Business opportunity

To compete in their deregulated market, a regional energy company wanted to accelerate the delivery of innovative customer services. The company had successfully maintained reliable services by outsourcing IT operations and tying stability to Service Level Agreements (SLAs). However, to support planned innovations, the company required a new level of agility from infrastructure on premises and in the cloud.

Technical challenge

By emphasizing stability as the exclusive priority, business-as-usual (BAU) operations based on SLAs inhibited innovation. Service partner team members were reluctant to engage in any efforts that might compromise upholding SLAs.

The company leaders knew their ability to compete would ultimately depend on agile use of cloud resources. Because their migration was undertaken using the original service model, the result was BAU friction and unexpectedly high cloud services expenses. The key benefits of cloud adoption were, initially, out of reach.

Our solution

Together, the energy company and Kyndryl addressed agility and innovation challenges by integrating 57 service partner Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) into three primary areas of competence within their Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) organization. This allowed the company to create Service Level Objectives (SLOs) in place of the existing agreements, enabling them to balance service reliability and agility to achieve business goals. They also began cross-training all SMEs to help ensure they have fully portable skills within the IT estate.

Using Kyndryl Bridge, the company assessed and optimized cloud operations, saving $250,000 in six months. The combined team uses Kyndryl Bridge in daily standups to continuously improve IT services. Technology leaders use Kyndryl Bridge to report on achievements and as a strategic compass in discussions with the business in monthly governance meetings. Long term goals on emissions reductions will be tracked with the tool’s Sustainability Adviser module.