Scalable Case Study Library
ANZ Bank: Achieving IT-Enabled Peace Of Mind with Survey
When ANZ Bank needed to get better management information around IT usage to meet the needs of a very heavily regulated industry, it turned to market leading usage metering product, Survey to achieve this.
Business Driver – Gaining and maintaining compliance
Industry Sector – Banking and financial services
Why Survey – A cost effective solution delivering ‘true’ usage metering information and more
Business Benefits – ANZ has achieved compliance and other cost savings around efficiency and productivity gains
Background
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is one of the largest companies in Australia and New Zealand and a major international banking and financial services group, which is among the top 50 banks in the world. Headquartered in Melbourne, where it first opened an office in the 1830s, ANZ is a publicly listed company, incorporated in Australia on 14 July 1977. ANZ operates in 30 countries covering Australasia, AsiaPac, Europe and the USA, with a technology and operations centre in Bangalore, India. The company has more than six million personal, private banking, small business, corporate, institutional, and asset finance customers worldwide and employs more than 30,000 people.
Rules are rules
The banking industry is heavily regulated by institutions such as the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and is subject to regular auditing, which means that organisations in this sector need to ensure they have robust processes in place when it comes to following compliance regulations.
The infrastructure needed to underpin an organisation of ANZ’s size relies heavily on IT, particularly when considering the geographic diversity of the firm, which means keeping track of its assets and licences is no mean feat. ANZ was looking for a solution that would give the firm the ability to prove compliance while also improving the productivity of the IT organisation.
Additionally, particularly in the current economic climate, it is essential that organisations such as ANZ can make accurate forecasts of their expenditures, which includes software licensing. The financial sector has been one of the worst affected industries in the downturn, evidenced by unavoidable redundancies in financial powerhouses such as Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, so being able to avoid unexpected or unaccounted for costs and remain within budget is a must.
David Ward, Head of Technical and Computer Services for ANZ, manages the IT team for the bank and is mainly in charge of operations in London and New York, as well as smaller operations in Dubai and Frankfurt. David manages around 500 PC’s across this four site domain. His remit includes the purchasing of hardware and software, including making procurement recommendations, and as part of this role he was charged with finding a product to meet the company’s pressing compliance needs.
David Ward takes up the story:
“We operate in an industry where companies need to be whiter than white. We were looking for a product that would help ensure we were compliant, and could also provide us with management and reporting information. For example, how many software programmes we had deployed across our network. Up until this point we had collected this information manually, however this was a fey time consuming exercise, and the information was out of date as soon as it was collected meaning the data we had was inaccurate. We were aware of the fact that Adobe was planning to audit us and needed to ensure that the audit did not uncover any nasty surprises.”
Finding the right fit
On notification of an impending audit, the company immediately started to search for an asset tracking and metering solution, as previously the company had collected this type of information manually, which was inaccurate and time consuming. ANZ was recommended to Survey, and after seeing the product is felt it didn’t really need to continue to evaluate competitive offerings as Survey offered the most comprehensive solution out of any of the products considered.
Today it is vital that IT departments prove they are investing in only what is needed by the business and that any wasteful procurement practices are eliminated. With Survey, ANZ was able to prove this. The granularity of detail surrounding Scalable Software’s Survey Suite delivered to the bank a unique set of products designed to maximise the value obtained from investment in computer hardware and software. The bank deployed Survey across four sites globally, in London, New York, Frankfurt and Dubai, a project that involved around 500 PCs.
The key differentiating feature of Survey was the software metering technology, which provides detailed information on the way applications and software are being used, as opposed to just recording the time an application is open. Survey was able to provide accurate software usage monitoring, combined with patch deployment information and PC inventories, giving ANZ the confidence to know that it was meeting its compliance obligations, so that if audited, it could comfortably justify its licence estate.
