Enterprise Software and IT Company: 80% Reduction In Manual DevOps Tickets

Company Overview

Enterprise Software and IT Company is a major UK-based enterprise software and IT services provider that is a critical technology backbone for numerous industries. The company has revenues of £346 million, a global workforce of over 2,800, and over 20,000 customers. Enterprise Software and IT Company executes its mission to "power the world of work" by delivering sector-specific Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions that are deeply embedded in the daily operations of essential public and private sector entities.

With a diverse portfolio of products serving various industries, Enterprise Software and IT Company has built a comprehensive technology platform that requires sophisticated developer operations and efficient developer onboarding processes. The company's development model includes partnerships with delivery teams and integration of skilled contractors, creating a dynamic engineering environment where streamlined developer experience and quick knowledge transfer are essential for maintaining productivity and innovation.

Challenges: Fragmented Documentation and Manual Overhead

Enterprise Software and IT Company faced significant operational challenges that hindered developer productivity and created bottlenecks in their software delivery process:

Manual Onboarding Processes: The company relied on manual ticket-based systems for onboarding developers to essential tooling, including GitHub, Copilot, AWS, and other internal platforms. This created dependencies on central teams and lengthy response times for access requests.

Limited Visibility: Teams needed better discoverability of internal services and APIs to enable quick onboarding and effective collaboration. With Enterprise Software and IT Company's flexible development model that includes permanent staff and contractors, having clear visibility into system architecture and service dependencies was crucial for maintaining development velocity and knowledge sharing across diverse team compositions.

Lack of Centralized Documentation: While Enterprise Software and IT Company had Confluence and SharePoint, they lacked a single, structured source of truth for engineering teams. Critical information about their 40+ priority products was scattered across multiple platforms, making it difficult for developers to find relevant documentation, architectural diagrams, and ownership information.

Dependency on DevOps for Customer Provisioning: The process of provisioning customers for specific products required direct involvement from overwhelmed central DevOps teams, hindering self-service and creating a bottleneck in product delivery.

Solution: Harness IDP for a Streamlined Developer Experience

"A key benefit of IDP is the self-service workflows. They’ve given us faster delivery without needing central DevOps teams, reduced operational overhead, and empowered developers." - Director of Platform Engineering & DevOps

Enterprise Software and IT Company adopted a strategic approach to transform their developer operations using Harness Internal Developer Portal, implementing the solution in phases to maximize impact:

Self-Service Workflows: Harness IDP workflows enabled Enterprise Software and IT Company to automate onboarding and common developer tasks for their entire toolchain, eliminating the need for manual ticket processing and reducing dependencies on central teams.

Advanced Orchestration: The advanced orchestration in IDP workflows enabled Enterprise Software and IT Company to automatically provision new applications with security compliance baked in, getting developers productive more quickly, and freeing up previously dedicated staff.

Standardized Documentation: Making Harness IDP the central location for all technical documentation and implementing docs-as-code practices ensured that all documentation remained current and accessible through a single portal.

Centralized Service Catalog: The platform provides a structured repository for all 40+ priority products, complete with system overviews, architectural diagrams, component dependencies, API calls, and clear ownership metadata.

Results: Enhanced Efficiency and Developer Productivity

“With IDP workflows, we’ve reduced tickets by 80-90%. It was taking a team of people full-time to manage access requests manually before. Now they are done automatically with appropriate guardrails and approvals, and the team is able to focus on more value-added tasks.” - Principal DevOps Architect

The implementation of Harness Internal Developer Portal has delivered significant improvements across Enterprise Software and IT Company's development operations:

Eliminated Manual Bottlenecks: Common developer tasks that previously required manual ticketing and central team intervention now operate as self-service workflows, dramatically reducing operational overhead and improving response times.

Drastic Reduction in Onboarding Time: Enterprise Software and IT Company replaced manual tool onboarding steps with automated onboarding workflows, which enabled teams to self-service and drastically reduced the time it took to onboard.

Improved Developer Productivity: Developers and contractors can quickly discover internal services and APIs, with comprehensive documentation and architectural diagrams readily available through the centralized portal.

Accelerated Customer Provisioning: Using IDP’s user-friendly forms, Professional Services and Customer Support teams can now independently provision customers, removing dependencies on DevOps engineers. This has lead to faster and more efficient product delivery to customers.

Standardized Development Practices: Enterprise Software and IT Company has successfully implemented golden pathways and reusable templates, accelerating development while ensuring security compliance and consistency across all new development initiatives.

“We built a workflow to enable onboarding onto a new tool. We were able to onboard all priority projects in a few weeks, rather than what would have taken months if we did it manually.” - Principal DevOps Architect

More results to come: Enterprise Software and IT Company is currently expanding its use of scorecards for dynamic team self-assessment and continues to drive adoption across its engineering organization through internal tech talks and community engagement initiatives.

Summary

Enterprise Software and IT Company successfully transformed their developer experience by implementing Harness Internal Developer Portal to address critical challenges around manual processes, fragmented documentation, and operational overhead. The implementation delivered significant improvements in standardized onboarding for new team members, enabling faster integration of developers, contractors, and cross-functional team members into their technology ecosystem.

Through a phased approach focusing on workflows, documentation, and service catalog implementation, the company has created a self-service environment that empowers teams while reducing dependencies on central DevOps resources. This strategic implementation has positioned Enterprise Software and IT Company to scale their operations more effectively while maintaining high standards for security, compliance, and consistency across their diverse product portfolio.

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