How NCC’s IT and business grew into equal partners

Nordic construction giant NCC decided to reorganize its IT function so that IT could help develop the business side on a more strategical level while also providing services in a more cost-effective manner. Consolidating five separate IT units from five different countries under one roof was not a simple task, but Sofigate helped NCC reach the goal in record time. Allowing the NCC staff to develop their skills through inclusion was key to successful consolidation.

5 become 1

Construction and property development corporation NCC operates in the Nordics and Russia. In 2016, the company decided to reorganize its operations based on business departments, instead of having separate country organizations. A year later NCC saw it fit to apply the same thinking to its IT organization and consolidate five individual group, country and business IT departments into a single IT and Development function.

“It is essential for the IT and business functions to act as equal partners. A unified IT function can support our business and strategy more efficiently than what was possible for five IT units, each operating from a different country. However, the most critical step in our transformation process was to make sure these five different IT organizations would learn a new, common mode of operation,” says Kari Kulotie, Head of IT Services and Application Delivery at NCC Group.

To create this new organizational structure, NCC decided to partner up with Sofigate, as the business technology company had previously assisted NCC in other transformation projects on a Nordic level.

Genuine inclusion helps commit to change

As part of its IT organization transformation, NCC streamlined its operations by switching from a systems-based way of thinking into a service-based mindset. The existing 400 IT systems were combined into 50 IT services, each with their own service description and a service catalog.

“We paid great attention to governance and roles while constructing our service management, both on the IT and the business sides. Sofigate supported us in mapping and building the basic ITIL processes and together we made sure that ServiceNew could support these. As a result, we gained a holistic view into our new IT organization: now we are able to see what we produce, at what level and with what response times. Now that we can better measure our IT, we can improve it more easily in the future,” Kulotie says.

An inclusive model of change management employed by Sofigate was the real cornerstone of NCC’s transformation process. Inclusion enabled a greater level of commitment for the staff.

“In most projects Sofigate acts as a turnkey partner, providing best practice solutions to our customers. But in this case NCC preferred to lead the process in a more hands-on style themselves, so our role was more of an advisory one – presenting the best practices and implementing the renewed processes into ServiceNow. This was actually a very smart move considering change management, because it enabled NCC’s own staff to develop their skills and deepen their competencies during the process,” Sofigate’s Creusen says.

The rapid pace of change demanded flexibility from the staff – but provided great rewards by enhancing knowhow and capabilities. NCC invested in training and acquiring a wide array of certificates to ensure their key personnel could develop necessary new skills.