Our Approach
At Ceox our approach includes both Agile project delivery and Managed Services. Our overall approach incorporates 4 phases with Agile Project Delivery incorporating the first 3 phases of discovery, design and deliver and Managed Services including the optimise phase where ITIL based tools and metrics are utilised to improve the service.
Agile Project Delivery
At Ceox our approach to service delivery combines UX Design methodology with Agile systems development. We ensure each project gets off to the right start by running a Discovery phase to really understand the needs of the end user. Then we run an iterative design phase where we seek to prototype what the end service will look like. Once we know the best way to meet the user need we deliver the system in an Agile manner. The optimise phase is incorporated in our Managed Service offering.
Discovery
Establish who the users are
Understand the needs of the users
Agree who will own the service into the future
Agree the team who will develop the service
Review the legacy technical architecture
Deliver
Iteratively improve by being Agile
Develop the service to GDS Digital Service Standard
Test the service with users
Deliver training
Secure the data
Design
Bring the team together
Iteratively prototype the service and test with users
Create a high-level architecture
Consider standards eg GDS Technology Code of Practice
Identify and understand risks
Optimise
Deploy the service underpinned by ITIL
Measure the success of the service
Maintain uptime and availability
Understand how the service can be improved
Ensure information security
Ceox Managed Services
The Ceox Managed Service is designed to keep systems running and give organisations the reassurance that their key line of business systems remain available, reliable, secure and effective. Our managed services are delivered using a combination of experienced and highly skilled technical team members, market-leading tools and best practice process all with a focus on customer service. Ceox have focussed on these areas to develop an effective managed service offering that can integrate with existing IT teams and supports current systems and infrastructure enabling improved workforce productivity and customer engagement. The Service is available for a monthly fee, fixed for a one or two-year period.
Our approach is based on ITIL aligned processes and underpinned by the Ceox team, tools and ethos.
Tools
Utilising the ITIL 4 Framework, we deploy our proven service desk tool, mySupport or we can adopt the customer’s in-house service desk tools. mySupport can be accessed 24/7 via a portal to raise incidents and changes based on a custom service catalogue. mySupport provides visibility of reports on tickets and tracking against SLAs. Our infrastructure, tools and processes are underpinned by Cyber Essentials and an ISO27001 compliant Information Security Management System.
Ethos
An SME we pride ourselves on being responsive, professional, committed, balanced and open.
Team
Our team comprises highly qualified UK based, BPSS vetted staff including Service Deliver Managers with ITIL 4 experience and a technical team with expertise across a range of technologies including Microsoft products and technology stack though to open source including PHP and Java.
Service Transition
During transition (ITIL v4: Engage and Design & Transition), a Service Delivery Manager is assigned to oversee both Service Transition and Service Operation. We always assign a named individual to each organisation and the same person will support the system once it’s in Operation. The Service Delivery Manager has project delivery experience as well as a background in ITIL 4 based service management.
Typically, Service Transition Engagement is conducted in customer offices alongside the business owners and where possible with previous support providers. The Service Transition is undertaken by our Technical Team and the Service Delivery Manager and establishes Service Design including:
Service model: Key contacts, hours of operation, communication channels.
Service Asset and Configuration: Covering IT environment, applications and wider business domain including source code, configuration management system documentation, establishes administrative access to IT environment, existing service desk system and third-party suppliers.
Service Desk set-up: Clarification on utilising an existing Service Desk Tool or the Ceox mySupport Tool.
Governance: Including monthly service reviews frequency and agenda, reporting and KPIs, escalation, risk management and content of the Exit Management Plan.
Service Operation
During Service Operation we can provide a flexible and scalable service incorporating 2nd and 3rd line support for all IT environment including applications and infrastructure. During Service Operation we:
Plan: Ensures that across the organisation there is a common understanding of the vision, status and improvement direction of the Deliver & Support service.
Deliver & Support: Skilled staff and tools deliver timely interventions ensuring the IT environment and systems are delivered and remain available, reliable, secure and meet customer expectations. Monitoring tools ensure we know immediately that something isn’t right with the system so we can correct it. Service Desk tools ensure all incidents and requests are promptly assessed and priorities set to ensure response and resolution times are met within agreed service levels. The Service Delivery Manager will manage support calls and provide reports for regular review meetings.
Obtain / Build: Implement improvements by obtaining new functionality from products or building enhancements. This ensures that all aspects of the service are available in a timely manner and meet customer specification and needs.
Improve: The Service Delivery Manager, understanding an organisation’s plans and supplier’s technology roadmaps with supporting tools and dashboards takes a proactive approach to management. They will identify issues, trends and opportunities to improve performance and through our partnership with technology providers, ensure customers have forward visibility of patches and upgrades and can take advantage of improved technology functionality.
Service Operation objectives are:
Maintain service availability for the business.
Perform on-going maintenance, fault resolution and platform optimisation to ensure the system is up to date.
Ensure service patches and updates are applied and do not adversely affect the running of the system.
Identify opportunities to exploit new software features
Service Exit
During service exit we meet the new supplier and educate them in the system. We would hand over to them the full knowledge base which has been created during Service Operation as well as details of all outstanding support calls and problems.
It is our principal to be as open and supportive as possible during an exit scenario and we would look to transition the support to the new supplier without impacting the end users.