Sun International Customer Success Story Industry: Hospitality and Gaming Geography: South Africa BMC Solutions: BMC Remedy Service Desk Before No individual accountability for guest requests or problems No ability to track guest requests to Housekeeping, Maintenance, Security and Food & Beverage departments Slow responses to guest requests No ability to analyze trends such as real time productivity or recurring issues No ability to measure guest satisfaction Service desk functions not aligned to business drivers After Individual accountability and responsibility All guest requests now tracked, managed, and responded to efficiently Increased speed of response and SLA times now adhered to Analysis of trends now possible enabling workforce management and cost savings Increased guest satisfaction Service desk functions now aligned to business drivers Sun International Sun International invests in, develops and manages businesses in the hotel, resort and gaming industries. Best known for its Sun City resort in the north-west province of South Africa, Sun International currently runs 24 resorts, luxury hotels and casinos across eight countries, the majority of which are in Southern Africa, where it has a 42.5% share of the gaming market. Recently the company branched out to Nigeria in West Africa and to Chile in South America. Sun International currently employs around 8,000 staff and in FY2012 turned over 9.5Billion Rand (1.6 billion US). The company is managed by Sun International Management Ltd, a management company which overseas operations throughout the world. Insourcing the service desk Not surprisingly the management and operation of high-class hotels and resorts relies strongly on a robust and flexible IT Service Desk. In the past Sun International used an outsourced service desk running HP OpenView but in 2010 it decided to investigate whether it should carry on outsourcing with their current vendor, outsource with another vendor or insource control of the service desk to within the organization and use its own staff to run it. Following a stringent business analysis it decided on the latter and, after comparing solutions from a range of vendors, selected BMC s Remedy Service Desk solution. This was implemented by BMC s African implementation partner, Gijima. In 2012 Sun International took the decision to expand the remit of the BMC Remedy Service Desk to log, track and manage business calls, such as those made by resort guests to a hotel s Housekeeping, Maintenance, Food and Beverage or Security departments. Following a successful trial of this specific use of Remedy at Sun International s flagship Table Bay Hotel, the company has now already rolled the solution out to more than three quarters of the resorts in its portfolio.
Why BMC Before selecting BMC as its solution provider, Sun International undertook a comprehensive Request for Information in order to investigate the range of software solutions available to it. This RFI had a dual purpose benefit as at that time we were still investigating whether to outsource to another vendor, or insource our IT services, says Dave Norman. We decided to insource and then on the closed Request for Bids we received proposals from the likes of CA Unicenter, Microsoft, Tivoli, HP and of course BMC. BMC Remedy combined with our implementation partner s knowledge proved to be the best solution. So from a partner, technical and pricing perspective BMC Remedy was the one. - Dave Norman, Group IT Services Manager, Sun International Management Ltd Sun International selected BMC for two reasons: One was that our integration partner in South Africa, Gijima, runs BMC software which helps a lot. Then, from an integration perspective, we already had several tools that we wanted to seamlessly integrate into the service desk, for example Microsoft s configuration management system, and a Contact Center that is used by our IT service desk as well as by our Central Reservations department for the whole group. After analysis we realized that BMC Remedy, combined with Gijima s knowledge and experience, proved to be the best solution. So from a partner, technical and pricing perspective BMC Remedy was the one. Implementation The initial implementation of BMC Remedy Service Desk was undertaken by Gijima, BMC s South African IT implementation partner, which has built its reputation as a full service IT provider to a client base of large technology users in both the public and private sectors. The original implementation took place in record time, over just six months, with Sun International s guest services solution being added in May 2012. This implementation was also rapid: from the initial engagement to completion took just six weeks. We were really pleased with the speed of implementation, which is always a concern, said Dave Norman. For this project to be up and running after just six weeks is a great benefit to our business. IT enabling business The functional areas of BMC s Remedy Service Desk include Service Request, Incident, Problem, Change Management as well as Software Asset and Configuration Management. Dave Norman, Group IT Services Manager at Sun International Management Ltd, who has responsibility for BMC Remedy, explains how using IT to support specific aspects of Sun International s business came about. Last year in a discussion with my CIO and various partners we discussed expanding the use of BMC Remedy to log business related calls in order to enable us to provide better and more efficient guest services. After all, we had already bought the solution, we had the licenses, we owned the software and we understood it really well. So it was quite a logical decision to expand into using Remedy to log business calls. The whole implementation of service request management really started with us creating a menu structure within Remedy to enable our businesses to log those calls. To manage the project Sun International established a Hotel Project Team, with individual areas of responsibility, to work closely with the IT Service Management team at the company s head office in Johannesburg. A vital part of the project was identifying request categories, with an emphasis on guest expectations and business objectives. These included establishing the following: The most frequent operational demands for each department from a service delivery perspective The most important expectations from guests and other departments in terms of service delivery and productivity Which benchmarks each department needed to assess in order to identify the above
