Replacing Jira with SimpleOne ITSM at Fplus IT Holding Company

Fplus, one of the largest IT holdings in its market, has successfully completed a project to implement SimpleOne ITSM to automate IT processes. The company not only successfully migrated from the Atlassian solution, but also received a modern tool for further digital transformation of the company.

About the customer

IT holding Fplus unites developers and manufacturers of hardware and software solutions for corporate and public sector, one of the largest distributors of IT equipment and software in its market, logistics operator, specialized retail chain of stores of smart devices and technologies for home.

About the solution

SimpleOne ITSM is a system for automating IT processes in accordance with ITIL practices. The solution allows you to improve the quality of IT services by automating operations and increasing the efficiency of the IT Department, Service Desk and other business processes of the company.

Important advantages of SimpleOne ITSM are quick start-up due to pre-configured processes, wide possibilities of low-code customization and scaling, integration with various systems, etc.

Project background

Previously, Fplus used a set of disparate systems for IT service management and user support. The key platform was Atlassian's Jira, which was used to handle the majority of requests and applications. A corporate portal based on Bitrix24 was also used as a single window for interaction with the support service. Jira integrated with the company's accounting system (ERP) was also used to automate the processes of warranty and post-warranty equipment maintenance.

The existing tools did not allow to fully automate the management of IT services and effectively maintain business continuity. The key problems were:

• Lack of a single centralized system to manage the entire IT service lifecycle;
• Insufficient Jira functionality to automate processes such as contract and knowledge base management;
• Lack of integration with internal company systems;
• Difficulty in scaling up as the business grows and the number of requests increases.

The company was prompted to search for an alternative solution by Atlassian's announcement that it would end support for its products in the company's region. Taking into account the critical importance of Jira for the business processes of Fplus IT holding, the management decided to migrate to a new system.

The company was faced with the task of not only replacing Jira in a timely manner, but also completely modernizing the existing IT system to improve process efficiency, labor productivity and service quality.

Solution selection

Fplus carefully considered the selection criteria for a new ITSM system:

1. Functionality at least as good as the current set of systems. One of the key requirements was functionality at least equal to the capabilities of the previously used solution set. The company could not compromise with the loss of its existing IT service management capabilities. The new system had to not only replace Jira, but also expand the current capabilities.
2. Management of the full life cycle of IT services. The new solution had to cover all ITSM processes: incident management, problem management, change management, asset management, service catalog, service level management, etc.
3. Platform flexibility in process customization and customization. Striving for further digital transformation and the ability to optimize processes to meet changing business requirements, Fplus relied on a platform with extensive low-code customization capabilities without the need for experienced programmers.
4. User-friendly and modern interface. Given the large scale of the implementation, it was expected to involve various groups of internal and external users. An intuitive interface was required for quick adaptation of all categories of employees.
5. High scalability to ensure business growth. Taking into account the company's growth prospects and staff expansion, the system should be able to increase the number of users and new services without losing performance.

After a market review and preliminary screening of platforms that do not meet the mandatory criteria, the two most suitable ITSM systems were considered. The decisive role in the choice of SimpleOne ITSM was played by cases provided by the vendor and examples of successful system implementations in companies of different industries of medium and large level. The considered projects included automation of processes similar to Fplus requirements, and also demonstrated the system's ability to adapt to specific tasks of different customers. Having analyzed these examples, Fplus was convinced of the wide possibilities and flexibility of SimpleOne ITSM for solving both current and future tasks of the company.

The determining factors in their choice were:

• Modern and intuitive interface, possibility of flexible customization;
• Availability in the "box" of all the capabilities necessary for the company to manage IT services, including complex scenarios;
• Flexibility of SimpleOne Low-code platform for adaptation and development of business processes in-house without attracting large resources for development;
• Actively developing product, aimed at further functional expansion in the field of ITSM and ESM solutions.

Having seen the advantages of SimpleOne ITSM, Fplus made the final decision to implement this system for centralized management of IT and service processes.

Migration process

The migration to the SimpleOne ITSM system was realized in two major directions:

1. Implementation of ITSM-system for automation of internal support processes of the customer - employees of IT holding Fplus.

