16 TOPDESK MAGAZINE - MARCH 2015

INVESTING IN CHANGE
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE IT DEPARTMENT

Bart Van Spitaels (l) and Bart Gouweloose, AVEVE

CUSTOMER IN FOCUS

AVEVE group has more than fifty subsidiaries with a

very extensive application portfolio. Managing the
support of these subsidiaries is no mean feat. The IT
department has therefore undergone a transformation
over the last three years.
TEXT: MILOU SNATERSE PHOTOGRAPHY: JONAS MERTENS

18 TOPDESK MAGAZINE - MARCH 2015

AVEVE was founded 114 years ago as a subsidiary of the Belgian

Farmers Bond. The organization focuses on three main activities: the
supply of agricultural products, the production of cattle feed, and
250 shops focused on gardens, animals and baking for consumers.
They currently have 1800 employees who work together towards the
annual turnover of over 1.3 billion euros. This makes AVEVE one of the
hundred largest companies in Belgium.
The organization comprises many subsidiaries that use specific
applications both in Belgium and beyond. This has resulted in AVEVEs

WE ARE LOOKING MORE

STRATEGICALLY AT HOW IT CAN
SUPPORT THE ORGANIZATION
Erwin Verstraelen
AVEVE Group CIO

IT department having to support a wide array of applications. To be

able to manage this, the IT department underwent a transformation.

during this phase, like business process architect and enterprise

TOPdesk Magazine joined Erwin Verstraelen (AVEVE Group CIO), Bart

architect, whose responsibility was to look at processes and IT support

Gouweloose (Service Delivery IT manager) and Bart Van Spitaels

from a holistic point of view.

(Problem and Incident manager) to discuss these changes.

The transformation of the IT department

The second phase mainly focuses on creating a new IT foundation.

Twenty years of IT autonomy had led to a fragmented and complex
IT landscape with a bunch of legacy systems. We decided to create

AVEVE Groups daily activities have gradually become more IT-focused.

a new framework by externalizing our data centers and application

For example: in the sixties, hundreds of employees worked in the

landscape. We set up a private cloud at an external partner, meaning

Groups largest cattle food factory. Thanks to automation, this

we no longer have our own infrastructure. Only the applications

production process number has declined drastically to only a few

and underlying data were migrated. This was the fastest and most

employees in the control room. The same development is visible

effective approach to match the IT support with our daily activities.

in logistical operations and store management. Because ITs role is

It also let us the spread our IT costs, as well as giving our internal

becoming more and more important within the organization, AVEVE

employees the opportunity to explore new responsibilities and

initiated the IT departments transformation in 2011. Their goal is to

perform tasks with more added value.

unite and professionalize the IT landscape.

The individual subsidiaries used to have their own group of

The third and final phase was all about working in projects and
processes. We created new capacity plans, explains Verstraelen.

IT specialists, explains Verstraelen. In 2011 we started merging

We developed new roles such as a capacity manager and portfolio

them. Now we have one IT department comprising sixty employees

manager, helping us raise the level of professionalization even further.

responsible for all IT processes. We also decided to work more in

Lastly the call management and problem management processes were

projects, and created a number of coordinating and architectural roles.

expanded to guarantee the IT activitys stability.

The executive roles such as system manager and programmer are now
outsourced. The goal is to improve our process flow and to make sure
that everything we do has maximum impact on the organization. We
have also started to look more strategically at how the IT department
can support the organization, and invested a lot of time in this over
the years.

Evolving in three phases

The IT departments transformation took place in three phases. The
first step was to merge all the IT departments, explains Verstraelen.
This gave several employees a new position in a new organization
chart, meaning the first phase focused mainly on handing over tasks
and responsibilities. It was in everybodys best interest to get used to
the new situation before moving forward. New positions were created

CUSTOMER IN FOCUS

The driving force of TOPdesk

A tool that grows with you

TOPdesk came into the picture during the first phase. Van Spitaels,

You could say that TOPdesk has grown with us in terms of

who was involved in the change process, explains. Before we

functionality, says Verstraelen. We started out very basic with Call

centralized the IT departments, we registered everything in Excel files,

Management. We continued to take steps towards professionalization:

on paper or not at all. This resulted in a lot of things being forgotten.

we started managing, planning, and anticipating. TOPdesk is currently

We began with a classic IT infrastructure, adds Gouweloose, which

used for more than just registering and processing calls. AVEVE also

worked according to the plan-build-run approach. We developed

implemented Problem Management, Change Management, Project

into an organization that works with competences. Our goal is to be

Management, the Form Designer and the Self Service Desk.

more task-oriented, an approach that gives us many advantages: the

Van Spitaels stresses the importance of TOPdesks reporting

employees are more involved, our task division is better and we can

capabilities in particular. Reporting about call processing is very

process calls more quickly. This new approach also lets us coordinate

important to us. Reports help us confirm our suspicions: How many

things better with the customer. TOPdesk plays an important role

calls are currently open? How many calls do we close? How many do

in this new approach: it has become the driving force in the IT

we escalate? Creating reports has enabled us to tackle problems in

departments daily tasks.

several areas very effectively, and were taking bigger steps.

TOPdesk gives AVEVE a clear overview of what is requested and how
the supply relates to the demand. People always ask a lot of us, but
we dont have the capacity. Reports help us justify to the organization
which calls we will and wont pick up, concludes Verstraelen.

Continued improvement
Now everybody works with TOPdesk and is used to the new situation,
the next step is to actively involve the entire organization. The Self
Service Desk plays in an important role in this. Van Spitaels explains:
In the near future, our end users can register, track and adjust all
service request, change requests and calls using custom forms. We
are also looking into improving the service desks productivity, says
Gouweloose. We want to be proactive instead of reactive, monitor
situations and watch them develop. This helps us anticipate and step
in if necessary. We now have one help desk that supports users more
efficiently and quickly. We also started the centralizing and revising
our local knowledge. Our goal is that all service desk employees can
answer questions and solve problems regarding as many different
systems as possible.
The three gentlemen have plenty of plans for the future. We
started at nothing and have taken a large step by implementing
TOPdesk, concludes Spitaels. In three years time we developed into a
professional service desk. And well continue to develop in line with our
mandate and the four foundations on which it is built: stability of the
IT support, simplicity in the IT landscape, transparency regarding our
services and IT innovation in the best interest of the AVEVE Group.