• 40% fewer tickets

    Through proactive resolution

  • 253 days saved

    For field service engineers

  • 25,000 devices

    Managed worldwide, 24/7

Background

About AkzoNobel

AkzoNobel creates paints and performance coatings used by industries and consumers worldwide. Supporting its global workforce means keeping more than 25,000 devices running across offices, homes, and the field. And at that scale, everyday digital friction can significantly drain employee productivity. However, using TeamViewer DEX, AkzoNobel can now see what’s happening across its device estate and address issues before they disrupt employees and workflows.

CHALLENGE

Keeping 25,000 devices working without disruption

With more than 25,000 devices across 995 locations, employees rely on functioning technology to complete their everyday tasks. And when an issue arises or a device stops working, employees lose time, are less productive, while pressure mounts on IT support. Across a global workforce, those disruptions add up quickly.

Problems such as high CPU usage, overloaded memory, and full disks often came to light only after an employee raised an incident. The team would then investigate, contact the employee, and work through the issue with them. Depending on the cause, resolution could take hours, days, or even weeks. Leading to user annoyance and performance degradation in the process.

At the scale of 25,000 devices, that reactive approach was difficult to sustain. AkzoNobel needed greater visibility into device health so its team could identify problems earlier, resolve them faster, and prevent them from happening again. 

Kurt De Ruwe CIO, AkzoNobel

“TeamViewer was one of the first products that I told the team to buy because I truly believe in the power of the tool.”

SOLUTION

From detecting problems to resolving them in seconds

CIO Kurt De Ruwe already knew the technology behind TeamViewer DEX before joining AkzoNobel. Having used an earlier version in his previous role, he had seen its potential firsthand and saw an opportunity to bring those capabilities to AkzoNobel.

AkzoNobel introduced TeamViewer DEX to give its workplace team greater visibility across its endpoint estate. Instead of relying on employees to report problems, AkzoNobel can now identify issues earlier and use automated remediation to address them before they cause a disruption. This shift allows their IT support to move beyond reacting to incidents and towards preventing them from happening.

TeamViewer DEX also works with the tools AkzoNobel already uses. It helps the team keep its ServiceNow asset register up to date and connects with Xara, the company’s employee chatbot. When an employee reports an issue such as a full disk or printer problem through Xara, the chatbot can trigger TeamViewer DEX to act on the user’s device.

The TeamViewer Intelligent Agent Tia further speeds up remediation. IT teams only need to fix an issue once. After a ticket is resolved, they can write a script for Tia, so the next time the same issue occurs, Tia can apply the fix automatically. 

RESULT

Turning seconds saved into days reclaimed

Faster remediation has reduced the manual workload for AkzoNobel’s workplace team. By connecting Xara with TeamViewer DEX, AkzoNobel has cut tickets by more than 40%, saving more than 52,000 minutes in a single quarter.

AkzoNobel has also saved time by automating fixes that previously required manual support. Because BIOS controls a computer's foundational hardware settings, making updates usually requires hands-on IT support. However, using DEX, the team managed these changes remotely, enabling LAN/WLAN Auto Switching on around 25,000 devices, achieving a 97% success rate.

Without DEX, an engineer would have needed at least 15 minutes to make the change on each device. DEX completed the change in seconds, saving approximately 253 days of employee and field service time while improving device connectivity and user experience.

By automating work that once required hands-on support, AkzoNobel can run a lean workplace team while supporting its global device estate around the clock.  

Kurt De Ruwe CIO, AkzoNobel

“The ideal world is no complaints, because then I know we have a stable environment. TeamViewer is really the core of our future strategy.”

WHAT’S NEXT

Building a more automated digital workplace

AkzoNobel wants to move toward a workplace where technology can increasingly identify and resolve issues before employees need to ask for help. Xara would become the first place employees go to for support. Behind it, an intelligence hub would connect different tools to help resolve issues with greater automation.

TeamViewer DEX is expected to remain central to that vision. Its visibility across AkzoNobel’s device estate can help the company identify issues and act before they disrupt employees. As AkzoNobel expands its use of automation, it aims to reduce the manual work involved in traditional ITSM processes and manual help-desk intervention.

The goal is an IT experience that keeps employees working with fewer interruptions and less need to ask for support.

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