BDO operates with a global IT setup, where Global IT & Services B.V. supports the tier 1 applications and services consumed by the BDO firms worldwide. Manager of Support Services, Alessandro Eterni, and his team are responsible for keeping core business applications up and running 24/7 globally, including global support services.
According to Alessandro Eterni, one of the main pain points for the BDO firms is application availability. Unavailable applications equal time waste and unhappy users. For that reason, automating MFA (Multi Factor Authentication) resetting was an obvious place to start.
“If you have an account and change mobile, you need to reset your new mobile. Before we implemented Automize’s Automation App in 2019, resetting of MFA was handled by our 2nd line application team. Firstly, our 2nd line application team don’t work 24/7. Secondly, resetting of MFA is a simple task than could be done by 1st line,” explains Alessandro Eterni.
“With Automize’s Automation App we changed that. Now, resetting of MFA is done in real time and most importantly, if it fails, it creates a task for our 1st line support team that works 24/7.”
Alessandro Eterni explains that he and his team try to automate all those tasks and actions that require human interaction and can be run by a runbook – but that their focus is mainly on end users:
“Our main focus is to automate request items for our end users, allowing our users to experience true self-service support: I see it, I want it, I request it, I have it – within minutes instead of hours or days.”
The MFA automation was very well received, and local IT departments around the world wanted more, says Alessandro Eterni.
“The MFA automation was in your face. Since then, we have automated other tasks that end users didn’t even notice were automated, for example our customer facing service desk adding users, removing users, and installing applications.”
Alessandro Eterni comes up with another example of a task simple to automate but with great valuables, called cross border collaboration.
“Cross border collaboration refers to a BDO firm in one country working on a client inviting a BDO firm in another country to work on the same client. It is done by launching a ticket that needs approval. Before automating, this task was done manually. It was not time consuming but a distraction for my team,” says Alessandro Eterni.
“Now, with automation, we have enabled cross border collaboration in real time. Another benefit is that if the task fails – bus usually it does not – it creates a ticket instantly and the proper team can take action right away. Automize’s Automation App enables that we remove tasks from a team to expand their time to trouble shoot and work on more important things.”
Time savings due to automation are clear business benefits that are easy to understand, says Alessandro Eterni. But there are some shadow benefits, he points out.
“Rather than doing basic tasks manually, our support lines now spend their time finding new automation and working closer to our end users. They can focus on what the real issues are, the real requests that require human interaction – and use that human interaction to build and foster our relationship with the end users,” explains Alessandro Eterni.
“Automation is a domino effect: our users are happy to save time, our support team have more time, and they can dedicate that time to the users and improve the users’ satisfaction.“
About BDO and the BDO Global Office Headquartered in Brussels in Belgium, BDO is an international network of public accounting, tax and advisory firms. BDO extends across 164 countries and territories, with more than 95,000 people working out of 1,713 offices.
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“Automize’s Automation App enables that we remove tasks from a team to expand their time to trouble shoot and work on more important things.”
“Rather than doing basic tasks manually, our support lines now spend their time finding new automation and working closer to our end users. They can focus on what the real issues are, the real requests that require human interaction – and use that human interaction to build and foster our relationship with the end users.”
“Automation is a domino effect: our users are happy to save time, our support team have more time, and they can dedicate that time to the users and improve the users’ satisfaction. “
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