Infineon Technologies

Overview Infineon Technologies AG

Infineon Technologies AG offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges: energy efficiency, communications, and security.

The Challenge

Infineon’s IT department was not happy with its homegrown service management solution. For instance, the software was so complicated that it could only be used by experienced key users. In the wake of Infineon’s consolidation initiative it became clear that a lot of money and resources could be saved in this area. When Infineon conducted research about the service management market, the company realized quite quickly that there was no suitable standard solution available on the market. Therefore Infineon looked for a software vendor whose existing solution could be customized to address Infineon’s specific requirements.

The Solution

With the Matrix42 Service Catalog Infineon now has a service management solution in place that is easy to use and to understand for all users. The end user has more choice, support efforts by the IT department have decreased significantly, and more thorough reporting is available for financial analysis; this saves time and money.

Matrix42 Service Catalog has successfully optimized internal IT ROI within 12 months

As a Dax-listed international corporation with more than 25,000 employees, Infineon Technologies knows that rapidly responding to change is the key to success.

Infineon‘s success is due to staying one step ahead of competition in the semiconductor industry and being a leader in many other areas, including corporate IT and interdisciplinary IT service. Infineon has shown, yet again, their IT leadership with the successful implementation of Matrix42‘s IT Service Management solutions, embracing IT-Commerce and the future of IT.

Standard solution to replace in-house solution

Infineon used an IT service platform developed internally for global integration of their corporate IT and to optimize end user communication with the centralized IT department.
Ultimately, the software that had been implemented years ago was too difficult to use and was doomed to fail. “The request process of the old solution was too complicated. Key users were required to handle the tool, since typical users were not able to understand it,“ remembers Michael Schmelmer, CIO of Infineon. Infineon was under pressure to replace its in-house development with a standard solution as soon as possible. A global IT service management system with standardized processes and tools was also set up, further driving the IT shop implementation. Standardization was expected to reduce costs and provide an easy-to-use interface, which could also be used by users without training.

Early on in the thorough evaluation process, it became obvious that available solutions would address no more than 60% of Infineon‘s requirements. This reality led Infineon to two alternatives: continue with in-house development or work with a vendor whose IT service management solution was well-suited for integration.

“The Service Catalog has met our expectations and ideas of how IT should be delivered,“ explains Hansjörg Sonnleitner, Vice President, Operation Services, IT Systems at Infineon. Infineon was convinced about the viability of the Matrix42 IT Service Portal during the first phase of the bidding process. Michael Schmelmer, Corporate Vice President IT and CIO of Infineon contacted the CEO of Matrix42 and established a ´memorandum of understanding´. Matrix42 and Infineon agreed to implement the Matrix42 Service Catalog at Infineon and leverage the open interfaces to customize the solution.

Technology under control

Meanwhile, the Matrix42 Service Catalog has been integrated completely with Infineon’s IT infrastructure and is available globally to all clients.
Changes to existing systems or new workstations can now be added automatically, requiring less time and resources. Permissions and access options are specified based on corporate guidelines. If hardware is requested, the ordered item can even be supplied including configuration settings and according to the respective job description.

Even external systems, such as the SAP purchasing tool with more than 40,000 permission variants, have meanwhile been integrated with the Matrix42 IT-Commerce platform. Also, a generic workflow including interface has been set up to ensure continued and automatic support of all of Infineon’s corporate approval processes. Thanks to the Matrix42 solution, Infineon is now able for the first time to bundle services and provide these services automatically – an enormous relief both for the IT staff and the end users.

A generic process has also been developed for the individualized `equired databoxes´ to map the purchasing processes and data. “Many features that have been developed in cooperation with Infineon have become an integral part of our IT-Commerceplatform,“ says the CEO of Matrix42. “It is good to see the concrete, on-site requirements of our customers, since this is the only way for us to continuously develop our tool, enabling us to not only be up-to-date, but one step ahead.“

Happy users make everybody happy

The modern IT Service Catalog by Matrix42 has gained much acceptance at Infineon – even within the first few weeks more than 9,000 IT orders were processed with this tool, without any problems.
While in the past, processes were not comprehensible for the many endusers worldwide, prices were not available or the delivery status of a hardware or software item was unclear, the Matrix42 IT-Commerce platforms now provides a clear overview: offers, order processing and delivery are based on automated standard processes, which ensure transparency and speed, increasing both Infineon’s efficiency and end-user satisfaction.

“Acceptance of the new IT shop is higher than expected, and we are sure that this is the first step in the right direction,“ is Sonnleitner’s judgment. On-site support efforts have been reduced significantly since the service management solution has been implemented. 80% of services are already automated. The remaining 20% are tasks that have to do with complex integrations and customizations.‘ According to Sonnleitner, the goal for the future is to enable the users to do everything themselves. The Matrix42 Service Management implementation is a success from both an IT and business perspective. The automated process documentation allows for meaningful reports – and related insights.

“From a manager’s perspective, documentation and reporting are very important. Thanks to Matrix42, we can now provide meaningful information on the purchaser, the date and time of the order and related costs. True to the motto ´something can always be optimized,´ comprehensive reports allow us to detect weak points in the company in time and to look for appropriate solutions,“ explains Infineon CIO Schmelmer.

IT-Commerce: focus on the customer

IT-Commerce is modeled after the success of e-commerce.
From product listings on the Internet, to ordering and order processing through delivery and customer service - highly automated processes ensure the fast and reliable delivery of goods and services. Matrix42 applies the same pattern to IT: Browse, order and deliver automatically. That‘s easy and efficient IT. IT-Commerce turns users into customers. Just like shopping on the Internet, users order IT services, including software and hardware, in the web shop. Once the order has been approved, delivery is initiated and service is cross-charged to the respective cost center, automatically.