Additionally, the Survey Suite equipped ANZ with full disclosure of expenditures for greater cost management, highlighting opportunities for cost reduction, value improvement and risk mitigation in seconds. Survey delivers this high-value functionality through a combination of easy to use reporting tools, based on multi-dimensional data analysis techniques; detailed asset usage metering; integration with online procurement information and flexible, powerful dashboards. David Ward continues:
“We considered a few other asset management tools, but they didn’t meet our needs particularly well. Then, as a result of a recommendation from a trusted third party, we decided to look at Scalable Software’s Survey. After seeing the product and what it could do, I couldn’t see any direct competitor to it. It had everything we were looking for.
The application was very straightforward to install, configure and deploy and the Scalable team was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. The Scalable team came in to demo the product and then helped with the installation. This direct involvement in the deployment certainly made the process simpler to handle, and knowledge transfer was a key benefit to us.
Previously we had been reliant on several different applications to provide us with inventory information about the hardware and software that had been deployed within our domain. The main benefit of Survey was that all this information was presented to me in one place, which made it much easier to use and report back to the various regions, saving a lot of man-hours of effort.
However, the main trigger for us to invest in Survey was our desire to ascertain usage information about software deployed, so that we could reduce our overall licence bill when it came time to renegotiate our licence agreements.”
Everything ANZ wanted and more
ANZ implemented Survey in January 2008 and since this time the company has witnessed a number of benefits, including some that it hadn’t considered when first purchasing the tool. These are as follows:
• Efficiency improvements – ANZ is able to provide licensing ‘true-up’ data far more rapidly and accurately. Before, the company would need to manually source this information, which would take around five minutes per machine. However, as Survey has already collected the data, it only takes about an hour, rather than days, to generate domain based reporting.
• Compliance – The bank is now able to provide all the information needed to demonstrate its legal position in the event of an audit. This is a key priority for ANZ.
• Software proliferation control - The main issue ANZ identified was the proliferation of software. For example, when people come and go the software remains, so it is easy to lose track of who is using what software. However, by using Survey ANZ now has much better control over this.
Optimisation of licenses - Survey has provided better comparisons between working and non-working environments, allowing ANZ to quantify what programmes employees have used in the past, what they require and what software can be redeployed and put to better use elsewhere.
• Helpdesk resolution – Since deploying Survey, ANZ has seen improved resolution of Helpdesk incidents resulting from more accurate information about end-user PCs and the software deployed.
• Version management – Using Survey, ANZ can check that all employees are using the same version of a program. For example with Microsoft software, if it is running different versions, anyone using an older reader may not be able to access one that has been created on a newer version. Being able to check the version ensures the company is consistent with what it uses. This, in turn, can help it to identify which licenses it needs to upgrade.
• Hardware identification - Survey can identify the equipment individuals are using and what their machine is capable of, which can help the company to assess software and hardware requests. For example, if someone put in a request for a dual screen, ANZ is able to see what they use their machine for and whether they need a dual screen, as well as using the information to check whether the hardware is capable of running it.
David Ward explains:
“Survey has helped us to deliver everything we set out to achieve. The return was immediate, and now that the product has been deployed for a few months, the value of the data collected has increased dramatically.
Since implementing Survey, Scalable has kept up the contact throughout with regular monthly visits. The team is great. They are interested and concerned, but they are not intrusive or irritating. It’s hard for sales people to find that balance, although when you have a product that does exactly what it says, you don’t tend to mind when they contact you. We plan to keep up with any new versions of Survey. All the enhancements to date have made a significant improvement.”
Moving Forward…
Now that ANZ is familiar with the product, it is starting to explore the different benefits that it can take advantage of relating to the detailed usage information provided by Survey. The company plans to use this information when negotiating its next round of licensing. David Ward concludes:
“We are still fairly new to this, so we haven’t really fully optimised the full usage metering capabilities of the product. However, we are expecting Microsoft to audit us soon and the detailed usage information that the product provides will form a big part of our negotiations.
Using this information we are planning an ongoing process of redeployment and retirement, but we are still at the very early stages. We haven’t got any quantifiable data on this at present, although early indications show there are a number of areas where we can curb the proliferation of software within the organisation.
We would recommend Survey without hesitation. The product has delivered everything we were promised, providing a cost-effective solution to a pressing problem - plus a number of unexpected extras.”
