PSP Swiss Property
«We benefit from Swisscom expertise and estimate the savings to be around 20%.»
Erich Schwab Former Head of Information Systems PSP Swiss Property
The story in brief:
PSP Swiss Property is outsourcing 100 IT workplaces to Swisscom, thus saving 20 % of its total costs.
How PSP Swiss Property outsources its IT workplaces including infrastructure and cuts costs
In order to focus entirely on its core business, real estate company PSP Swiss Property has been relying on a close partnership with Swisscom since 2003. By successfully outsourcing 100 IT workplaces together with infrastructure and services, the company is benefiting from a fast and stable IT system, a regular transfer of knowledge and technology as well as lower costs.
Challenge
The holding company PSP Swiss Property Ltd., which owns properties and sites in top locations in Switzerland’s key business centres, is among the leading Swiss real estate companies. The company, which is listed on the Swiss stock exchange, employs a workforce of around 90 employees in its Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne, Olten and Zug offices and focuses entirely on its core business – improving and further developing its real estate portfolio valued at around 5.5 billion Swiss francs.
“We don’t do anything that others can do better. This is one of the reasons for our long-standing cooperation with Swisscom,” says Giacomo Balzarini, CEO of PSP Swiss Property, summing up his company’s philosophy. In the spring of 2003, the management of PSP Swiss Property thus opted to outsource its IT workplaces, including the accompanying infrastructure, to a specialist service provider for corporate and organisational reasons. Following careful evaluation, Swisscom was awarded the contract. Besides specific specialist knowledge, the company’s many years of experience and more stable,” states Erich Schwab, former Head of IT at PSP Swiss Property. tutto il territorio svizzero, con specialisti in loco in tutte le regioni linguistiche del Paese.
Faster, stabler and more affordable
Following the launch of the project in the summer of 2003, everything proceeded according to plan: the installation of a new platform and new servers took place with no trouble at all and involved operating the server infrastructure, including a Citrix platform as well as basic client software engineering, providing specific software packages, operating the WAN and LAN services and licence management. “The decentralised operation and network and platform monitoring posed the greatest challenges,” recalls Ueli Brönnimann, Account Executive at Swisscom. But the hard work paid off. “Not only is our net work faster than before, it is also more stable,” states Erich Schwab, former Head of IT at PSP Swiss Property.
Based on customised service level agreements, PSP Swiss Property out-sourced all products and services that it was not able to provide itself cheaply and at the required high quality. In addition to mail and network components, this included end-user support services. While first-level support is still provided by the in-house IT department, Swisscom is responsible for second- and third-level support for the service desk at PSP Swiss Property’s data centre. “Swisscom wealth of experience as well as its refreshing outside perspective generate genuine added value for us,” Erich Schwab adds. Not to mention the costs: “We estimate the savings potential to be around 20 percent of total costs,” explains Schwab.
From cooperation to partnership
Five years after the project launch, the management of PSP Swiss Property decided to extend the contract. The trusting and smooth cooperation on equal terms had developed into a close partnership with clearly defined tasks and responsibilities. In Erich Schwab’s opinion, the overall service package has been perfect since the very beginning: “We have never regretted the decision to out-source part of our IT to Swisscom.”