Initial Situation

The client, a specialized machine manufacturer with 150 employees in southern Germany, faced an acute problem. The IT department was overwhelmed with over 25 tickets daily, while the productivity of business units suffered.

The main trigger was the reactive working style. Each incident was resolved individually without identifying the systemic cause. Recurring errors in the integration of ERP systems with CAD software led to a permanent ticket backlog.

Management demanded a sustainable reduction in operating costs and an increase in the reliability of internal systems.

Implementation

We implemented the project in three phases over eight weeks. The focus was on shifting from symptom treatment to root-cause investigation.

Phase 1: Analysis and Categorization (Weeks 1-2)

  • Extraction of the last 6 months of ticket history from the existing ITSM tool.
  • Classification of tickets by error source and frequency.
  • Identification of the top 5 error sources, which caused 70% of the load.

Phase 2: Root-Cause Analysis and Automation (Weeks 3-6)

  • Conducted 5-Why analyses for critical error clusters.
  • Resolved network instability in the manufacturing area through segmentation.
  • Implementation of an automated health-check script for the ERP integration.
  • Setup of proactive alerts in the monitoring system (Zabbix/Prometheus).

Phase 3: Process Optimization and Training (Weeks 7-8)

  • Adaptation of runbooks for IT staff.
  • Training of key users in business departments for self-service on known issues.
  • Introduction of a monthly retrospective process for IT tickets.

Result

After implementing the measures, a clear and measurable success was evident. The IT department was able to refocus on strategic projects.

  • 40% reduction in monthly ticket volume within 60 days.
  • Reduction of Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) from 4.5 hours to 1.2 hours for critical incidents.
  • 85% fewer repeat tickets for the identified top error sources.
  • Business unit satisfaction increased in the internal survey from 3.2 to 4.6 out of 5 points.

Proactive monitoring prevented three potential total outages of the production connection in the first quarter after go-live.

Learnings

This project shows that technical tools alone are not sufficient. The decisive lever was the process change in IT handling.

  • Reactive work ties up resources needed for innovation.
  • A structured root-cause analysis typically pays off after 4-6 weeks.
  • Involving business units in problem-solving increases acceptance and further reduces the number of tickets.

For mid-market companies, this approach is the key to a stable and cost-efficient IT infrastructure.

Results

  • -40% – Reduction in monthly ticket volume
  • -73% – Reduction in Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR)
  • -85% – Fewer repeat tickets for top error sources
  • 4.6/5 – Internal satisfaction of business units (previously 3.2/5)