Within this direction the following processes were realized:

• Management of appeals and requests from internal users;
• Incident management and prompt response to failures;
• Problem management to analyze system causes;
• Knowledge Management;
• Change management with risk assessment;
• CMDB-based IT infrastructure asset management.

The key challenge was a quick start, which required re-engineering of the support business processes to bring the processes closer to the reference processes, which was successfully accomplished by a combined project team of representatives from IT holding Fplus and system integrator KompLIT. The fast start-up required seamless migration of data from previous systems, including the migration of tickets from Jira. For this purpose, the integrator implemented a temporary integration between Jira and SimpleOne ITSM, as well as full integration with the global catalog and the company's internal knowledge base.

2. Implementation of warranty management processes for sold equipment on the basis of ITSM-system.

For this area SimpleOne integration with the accounting system (ERP) was implemented to synchronize contractual data on equipment and warranty service statuses. This allowed to create a centralized process for managing support requests under warranty with tracking of terms and corresponding automation.

The project work was organized into several sequential phases:

• Phase 1 (March 2023): Contract conclusion, requirements detailing, ITSM system prototyping, SimpleOne solution deployment in the customer's IT infrastructure.
• Phase 2 (April-July 2023): Customization of processes and integrations, customization of interfaces and forms to meet requirements, final testing. Employee training and successful launch of SimpleOne ITSM into commercial operation.
• Phase 3 (August-January 2023): Development of internal user support processes, interface optimization based on the experience of the first two stages, implementation of change management, IT asset management processes based on CMDB.

At all stages, the project was accompanied by SimpleOne and KompLIT specialists. Full system customization, adaptation of processes using Low-code tools and training of Fplus employees were carried out.

Thanks to the coordinated work of the customer, vendor and integrator teams, as well as the use of flexible development tools SimpleOne, the project of transition to the new system was realized in a short period of time.

Project results

At the end of the project realization Fplus IT Holding achieved the following results:

1. A centralized system for managing service processes was implemented
   The company now has a single consolidated system to support internal users and manage IT services at all stages of their life cycle. This allowed to significantly optimize the work of the IT department and increase the efficiency of interaction with customers.
2. Migration from Jira was carried out
   One of the key goals of the project was to replace Atlassian Jira after the vendor ended support in the company's region. Migration to SimpleOne ITSM closed this issue, providing the company with a stable and promising platform.
3. A single window for internal customers has been realized
   The SimpleOne ITSM solution has become a single point of entry for all services provided by the Fplus IT department to its employees. The centralized portal provides convenience of work, provides users with the most complete information about the created requests and inquiries, knowledge base, ensures full communication between the user and support services.
4. Warranty service processes are automated
   Critical for the customer process of managing warranty service of sold equipment was fully realized in SimpleOne ITSM and integrated with contract and supply accounting systems. This increased transparency and efficiency of work with customers.
5. Continuity and preservation of accumulated data was ensured
   All historical data - database of tickets, assets, knowledge, contracts, etc. - was transferred to the new system. This allowed to preserve the continuity of processes.

At the moment the number of users of the system is about 2500 people. The system has a significant potential for further scaling.

System development plans

Fplus IT Holding has formed extensive plans for further development and improvement of the IT service management system.

The first direction is to increase the capabilities of the ITSM-system itself for greater coverage of IT department processes. The immediate plans include:

• Implementing software development management processes to automate the lifecycle of software product creation and change;
• Transition to resource-service model of IT services provision for transparent accounting of resources and costs;
• Development of knowledge management processes.

The next step will be a full-fledged transformation of ITSM-system into ESM-solution SimpleOne (Enterprise Service Management). This will allow to spread IT service management practices to all servicing divisions of the company.

It is planned to integrate into the ESM-system the processes of logistics, HR-service, administrative, financial and accounting departments. Centralization on the basis of the SimpleOne platform will ensure transparency of services, optimization of operating costs and improvement of service quality throughout the company.

In addition, Fplus is considering the possibility of supplementing the IT infrastructure with a specialized SimpleOne ITAM solution to manage the lifecycle of all IT assets - from planning and procurement of equipment to its write-off.