remains that most SMEs have to deal with a heavy and often heterogeneous IT legacy. As a result, these companies often have to manage multiple skills, each with their own specific needs.
a narrow scope. Whether in-house or through poorly negotiated outsourcing. In addition to a lack of agility, this can lead to cost inflation and a heavy dose of inertia when it comes to aligning the company with strategic changes.
Faced with these constraints, many ETIs have chosen to outsource all or part of their information system and delegate some of its management to operators such as the Serge Ferrari group. Emblematic companies of the French ETI Serge Ferrari has a well-developed set of specifications and a high standard of service.
highly constrained transformation.
To operate its in-house information system, Serge Ferrari had recourse to several service providers and as many
service contracts. This is a daily headache, given that the slightest unavailability of an ERP system instantly brings factories to a standstill, in the same way as business applications designed to control production robots.
Against a backdrop of strong constraints on data integrity and a recurring concern about IS unavailability, all the elements are in place to ensure that the need for evolution and change is in place.
Outsourcing to regain peace of mind and avoid opex
The transformation was triggered by a new call for tenders. Faced with a number of constraints, the Group's Deputy Managing Director Serge Ferrari was looking to optimise his information system in order to regain a little peace of mind in his management and move from capex to opex. He decided to restructure his IT department by outsourcing its IT.
The new specifications for the search for a service provider are very detailed on the monitoring of the services required per application and the commitments expected, specifying their nature in terms of high availability, Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP), Service Level Agreement (SLA), data security - the catalogue is extensive. The catalogue could be exhaustive if it weren't for two other complaints. The information system was managed by a transitional IT Director, so a layer of governance had to be added via a catalogue of services. Similarly, there was no longer any question of including technical outsourcing and SAP administration in the same outsourcing scope, as these are two different businesses, even though the Group was looking for a single point of contact. Serge Ferrari opted to outsource to Intrinsec, which teamed up with an expert in SAP administration.
The disappearance of complexity
After six months of support, the migration was completed in just one weekend. An addition to the savings achieved, the new General Manager now has a genuine management tool with a host of indicators for his information system, and a catalogue of services to help him plan ahead. What's more, with a one-stop shop for user support, his peace of mind has been restored. Above and beyond this, Serge Ferrari has achieved its objective of providing quality services to its business units and ensuring a high level of availability without having to worry about technical systems.
Serge Ferrari is just one of many examples of the benefits of the cloud. Above all, he demonstrates that the cloud model is first and foremost a business model. and that the opacity of architectures, technologies and organisation is a figment of the imagination. In the case of Serge Ferrari, as in other companies, the abstraction of the technical layer via the cloud has above all accelerated change by simplifying life internally. By freeing itself from the constraints of IS management, the IT Department has been able to focus on business projects and offer the flexibility and skills required to negotiate strategic shifts in a demanding sector.