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When ANZ Bank needed to get better management information around IT usage to meet the needs of a very heavily regulated industry, it turned to market leading usage metering product, Survey to achieve this.
Business Driver – Gaining and maintaining compliance
Industry Sector – Banking and financial services
Why Survey – A cost effective solution delivering ‘true’ usage metering information and more
Business Benefits – ANZ has achieved compliance and other cost savings around efficiency and productivity gains
Background
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is one of the largest companies in Australia and New Zealand and a major international banking and financial services group, which is among the top 50 banks in the world. Headquartered in Melbourne, where it first opened an office in the 1830s, ANZ is a publicly listed company, incorporated in Australia on 14 July 1977. ANZ operates in 30 countries covering Australasia, AsiaPac, Europe and the USA, with a technology and operations centre in Bangalore, India. The company has more than six million personal, private banking, small business, corporate, institutional, and asset finance customers worldwide and employs more than 30,000 people.
Rules are rules
The banking industry is heavily regulated by institutions such as the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and is subject to regular auditing, which means that organisations in this sector need to ensure they have robust processes in place when it comes to following compliance regulations.
The infrastructure needed to underpin an organisation of ANZ’s size relies heavily on IT, particularly when considering the geographic diversity of the firm, which means keeping track of its assets and licences is no mean feat. ANZ was looking for a solution that would give the firm the ability to prove compliance while also improving the productivity of the IT organisation.
Additionally, particularly in the current economic climate, it is essential that organisations such as ANZ can make accurate forecasts of their expenditures, which includes software licensing. The financial sector has been one of the worst affected industries in the downturn, evidenced by unavoidable redundancies in financial powerhouses such as Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, so being able to avoid unexpected or unaccounted for costs and remain within budget is a must.
David Ward, Head of Technical and Computer Services for ANZ, manages the IT team for the bank and is mainly in charge of operations in London and New York, as well as smaller operations in Dubai and Frankfurt. David manages around 500 PC’s across this four site domain. His remit includes the purchasing of hardware and software, including making procurement recommendations, and as part of this role he was charged with finding a product to meet the company’s pressing compliance needs.
David Ward takes up the story:
“We operate in an industry where companies need to be whiter than white. We were looking for a product that would help ensure we were compliant, and could also provide us with management and reporting information. For example, how many software programmes we had deployed across our network. Up until this point we had collected this information manually, however this was a fey time consuming exercise, and the information was out of date as soon as it was collected meaning the data we had was inaccurate. We were aware of the fact that Adobe was planning to audit us and needed to ensure that the audit did not uncover any nasty surprises.”
Finding the right fit
On notification of an impending audit, the company immediately started to search for an asset tracking and metering solution, as previously the company had collected this type of information manually, which was inaccurate and time consuming. ANZ was recommended to Survey, and after seeing the product is felt it didn’t really need to continue to evaluate competitive offerings as Survey offered the most comprehensive solution out of any of the products considered.
Today it is vital that IT departments prove they are investing in only what is needed by the business and that any wasteful procurement practices are eliminated. With Survey, ANZ was able to prove this. The granularity of detail surrounding Scalable Software’s Survey Suite delivered to the bank a unique set of products designed to maximise the value obtained from investment in computer hardware and software. The bank deployed Survey across four sites globally, in London, New York, Frankfurt and Dubai, a project that involved around 500 PCs.
The key differentiating feature of Survey was the software metering technology, which provides detailed information on the way applications and software are being used, as opposed to just recording the time an application is open. Survey was able to provide accurate software usage monitoring, combined with patch deployment information and PC inventories, giving ANZ the confidence to know that it was meeting its compliance obligations, so that if audited, it could comfortably justify its licence estate.
