Kiwi.com is a global online travel agency, providing a fare aggregator, metasearch engine and booking for airline tickets and ground transportation. Originally hailing from Brno, the Czech Republic, the company grew over time and opened several other locations in Europe. With that, the need to distribute the IT equipment grew significantly.
Case study: Blocks and Kiwi.com
Use case: Workplaces
Product configuration: Blocks Equipment Distribution / Asset Management
Kiwi.com needed to completely automate IT asset management processes, specifically within its End User Support (EUS) department in their Brno, Prague, Bratislava and Barcelona locations.
The goal of the complete digitalization of the hardware handover primarily involved check-in, check-out and 100% reliable tracking, which limits human errors and the possibility of loss to the bare minimum.
Specifically, Kiwi.com was looking to:
• Enhance work efficiency while optimizing employees’ time
• Make EUS operations flawless and tracked
• Change the hardware handover process from being lengthy and manual to speedy and unmanned
• Make the process a breeze for both EUS and other employees
• Find the desired flexibility in a routine process
• Automate the whole communication flow to users and integrate it with internal ticketing systems, specifically Jira.
One of the options Kiwi.com considered were classic click-and-collect boxes, routinely used by delivery companies, or electronic storage lockers. However, the process of check-in and check-out and the inability to adapt to specific needs were the main drawbacks of the solutions, and ultimately a no-go for Kiwi.com.
What made Blocks stand out from other solutions was its focus on the user experience, and its ability to suit perfectly the designed user flow and integration capabilities. In general, Blocks was the winner because of the flexibility its software represents, the software that can mirror and answer what Kiwi.com was looking for.
As a result of custom development, Blocks built an integration to Jira and a new user interface that allowed a frictionless experience for the administrators & employees. When Kiwi.com employees deposit a piece of hardware in the locker, the Jira ticket is automatically created and assigned to a responsible IT team person. At the same time, the whole user communication is automated: the employee gets a Slack notification about his hardware being available and is then able to open the locker with the PIN code provided in the message. The final solution and its design were carried with the “as simple and clever as possible” principle – for both users and administrators.
In the self-service mode, we save approximately 2 man-hours per day that we would otherwise have to spend on servicing employees, issuing standard accessories from the storage, and manually managing Jira tickets.
— Tomáš Smetana, Senior End User Support Specialist
Labor costs and time savings
“Requests for standard accessories are fully automated and the only manual requirement is to add hardware to the lockers. The time to resolve a Jira ticket is within minutes and the employee has the required equipment immediately. Effectively, we also save on accessory costs,” says Kiwi.com’s Tomáš Smetana.
Automated check-in and check-out
Blocks software tracks who checks out and checks in IT assets, providing accountability for their use and return. Moreover, the handover is integrated into the Jira system, seamlessly connecting IT assets and relevant people and following internal company processes. At the same time, communication is automated in Slack.
Inventory tracking
The real-time visibility into the location and status enables Kiwi.com to secure IT assets from loss, and damage. This is especially important for high-value assets, such as laptops and smartphones.
Centralized management and uninterrupted availability
The IT team is able to manage the lockers in one central location – Blocks admin zone, without needing to leave their desk.
Additionally, the End User Support Team at Kiwi.com is, thanks to Blocks, ready even during off-hours. “We have one locker set aside for a spare laptop that is added in our domain and a mobile phone with a SIM card. During our department’s off hours when we only hold passive on-call support we can provide a spare device to an employee immediately if needed,” comments Smetana.
200
active users per month
60
man-hours saved each month
