Sunrise to Sunset: One Service Desk for Eight Countries

Chint Solar Europe grew from a German headquarters into a business with teams in eight European countries, but IT support was still built around the German working day. Our goals were to:

• Extend support from German business hours to cover colleagues across three time zones, from sunrise in Romania to sunset in Portugal and the UK

• Reduce the total cost of IT support by replacing per-ticket, on-demand billing with a predictable framework model

• Move from ad hoc support to ITIL-based service management with SLAs, a service catalogue and regular reporting

• Bring Microsoft 365, network security and endpoint management under one accountable managed service

• Free our small internal IT team from daily firefighting to focus on strategy, security and AI enablement

2026

• Better service coverage: support extended from German business hours to all eight countries across three time zones, so every colleague is supported within their own working day

• Around 20% annual cost saving, by moving from on-demand, per-ticket billing to a framework agreement with standard ITSM services

• Optimised processes: one service desk for 150 users, with standardised onboarding, access, software and hardware requests tracked against SLAs

• Transparency for management for the first time, through monthly SLA reporting, service reviews and a Copilot-built service dashboard

• Central endpoint monitoring and software inventory, strengthening our security baseline

• Internal IT capacity freed for strategic work: AI strategy and governance, and the upcoming company-wide security rollout

• Colleague survey and company-wide service dashboard planned for December 2026, after six months of operation

Microsoft 365 (Entra ID, Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams), Fortinet firewalls, Lenovo endpoints, the partner's ITSM platform with email and portal-based ticketing, Datto RMM for endpoint monitoring and software inventory, monthly SLA and ticket reporting, Microsoft Copilot for service analytics and dashboards, and shared service documentation in Confluence.

The project does not use solutions from the Global CIO catalog

We made the transition with a very small internal team, in a live environment, without interrupting a business that works across eight countries. We ran the full cycle ourselves: requirements, RFP, evaluation, business case to senior management, contract, knowledge transfer and handover, all within six months. Contracts and licences tied to the previous provider had to be untangled carefully. Different languages, time zones and local office set-ups added complexity. The biggest challenge was change management: building trust in a new service desk while it was still maturing, and using data and open dialogue with our partner to improve quality month by month.

Initial situation: Chint Solar Europe is a renewable energy company headquartered in Hamburg with 150 colleagues across eight European countries and three time zones. IT support had grown around the headquarters: the previous provider model covered German business hours only, so colleagues in other countries often waited for Hamburg to come online. Support was bought on demand, with every ticket billed individually, which made costs high and hard to predict. There were no consistent SLAs, no service catalogue and little reporting. As the company grew and opened new offices, this created bottlenecks, an uneven experience across countries and almost no capacity for strategic work.

Implemented solution: In January 2026 we issued an RFP for managed IT services covering the service desk, Microsoft 365 operations, Fortinet network security and Lenovo endpoint management. After a competitive evaluation and a business case presented to our CFO and CEO, we replaced per-ticket billing with a framework agreement signed in April 2026, built on standard ITSM services, and completed the transition by the end of June. Today every colleague, from Romania to Portugal and the UK, reaches one service desk through one channel, within their own working day. Requests and incidents are categorised, prioritised and tracked against SLAs. Standard processes cover onboarding and offboarding, access changes, software and hardware requests, and security reports such as phishing. Endpoints are monitored centrally and software inventory is available on demand.

Implementation specifics: We treated this as an operating model change, not a procurement exercise. We defined the target ITIL processes and service catalogue ourselves, kept governance, security and architecture with internal IT, and introduced monthly service reviews with SLA and ticket reporting. The hardest part was the human side: moving colleagues from informal habits, such as messaging a known person, to a structured service desk, and handing over from the previous provider, including contracts and licences, without disrupting daily work. We communicated openly, collected feedback early and tackled issues such as ticket ageing together with our partner.

Changes after implementation: Colleagues in every country now get the same service, in their own hours, through one entry point. Management sees service performance for the first time. New offices, such as our new Porto office, are set up through standard processes. Most importantly, internal IT has moved from firefighting to enabling the business: since the transition we have launched our AI strategy and governance, introduced AI tools in a controlled way, and signed off a company-wide device management and security programme.

The project covers all Chint Solar Europe locations: our headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, and teams in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Romania, including our new office in Porto. Our colleagues work across three time zones, from Romania in the East to Portugal and the UK in the West. Every colleague, office-based or remote, now uses the same service desk, processes and standards, and support hours follow the business instead of the German working day.