Business Overview
Our client is a well-established Manufacturing company with 1500 employees working currently with multiple manufacturing plants across the country. Our client encountered several challenges with their IT infrastructure and operations management:
Challenges
Some of the major challenges faced were:
1. Asset Tracking and Management: Difficulty in tracking and managing IT and operational technology assets spread across multiple locations. Furthermore, inefficient manual processes lead to outdated and inaccurate asset records.
2. Change Management: Lack of visibility into the dependencies and relationships between IT assets, making change management processes risky and error-prone. Also, frequent service disruptions were common instances due to poorly planned changes.
3. Incident and Problem Management: Slow resolution of incidents due to insufficient information about the IT environment. An unidentified root cause leads to repeated incidents.
4. Regulatory Compliance: Challenges in maintaining compliance with industry regulations and standards due to inadequate documentation and traceability.
Solutions
Phase 1: Planning and Setup
1. Defining Objectives:
- Established clear goals for the CMDB implementation, including improved asset management, enhanced change management processes, faster incident resolution, and better compliance
2. Data Model and Governance:
- Defined a comprehensive data model tailored to the manufacturing industry, including both IT and OT assets.
- Established governance policies and procedures for data quality and CMDB maintenance.
Phase 2: Implementation
1. Data Collection and Discovery
- Utilized ServiceNow Discovery to automatically identify and populate the CMDB with IT assets.
- Manually imported data for OT assets and integrated it with existing asset management systems.
2. Relationship Mapping
- Map relationships between different configuration items (CIs) to understand dependencies and support impact analysis.
3. Integration With ITSM Process
- Integrate the CMDB with Incident Management, Problem Management, and Change Management processes to ensure seamless operations and improved efficiency.
Phase 3: Training and Adoption
1. User Training:
- Conducted training sessions for IT staff and relevant stakeholders to ensure they understand how to use the CMDB and its benefits.
2. Continuous Improvement
- Established a continuous improvement process to regularly review and update the CMDB, ensuring it remains accurate and relevant.
