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Discover how the Job agency giant headhunts Axios for IT Service Management
world’s largest
employment It is hard work being one of the world’s top employment organizations, but award-winning IT Service
agency used Best Management (ITSM) software is making the job easier.
Practice based IT
Service The solution is helping manage the IT infrastructure and giving a competitive edge to Amsterdam-based
Management to Randstad, which employs more than 200,000 people each day in the fast moving business of temporary and
build a customer contract staffing.
driven
Consolidated When you talk to senior managers of I-bridge, the in-house organization which provides IT services to
Service Desk Randstad’s 22 companies and 700 branches in the Netherlands, you hear a great deal about control, trust and
professionalism. They are qualities which they believe have been provided by their ITSM solution - assyst by
Axios Systems.
“Our ITSM system gives me a grip on the whole situation. I trust it, and increasingly so do our other
departments.” Service Department Manager Dick van der Valk summed up.
“Our business is basically matching people who want jobs with employers who have jobs that suit them. We
have found that assyst and Randstad are a very good match.”
assyst was already installed at Randstad when van der Valk took up his new role following a switch from
marketing to IT, but he quickly decided to make the most of it. “It gave us a secure feeling about how to
organize our own department,” he said. “I felt it was a good product and we built on it.”
“The main problem we solve is getting the information we need to run a service department,” van der Valk
commented. “For me it’s very important to know the kinds of problems we have so we can follow them up.
How often does a particular problem happen? Where are my assets? Thanks to assyst we know where
everything is.”
The Problems
Put simply, the main tasks of Randstad’s computers are to process workers’ timesheets and send the appropriate
bills to its customers.
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original decision to purchase assyst. The central IBM AS/400 system is being phased over to Oracle.
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case study :
Randstad
B enefits & The Future
“ICT now is no longer just a supporting asset in the business,” Smith said. “We are moving towards
using ICT to actually carry out the business.” For instance, staff can now use Web applications to
produce their own timesheets and submit CVs. ICT is giving Randstad a competitive edge.
“The way we deal with our customers and our own administration methods are changing and are a lot
better, and that is due to a system like assyst because we can extract from it the information we need,”
van der Valk said.
“We don’t use assyst to the limits yet but are taking a good look at what is inside and using it to help
build up our organization. This makes my job a lot easier. I can say ‘Can we do that in assyst and, if so,
how?’ That makes life simple because we don’t have any other tools and I’m not prepared to look into
any other tools. I trust the assyst structure.”
“The more my team know about the tool, the more they appreciate it,” Smith added. “It is helping a lot.
They can see what they are getting out of it. Acceptance is growing - and with it a new professionalism.”
The Company
Randstad Holding nv (www.randstadholding.com) is one of the world's largest temporary and contract
staffing organizations. It is the market leader in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the south east of
the United States. It is also active in Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain
(where it has the second biggest market share), Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
In 2003 the group generated revenues of 5.3 billion ($6.5 trillion US Dollars), employing an average of
more than 206,000 people each day. Set up in 1960 by Frits Goldschmeding in a one-roomed office in
Amsterdam, it now has 1,600 branches and 642 in-house locations at customer sites in Europe and North
America.
It is divided into three segments: mass customized staffing (Randstad, Tempo-Team and other group
companies), large scale staffing (Capac and Randstad Inhouse Services) and professionals staffing
(Yacht).
Mass customized staffing offers a total package, including general administrative, industrial, production
and secretarial staffing services as well as tailor-made concepts for specific sectors. In-house services offer
clients direct access to flexible personnel management. Professionals staffing under the Yacht brand
concentrates on highly qualified professionals in finance, management and information technology.
Some 40% of total revenues are generated in the Netherlands where it has some 700 branches but the
company plans to reduce this proportion to 30%.
assyst@axiossystems.com www.axiossystems.com