Additionally, the Survey Suite equipped ANZ with full disclosure of expenditures for greater cost management, highlighting opportunities for cost reduction, value improvement and risk mitigation in seconds. Survey delivers this high-value functionality through a combination of easy to use reporting tools, based on multi-dimensional data analysis techniques; detailed asset usage metering; integration with online procurement information and flexible, powerful dashboards. David Ward continues:
“We considered a few other asset management tools, but they didn’t meet our needs particularly well. Then, as a result of a recommendation from a trusted third party, we decided to look at Scalable Software’s Survey. After seeing the product and what it could do, I couldn’t see any direct competitor to it. It had everything we were looking for.
The application was very straightforward to install, configure and deploy and the Scalable team was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. The Scalable team came in to demo the product and then helped with the installation. This direct involvement in the deployment certainly made the process simpler to handle, and knowledge transfer was a key benefit to us.
Previously we had been reliant on several different applications to provide us with inventory information about the hardware and software that had been deployed within our domain. The main benefit of Survey was that all this information was presented to me in one place, which made it much easier to use and report back to the various regions, saving a lot of man-hours of effort.
However, the main trigger for us to invest in Survey was our desire to ascertain usage information about software deployed, so that we could reduce our overall licence bill when it came time to renegotiate our licence agreements.”
Everything ANZ wanted and more
ANZ implemented Survey in January 2008 and since this time the company has witnessed a number of benefits, including some that it hadn’t considered when first purchasing the tool. These are as follows:
• Efficiency improvements – ANZ is able to provide licensing ‘true-up’ data far more rapidly and accurately. Before, the company would need to manually source this information, which would take around five minutes per machine. However, as Survey has already collected the data, it only takes about an hour, rather than days, to generate domain based reporting.
• Compliance – The bank is now able to provide all the information needed to demonstrate its legal position in the event of an audit. This is a key priority for ANZ.
• Software proliferation control - The main issue ANZ identified was the proliferation of software. For example, when people come and go the software remains, so it is easy to lose track of who is using what software. However, by using Survey ANZ now has much better control over this.
Optimisation of licenses - Survey has provided better comparisons between working and non-working environments, allowing ANZ to quantify what programmes employees have used in the past, what they require and what software can be redeployed and put to better use elsewhere.
• Helpdesk resolution – Since deploying Survey, ANZ has seen improved resolution of Helpdesk incidents resulting from more accurate information about end-user PCs and the software deployed.
• Version management – Using Survey, ANZ can check that all employees are using the same version of a program. For example with Microsoft software, if it is running different versions, anyone using an older reader may not be able to access one that has been created on a newer version. Being able to check the version ensures the company is consistent with what it uses. This, in turn, can help it to identify which licenses it needs to upgrade.
• Hardware identification - Survey can identify the equipment individuals are using and what their machine is capable of, which can help the company to assess software and hardware requests. For example, if someone put in a request for a dual screen, ANZ is able to see what they use their machine for and whether they need a dual screen, as well as using the information to check whether the hardware is capable of running it.
David Ward explains:
“Survey has helped us to deliver everything we set out to achieve. The return was immediate, and now that the product has been deployed for a few months, the value of the data collected has increased dramatically.
Since implementing Survey, Scalable has kept up the contact throughout with regular monthly visits. The team is great. They are interested and concerned, but they are not intrusive or irritating. It’s hard for sales people to find that balance, although when you have a product that does exactly what it says, you don’t tend to mind when they contact you. We plan to keep up with any new versions of Survey. All the enhancements to date have made a significant improvement.”
Moving Forward…
Now that ANZ is familiar with the product, it is starting to explore the different benefits that it can take advantage of relating to the detailed usage information provided by Survey. The company plans to use this information when negotiating its next round of licensing. David Ward concludes:
“We are still fairly new to this, so we haven’t really fully optimised the full usage metering capabilities of the product. However, we are expecting Microsoft to audit us soon and the detailed usage information that the product provides will form a big part of our negotiations.
Using this information we are planning an ongoing process of redeployment and retirement, but we are still at the very early stages. We haven’t got any quantifiable data on this at present, although early indications show there are a number of areas where we can curb the proliferation of software within the organisation.
We would recommend Survey without hesitation. The product has delivered everything we were promised, providing a cost-effective solution to a pressing problem - plus a number of unexpected extras.”
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