Once this information was identified it was then documented into a Service Catalog and implemented in the development system. The service request management solution was piloted in May 2012 at Sun International s flagship Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, with the first operational areas brought into the system being the hotel s Housekeeping and Maintenance departments. The initial pilot showed considerable benefits to both Sun International and its guests and as a result it was then expanded to the hotel s Security and Food and Beverage departments. Practical benefits Dave Norman explains the practical benefits of using BMC Remedy in this way. Calls into the Table Bay Maintenance department were written into a hardback book, which obviously wasn t ideal as there was no tracking, no root cause analysis, no trending, and no time keeping. At that stage if a call came into the department a Maintenance person would be paged to attend to a call. They would then have to locate a phone, call in to find out what the issue was and then go and fix the problem. With BMC Remedy now in place as soon as a call comes in, it is logged in Remedy, allocated to the relevant person who is then automatically sent an SMS to their cellphone or mobile device outlining the work. As a result the response time to guest requests has increased dramatically and work is not being lost or misplaced. We can now track when jobs are done, how quickly they are done, and that means we are far more efficient and cost effective as a business, with the obvious benefit of keeping our guests happy too. - Dave Norman, Group IT Services Manager, Sun International Management Ltd We also track when jobs are done, how quickly they are done, and that means we are far more efficient and cost effective as a business, with the obvious benefit of keeping our guests happy too, adds Dave. And from a guest perspective we can give them a specific time in which their request will be actioned, which is vital. For example, 98% housekeeping tickets are resolved the same day according to the data in BMC Remedy, giving both the help desk and the business a clear picture of departmental performance. The BMC Remedy solution provides: Unit specific incident categorization with integrated, ITIL based incident management and change management applications for repetitive tasks Business awareness of service desk functions Seamless integration with other service management solutions e.g. changes, tasks, service level timelines and a reporting database Simplified interfaces for rapid incident creation and resolution Business benefits As well as improving service for guests the use of Remedy to log, track and analyze business calls also has significant business benefits such as a reduction in maintenance costs following analysis of problems. Dave Norman explains that the fact the company can now automate business calls also enables it to pull out business metrics which can it can analyze for the benefit of the business. This gives us the ability to take advantage of proper workforce management and to ensure we are meeting our guest SLAs. From a Service Level Agreement perspective the company wanted anything affecting a guest to have a 15 minute SLA; in most weeks that was achieved thanks to the use of the new solution, the integration we now have and the ease of getting the work out to the relevant person. Such was the success of the trial project at the Table Bay Hotel that after undertaking a proof of concept and piloting that for six weeks it is has now been rolled out to more than three quarters of the Resorts properties in the Sun International portfolio. Rollout
to the remainder of the group s resorts including its casinos is on schedule for completion by August 2013. Another benefit the company is gaining from is the ability to compare its hotels. For example if a hotel has got issue A and no other hotel has that issue, then we investigate what the root cause might be, explains Dave Norman. For example is it a staff training issue or a staff understanding issue? And if it is a staff issues then obviously we can then implement more training to solve the problem. Staff training and response Training staff how to use the BMC Remedy solution is being managed by Sun International itself, which has established a three person team to achieve this. The team includes an Incident and Service Request Manager, a Remedy Administrator, and Dave Norman himself, who visit the resort in question, brief the management and then run specific staff training programs. Their schedule is demanding. The group trains up two properties a month, which involves a week of development work then a visit to the property. Day one involves a meeting with the property s managers, day two and three, staff training, day four a go live with handholding, and on day five the staff manage on their own with the team overseeing how they cope. Dave Norman says however that the staff buy-in at the Table Bay resort was fantastic. The executive housekeeper was totally behind the project and much of the success of the story can be attributed to her taking ownership of it and driving it, so that was very welcome. After the sign off of the project we had a lot of people that didn t want to wait, but that wanted the solution right away. That meant that one of the extra challenges we had, because we only had a small team, was getting on and doing the work as quickly as possible. As to other resorts Dave explains there was some skepticism at first but that soon disappeared as it is difficult to explain benefits over the phone. But once they see the benefits and see that the system works efficiently they tend to be very positive about it and can t wait to become involved. Wrap up and conclusion The implementation of BMC s Remedy Service Desk has enabled the Sun International to introduce better, more efficient guest services that not only underpin the company s philosophy of exceeding customers expectations but also enable it to take advantage of vital management information. This includes the ability to track, analyze and manage problems, monitor their solutions and use business metrics to undertake vital root cause analysis. As a result Sun International can now implement strategic workforce management meaning staff are motivated and accountable, solve guest service requirements within established SLA timings, align its service desk functions to the company s business drivers, and benefit from significantly reduced overheads and costs.
About Sun International The Sun International brand is found at 21 destinations in 8 countries from Southern Africa and Nigeria to Chile, bringing to life the extraordinary that is now the Sun International benchmark. Known for its Hotels, Resorts and Casino destinations, Sun International first planted its roots in 1979 with the development of Sun City, an entertainment resort 2 hours west of Johannesburg. Sun City was a first for the South African market; bringing out superstars such as Frank Sinatra, Queen, Elton John, Bryan Adams, Black Eyed Peas, Rihanna, Pink and Counting Crows to name a few. With this winning formula, Sun International then spread its wings into the rest of South Africa, Southern Africa, Nigeria and Chile. Monumental ideas came to life in the form of an exquisite Palace of the Lost City, a royal affair at Victoria Falls and many more new and wonderful experiences. Business runs on IT. IT runs on BMC Software Business runs better when IT runs at its best. Tens of thousands of IT organizations around the world -- from small and mid-market businesses to the Global 100 -- rely on BMC Software (NASDAQ: BMC) to manage their business services and applications across distributed, mainframe, virtual and cloud environments. BMC helps customers cut costs, reduce risk and achieve business objectives with the broadest choice of IT management solutions, including industry-leading Business Service Management and Cloud Management offerings. For the four fiscal quarters ended December 31, 2012, BMC revenue was approximately $2.2 billion. www.bmc.com BMC, BMC Software, and the BMC Software logo are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc., are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other BMC trademarks, service marks, and logos may be registered or pending registration in the U.S. or in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 2013 BMC Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Origin date: 03/13 *1234 56*