Dometic France controls its costs thanks to the outsourcing of its information system by Jalix

The integrator - consultant Jalix has been chosen to manage the information system of Dometic France, thanks to its global approach and its skills in both
infrastructure management, application management (CRM, ERP, etc.) and the provision of a remote helpdesk accessible every day.

Issue

As a subsidiary of the Swedish holding company, Dometic France has its own information system, which currently comprises 60 workstations, 8 physical servers and 3 virtual servers. Since 2004, until the end of 2009, Dometic used an external consultant to manage its information system three days a week, but the company has gradually grown from 20 to 50 users.

During 2009, Dometic's outsourcing needs evolved and the external consultant did not have the structure and service offering required to manage Dometic's IT and support the company's development. At the end of 2009, Dometic launched a consultation with several companies including Jalix. On the basis of the information provided, each of the companies consulted was asked to present a first level master plan for the short, medium and long term and to present the technical and methodological approach and the areas of progress envisaged.

Solution / Implementation

Since June 2009 and within the framework of a renewable 3-year contract, Jalix has been in charge of the complete outsourcing of Dometic France's information system. This contract was defined according to the possible evolution of the number of users and Jalix has formalised its strong commitment by defining a service level agreement (SLA) for the defined scope. Compliance with this commitment is monitored quarterly through a number of indicators and a steering committee with Dometic management.

The elements of this scope include: office automation (fixed and mobile workstations, printers, tools) - management of hardware purchases and licences (hard and soft) - data backup - messaging - telephony - security - databases - servers - workstations - network infrastructure and mobility (iPhone management), as well as the management of business applications (CRM & ERP) from the publisher Microsoft, of which Jalix is a Silver partner.

For each of these elements of the outsourcing perimeter, Jalix studies Dometic's needs before submitting its recommendations and then deploying the selected solutions, always having obtained Dometic's prior approval. A monthly meeting and a quarterly steering committee are used to monitor the progress of the projects.

Advantages and benefits

In terms of data backup, Jalix ensures daily, weekly and monthly backups on magnetic tapes and has defined a more global Business Continuity Plan (BCP).

For telephony, Jalix chose to upgrade Dometic's existing Alcatel PABX solution to an ISI-COM call centre solution in order to avoid losing calls and to obtain statistics on peak activity by department. Finally, a digital fax solution was implemented.

In 2011, Jalix also reviewed all of Dometic's workstations by selecting an HP offer and standardised the printer fleet in order to optimise consumables. This industrialisation and standardisation of the workstation management processes has made it possible to reduce maintenance costs while offering a better service (fewer breakdowns) and guaranteeing great flexibility (a fully configured PC can be replaced in just a few hours).

For all of these actions, Jalix works closely with the IT department of the Dometic Group, based in Sweden, and the teams meet at least twice a year.

During these meetings, the projects included in the outsourcing contract are discussed, as well as additional projects, which are implemented according to the available budget.

In the course of 2011, the integrator and consultant Jalix implemented the dematerialisation of Dometic's invoices with the Medius software.

This is also how Jalix has developed an interface with the Microsoft Dynamics AX2009 ERP to allow Dometic teams to automatically access
references and product information in the CRM database.

In 2011, Dometic also turned its attention to the health sector with the development of a range specifically dedicated to the medical sector. Jalix is now in charge of the support and deployment of software solutions that allow the control and monitoring of Dometic's medical equipment (centralisation of temperature sensors for example). Dometic's end customers in the healthcare sector now have a customer service department managed by Jalix.

During 2012, several projects should see the light of day: the development of a "second choice" website for managing product returns from customers. Jalix is also working on the launch of two web portals: one for warranty claims for approved workshops, the other for B-to-B resellers for stock management, order tracking and customer account management.

Jalix, Dometic's long-standing partner for the deployment of the company's ERP and CRM tools, will also be responsible for the migration to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.