Implementing eBonding for Seamless Service Management

True end-to-end IT solutions are invaluable for modern businesses, allowing them to focus on what they do best while their services are taken care of. However, many so-called end-to-end IT solutions still require customers to report issues, make requests and track progress.

That’s where eBonding can help. By electronically bonding the two systems (customer and service provider), the entire service management process can become effortless, efficient and fully visible for the customer.

At Aura, we have helped an organisation implement a bespoke eBonding solution, improving the efficiency of global IT support.

eBonded incident management

As part of our contract with a global service provider, Aura created an eBonded incident management system to automate not only the processing of tickets, but the exchange of information between the customer and our incident management system.

The end goal was to have the customer’s systems connected to their service desk (Service Now and Remedy CRM), which would then flow on to Aura as the service vendor.

To ensure the best practices for service management, the customer required the entire process to be aligned with ITIL® V3. That was no problem for Aura, with all our service delivery specialists highly qualified in either ITIL® V3 and/or ITIL® V4.

Our bespoke eBonding process

Workshops

To get a better idea of the functional specification, we were happy to meet with the customer in a face-to-face workshop. Aura was able to offer a multi-region and bilingual presence to ensure a deeper dive and a better understanding of the requirements.

The workshops required attendance from both technical and operational personnel from both organisations to ensure all deliverables were fully understood and met. This extended from the contractual service criteria and timers to risks and their potential impacts on the end-to-end solution.

By engaging in the fulfilment of standardised templates and the automation of data in differing systems, we were able to better understand the process requirements and forecast volumes more accurately.

Design

Aura worked to build and review several core scenarios that would be commonly exercised during the eBonding lifecycle. Pre-conditions, initiation tasks, flow of information (including updates, closures and message exchange) and expected outcomes on each CRM were all covered.

Once the solution overview was complete, our team implemented the security considerations between systems. In line with GDPR, the customer required secure transport for all inbound and outbound messages. Our agreed solution utilised TLS Protocol – the recognised standard for transmitting information of an encrypted channel and mapping an SMTP IM interface.

During the design phase, we identified a number of other practices which were subsequently added to the scope of the project. We were able to incorporate both simple and complex service requests (SSRs and CSRs) into the eBonding solution without any change to the project timeline.

Deployment

The eBonding solution was successfully implemented into the live environment on time and as planned. Reporting elements that were collated from different resolver groups throughout the service chain are now consolidated into a single source. The eBonding solution is also equipped with notifications to custom resolver groups, adding further belt and braces to the bespoke service management process.

That all works in harmony giving the end customer the confidence, reassurance and trust that they expect from a global managed service provider.

A bespoke, effective eBonding solution

Drawing upon our expertise in global managed services, digital transformation and customer experience, Aura was able to provide a truly bespoke planning and design service for our customer’s eBonding requirements.

The benefits of the eBonding solution were evident from the moment it was implemented. The automation of ticket updates between resolver groups has significantly reduced coordination efforts and greatly improved efficiencies which has enabled the customer’s energy to be focussed on other improvements for the business.