VMTV is the content division of Virgin Media and with a US parent company, it has to comply with the legislation. It will be using the new system to provide audit trails for all its communications.

The company is now using Supportworks ITSM to automatically provide the necessary evidence for both internal and external audit requirements. This is saving the IT department a significant amount of time.

The new system will support the applications used by viewers, such as TV shopping and the applications behind the ‘red button’ digital services. It will also be used to schedule adverts and programmes. Support will also be provided for desktop applications, networks and printers used by VMTV staff.

Monica Bhudia, service delivery manager of the IT department at VMTV said: “Transmitting live TV broadcasts means systems cannot go down, so any problems have to be dealt with as soon as possible. What we really like about Supportworks ITSM is that it helps us to provide a better service to our customers and it is easy to manage. The systems administration is straightforward and we are able to make minor customisations, like screen layouts, ourselves without the aid of specialist developers.”

Supportworks ITSM will also be used for incident and problem management, configuration management and change management. Support staff currently deal with about 200 calls a week and will be using the new system to log calls and allocate them to the correct team.

Gerry Sweeney, CEO of Hornbill Systems said: “VMTV’s business requires its systems to have maximum uptime, which means that its IT support service must not only be responsive, but also proactively managing its systems. Hornbill’s Supportworks provides all of the tools necessary to monitor and manage such infrastructures. Increasingly also, legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley can increase the administration burden for IT departments. By adopting ITIL work practices IT teams can work more efficiently, automating processes and providing audit trails that lighten the load of meeting such regulatory compliances.”