A mid-market French bank was fighting 400+ monthly IT incidents with average resolution times of 18 hours. An ITIL 4 implementation and ITSM toolchain overhaul transformed service continuity — and saved €890K in its first year.
60%
Faster Resolution
18h→7h
Mean Time to Resolve
€890K
First-Year Saving
The Challenge
The bank faced dual pressure. Internally, an IT organisation was in a permanent state of reactive firefighting: over 400 incidents per month, 73% requiring second-line escalation, and an average resolution time of 18 hours that was eroding both productivity and staff morale.
Externally, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) imposed a hard 12-month deadline to demonstrate robust, documented IT incident management procedures. The bank had no formal ITSM framework in place — processes existed only in institutional memory, inconsistent across teams, and completely undocumented.
An internal attempt to implement ITIL had stalled 18 months earlier due to lack of specialist expertise and change resistance. SNZ Sona was brought in with a clear mandate: build a functioning ITSM operation from the ground up, audit-ready within 90 days.
Internal Pressure
400+ incidents/month
73% requiring second-line escalation
Regulatory Pressure
DORA compliance
12-month hard deadline, no framework in place
Our Approach
Full diagnostic of existing IT processes against ITIL 4 value chain. Gaps documented, prioritised by DORA compliance urgency and operational impact. Stakeholder alignment sessions with CTO, IT Manager, and Head of Operations.
Incident management, problem management, and change management processes redesigned from scratch. SLA framework established with defined P1–P4 priority tiers. Escalation matrix built and signed off by IT leadership. All processes documented to DORA audit standard.
ServiceNow configured to enforce the new workflows — automatic ticket routing, SLA timers, escalation triggers, and management dashboards. Integration with monitoring tooling ensured incidents auto-created on alert. Parallel testing with live incidents from week 5.
Level 1 triage knowledge base built covering 68% of recurring incident types — step-by-step resolution guides, escalation decision trees, and known-error database. 3-tier support structure trained across 42 IT staff. ITIL Foundation certification programme initiated for the core team.
Verified Results
Reduction in mean time to resolution
From 18.0 hours to 7.2 hours — measured over 90 consecutive days post-implementation
Drop in second-line escalation rate
From 73% to 31% — driven by the Level 1 knowledge base covering 68% of incident types
DORA incident management requirements addressed
Full gap-to-compliance mapping documented; remaining 8% addressed via ongoing programme
First-year saving
Comprising overtime reduction (€340K), incident volume reduction (€290K), and business productivity recovery (€260K)
Regulatory findings at DORA audit
Audit passed without a single finding. All incident management documentation accepted without condition
"We were drowning in incidents and dreading the DORA audit. Within 90 days, SNZ Sona had overhauled our entire ITSM operation. The audit passed without a single finding. Our IT team now has structure — and confidence."
Chief Technology Officer
French Regional Bank
Tools & Methods
Next Step
Whether you're facing a regulatory deadline, an ITSM overhaul, or simply too many incidents — we start every engagement with a free diagnostic call to assess the situation and identify what's possible.