Provinzial – Efficient self-service with IT lockers

Provinzial – Efficient self-service with IT lockers.

Headquartered in Münster, Provinzial Holding AG is one of Germany’s largest insurance groups, insuring everything its five million customers in northern and western Germany hold dear. Within the scope of various digitalisation projects, Provinzial worked with Bechtle to modernise IT support with self-service CORA lockers provided by Swiss manufacturer, pidas, heralding a new era in IT support and opening up a whole host of possibilities for Provinzial employees.

Project details.

Services

Managed Services
Client Management

Industry

Financial / Insurance

Manufacturer

pidas

Company size

> 1,500 employees

Challenge.

Provinzial Holding AG is Germany’s second largest public insurer, covering not only the valuables of its over five million private and corporate customers, but also their quality of life, health and even their lives. The company also offers comprehensive advice and support on retirement plans. The Provinzial Group has launched several digitalisation projects in order to ensure its success into the future, supported by its long-term IT service partner, Bechtle, which handles the IT support for the 13,000 office and field employees’ hardware. The company was looking for a way to further optimise and therefore examined other Bechtle customers. In the process, it came across an inspiring solution, which means that Bechtle no longer has to schedule appointments to drive to users to deliver new or replace old devices as these will be available to pick up from a pick up point, shortening waiting and delivery times and simplifying the hand over of IT equipment. The task now was to find an innovative method to fulfil the requirements of a modern, flexible and independent working world.

The idea for the pidas IT lockers we now have at the company came from Bechtle. They not only reduce downtimes, but accelerate support processes. We were impressed by pidas’ concept and our partnership with Bechtle was typified by trust, candour and transparency. Choosing the devices also went very smoothly with Bechtle offering excellent advice to fulfil our very specific needs and quality requirements.

Matthias Vogel, Head of Workplace Management, Provinzial Holding AG

Solution.

During on-site visits to production facilities for vending machine solutions, Provinzial and Bechtle tested several models for their support processes and automation features. The insurance company eventually settled on CORA self-service lockers manufactured by Swiss company, pidas, which proved its worth on a visit to Zurich. Provinzial now rents the solution from Bechtle for one year at a time completely risk free, allowing its employees to quickly and easily collect devices such as notebooks, smartphones, headsets and accessories without having to get in touch with the field support team. Bechtle linked up the lockers to Provinzial’s software system so that staff can pick up their devices by simply scanning their company IDs. For added security, built-in scales detect exactly what has been removed.

Bechtle continues to load the CORA lockers according to previously defined thresholds, so, for example, the solution recognises whether any mice or HDMI cables are missing and if so, how many. Employees are able to collect replacement hardware and consumables across locations or even borrow items for short-term use. This solution is available around the clock, which has significantly boosted IT support efficiency. In the future, the locker will also handle support cases, which will be automatically processed through Provinzial’s workflow systems linked via an interface and allow defective notebooks to be easily swapped. The new device will be placed in CORA to be picked up by the employee with the old device being returned to a pre-defined locker either immediately or at a pre-determined point in time.

Business benefits.

The CORA IT lockers provide employees at Provinzial Holding AG with field support regardless of time and the availability of support staff. If someone has forgotten a charging cable or mouse at home, Bechtle can help around the clock thanks to the lockers, considerably reducing support cases and thus saving time and money. Employees no longer have to wait for a delivery, which itself minimises downtimes and boosts productivity. CORA has optimised its entire IT support process, improved employee satisfaction and is contributing to the company’s aim of working in the most resource-effceint manner by 2025.