Testimonials

With high technology and complex manufacturing at their heart, MBDA UK required an IT partner that understood their business and could meet their stringent requirements for security. They turned to SCC following a competitive search of the market in line with their procurement processes.

Overview

Just over a decade ago MBDA went through a strategic change with regard to their IT strategic approach, which in turn had a significant influence on the infrastructure management and supply chain. The large outsourcing contract that had been their sole provision up to that date was concluding and it was decided that multiple partners would now be selected (in addition to an enhanced internal MBDA UK Information Management team) to provide products and services into the front office, back office, networking and enterprise applications.

The Challenge

MBDA knew that as opposed to building an extensive internal IT organisation that they would be better served focusing on using outside specialists who had the breadth and depth of skills and services to deliver the day-to-day operational IT services. The internal IT team would focus on strategy and the more specialist areas of their complex design and manufacturing business.

“The SCC management structure is accessible for MBDA – we are always confident that if we need to we can speak to the right person at the right time”.

Alan Wood, IT Operations Manager, MBDA UK

“We are an engineering and manufacturing business. A high technology, complex manufacturing business. One that has stringent security, safety and quality standards that have to be adhered to” says Alan Wood, the IT Operations Manager at MBDA. “Our timelines are critical, our processes are complex and detailed and we, as an entire organisation, have to be laser focused upon them. This means having an IT supply chain that has the same values, empathy and understanding as ours. They have to ensure that they can support us in the way that we support our customers – the support recognised to be flexible, pragmatic and responding in the right way to the circumstances faced. The SCC management structure is accessible for MBDA – we are always confident that if we need to we can speak to the right person at the right time”.

The Solution

After successfully winning the front office tender SCC implemented as part of the contract an internal Service Desk provision for MBDA. This Service Desk, now manned by 17 skilled and dedicated engineers, takes first line calls from the entire 4,000 strong MBDA UK workforce and overseas users of collaborative applications. These calls go through an ITIL workflow being either resolved by SCC or passed onto the other providers within the MBDA IT supply chain. At all times SCC manage the process. This Service Desk is physically located within MBDA’s UK Stevenage site, not operated remotely, to provide a highly personal and close business relationship. The SCC engineers understand the response demands and are aware of the impact that any form of IT challenge can have.

“Calls are running at around 6,000 plus a month, all of which come to the onsite SCC team”, Alan Wood continues. They know when an issue needs to be backed off to the other service partners within our IT eco system and co-ordinate them too. This gives us a single point of contact for all our issues. We obtain transparency, awareness and visibility of how our IT infrastructure is operating. This gives us business intelligence on how our systems are operating and thus where investment can be placed to improve our collective performance”

“Calls are running at around 6,000 plus a month, all of which come to the onsite SCC team. This gives us a single point of contact for all our issues.”

Alan Wood, IT Operations Manager, MBDA UK

Alongside the Service Desk provision SCC also manage the configuration arrangements for the end user compute requirements (EUC) for the MBDA workforce. Due to the security requirements of MBDA every asset, every item, every user, every application has to be traceable. And this is where the years of experience of SCCs secure supply chain management comes into its own.

“SCC’s approach is flexible and pragmatic. It’s that simple. They provide the necessary support services of stock management and asset tracking, through to deployment and ultimately secure disposal of our IT assets. They deal with it all, from config to disposal, enthuses Alan Wood. “This is a strong capability that SCC has developed over many years and one that often gets overlooked in the wider IT industry.”

This solution has been custom configured to meet the MBDA working processes being delivered on site by a team of SCC security cleared (SC Cleared) engineers. They meticulously maintain the EUC estate across all MBDA sites meeting the necessary security requirements that have been laid down by MBDA and their customer base.

The Outcome

“We can focus on our business of high technology manufacturing”, Alan Wood says, “SCC does the heavy lifting of IT and we focus on using that IT to add value to our customers. It may sound obvious, it may sound simple, but achieving it is hard”

The robust delivery mechanisms in place with SCC allow MBDA to drive their business forward and use IT to innovate, develop and invest in the next generation of design and manufacturing technology that leads to market leading products.

“Doing the ‘everyday’ in IT is an overlooked cornerstone of business”, Alan Wood explains, “So often IT wants to be doing the fanciful, the creative and the future looking and although that has its place, it cannot happen without a strong foundation. We get that foundation though our relationship with SCC”

The Future

As MBDA continues to progress, the relationship with SCC develops. SCC have been working on supporting our new state of the art manufacturing facility in Bolton, which is moving more to a 24 hour operation as our business ramps up. This is going to be achieved through the development and implementation of a dedicated out of hours of a Service Desk facility.

Other areas, such as software application packaging, is undertaken by SCC, which has proven to be highly successful which resulted in an MBDA in-house award for innovation.

“Cutting edge technology, innovation business, manufacturing and customer expectations do not sit still, it is an evolving and developing beast”

Alan Wood, IT Operations Manager, MBDA UK

Cutting edge technology, innovation business, manufacturing and customer expectations do not sit still, it is an evolving and developing beast”, explains Alan Wood, “We see this, we react to this and we strive to retain our position as the leader in our industry. We do this through strong partnerships, ones that fit our ethos, culture and values”.

The MBDA business has been successful and witnessed a sales and employment growth, especially over the past 5 years – SCC has evolved their solutions in parallel – there is a range of additional services operational, which were not in the original solutions definition.

SCC is proud to be working with MBDA and looks forward to continually supporting them in their future business and manufacturing success.