With a centralized platform, better management and standardization of services can be achieved to reduce costs and risks.
With a global reach accessible on a local level, Ali Group is one of the world’s most influential foodservice equipment manufacturers, founded in 1963.
Over 14,500 employees in 29 countries represent the company on the global market, which includes 110 brands in 150 countries, 74 factories, and 141 sales offices.
Cernusco s/Naviglio (MI) and Vernon Hills, Illinois, are the company’s headquarters. The Ali Group develops, manufactures, markets, and supplies a broad range of catering equipment for kitchens, refrigerators, dishwashing machines, laundry equipment, ice makers, and specialty food delivery and preparation equipment. With this diversified offering, the Group can meet every catering need. Each owned brand operates as an independent business unit at Ali Group, led by experts with deep market knowledge. The business model enables rapid and adaptable decision making based on a deep understanding of each market’s unique requirements.
The requirements
It was the main objective of this project to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of IT support within the Group, while addressing the complexity of managing a global technology infrastructure.Furthermore, it was necessary to implement management in accordance with ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) standards and to establish a new organizational structure of business processes within ITSM (Information Technology Service Management) and ITAM (IT Asset Management), using a ticket management solution that is efficient and effective.
The Services / Solutions
In 2022 S2E took charge of Ali Group’s IT infrastructure and implemented a “turnkey” support service: a help desk and a specialist outsourced service desk service, guaranteeing a rapid solution to any technical problems. S2E provides support not only for the company’s 40 on-site employees but also for all of the subsidiaries’ IT managers. Following an initial assessment of the IT infrastructure, S2E designed and implemented new workflows to manage IT service interruptions, their causes, and their solutions (incidents, problems, and changes). “As a result, we found it necessary to update, improve, and make IT management more structured, especially with regard to Microsoft 365, and the entire infrastructure of Ali Group”, as explained by Giovanni Virgilli, Ali Group’s IT Director for EMEA APAC. “We were immediately convinced by S2E’s tailor-made approach. The specialist support both onsite and outsourced respects high professional levels which guarantees us continuity and fast and reliable intervention and assistance times which fully satisfy our needs”.
As a result of S2E’s extensive knowledge and experience in managed services, Ali Group receives outsourced support for cloud management of its Azure tenant as well as VMware virtualization environment (32 servers), network infrastructure and devices, and management of the group’s various domains (approximately 150), all with fast service restoration times at the Cernusco headquarters as well as the peripheral offices. S2E also managed tenant-to-tenant migration projects (more than 4,500 mailboxes in 17 companies in Italy and North America).
“In Ali Group we have activated both a tailor-made onsite monitoring system and an open source
tiketing system covering Italy as a whole, which have the aim of helping the IT managers of the various Group offices to give rapid and effective responses to their users about any technical problems and incidents. “S2E support has always guaranteed fast recovery times by activating emergency protocols compliant with ITIL frameworks,” adds Mario Cubello, S2E’s Business Line Manager. “Our assistance is extremely personalized. I am convinced that the relationship we have formed between us, as S2E, and Ali Group is truly important and can only grow and will provide new value to an increasingly higher level of service”.
The Benefits
The benefits of this partnership for Ali Group include:
- Greater efficiency: The onsite help desk has led to faster resolutions of IT problems, reducing downtime and request volumes.
- In compliance with the agreed SLAs, the service desk provides specialist support to ensure effective management of complex problems, pursuing continuous improvement.
- The ongoing collaboration between S2E and Ali Group has not only solved immediate IT challenges, but also laid the groundwork for future technological developments.
Process automation will be implemented to improve support and reduce management costs.