Legal publisher LexisNexis Butterworths selects infraEnterprise to streamline frontline support and manage Change (email this article)

Infra Corporation (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies) has supplied its IT service management application, infraEnterprise, to LexisNexis Butterworths, a division of the Reed Elsevier Group. The publisher selected Infra as a part of a global IT initiative to standardise the group’s business divisions. The LexisNexis Butterworth’s Helpdesk now acts as a single point of contact for support calls for Information Systems (IS) and other business areas. infraEnterprise is also used for Change Management of the IT infrastructure, helping reduce unplanned outages in the revenue-generating webfarm where all online services are hosted. The application’s advanced workflow functionality allows IS to provide audit information for Data Protection and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance.

LexisNexis Butterworths selected infraEnterprise for its ability to support IT service management processes based on IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practice. InfraEnterprise has enabled LexisNexis Butterworths’ IS support team to manage frontline calls for both IS and other business teams, with four IS analysts logging more than 4,000 calls per month - a 100 per cent increase in volume with no increase in staffing. Analysts can produce call sheets and assign call reference numbers. They also have the ability to prioritise, escalate and track calls to closure and produce reports. Around 10 per cent of calls are now being logged directly by users through a branded Customer Portal.

infraEnterprise was also chosen for its ability to integrate with LexisNexis Butterworths’ asset discovery tool, LANDesk. The tight integration between the two systems means that the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is automatically populated, updated and maintained with customer and asset information held in Active Directory and the LANDesk database. By viewing the information collected and linked in the CMDB, IS staff can assess in advance the impact of changes to LexisNexis Butterworths’ revenue-generating webfarm.

The combination of the CMDB and Infra’s Advanced Workflow module has also significantly reduced the cost of compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) legislation, which mandates the provision of detailed audit trails of access and changes to Financial systems for companies listed on the US stock exchange.

LexisNexis Butterworths’ Head of IT Services Mark Wilkinson comments, “InfraEnterprise is fully ITIL compliant and supports our drive towards IT best practice. We have established an efficient single point of contact support model for IS and the wider business, and since automating change management, the web farm is running at virtually 100 per cent. Infra has also allowed our SOX and Data Protection audits to become a mere box ticking exercise. With Infra, we are able to comply with our legal obligations at no additional effort – or cost – to the business.”

Simon Nugent, European General Manager of Infra Corporation commented, “The demands on the helpdesk frontline today are increasing. Not only must analysts resolve faults, the helpdesk must also be able to manage hardware and software upgrades and assets across disparate corporate networks, and provide automated audit trails.

“With a powerful tool such as InfraEnterprise, they are able to accurately log, track and route every incoming call to ensure resolution. Adherence to ITIL best practice not only helps support teams to work more efficiently, it delivers identifiable benefits such as regulatory compliance data to the wider business.”