I. INTRODUCTION

Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) is a large commercial bank that plays a significant role as a pillar of the Vietnamese banking industry. Established in 1988 after separating from the State Bank of Vietnam, Vietinbank has developed a nationwide network with 3 Trading Centers, 141 branches, and over 700 transaction points/offices. It is a founder and joint venture partner of Indovina Bank and has agency relationships with over 850 major banks worldwide. VietinBank is a pioneer in applying modern technology and electronic commerce in Vietnam. Positive signals from VietinBank's dividend distribution | Enterprises | Vietnam+ (VietnamPlus)

II. PROJECT CHALLENGES AND REQUIREMENTS

Vietinbank (NHCT) is one of the largest joint stock commercial banks in Vietnam, with over 140 branches nationwide, along with over 500 Saving Funds and Transaction Offices.

- With such a large branch network, NHCT's IT system is highly developed, with various types of equipment divided into three regional centers located in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Danang, and one backup center. Branches are directly connected to these regional centers.

- To manage components such as network systems, databases, and servers, NHCT uses some tools directly from manufacturers or third-party vendors to perform management tasks. However, there is currently no centralized management tool for applications and .Net and Java application servers, nor are there tools to assess and test the capabilities and features of applications before deployment.

- Managing the IT system and IT services of NHCT faces several challenges and difficulties, including:

- Lack of centralized management tools for IT system components, which are currently managed either manually or through separate management tools. This leads to a time-consuming process of identifying the causes of IT service incidents and requires substantial effort from support teams.

- Applications lack testing tools to determine their ability to meet business requirements before deployment.

- Increasing costs for maintaining and operating the IT system.

The IT service management model has not been standardized according to global standards, which hinders quality enhancement, risk reduction, and cost savings in IT service operation and maintenance.

End-user support is handled separately by individual support teams, making it difficult to track and manage end-user support tasks and related incident resolution tasks.

The challenges mentioned above for NHCT are common challenges faced by many organizations worldwide. To address these challenges and ensure the stable operation of the IT system and IT services, meeting business requirements and contributing to favorable business outcomes, it is necessary to transform the IT service management model according to certified standards widely applied worldwide and utilize IT management systems to automate and streamline management tasks.

Through the consulting process, HPT, in collaboration with HP, has recommended NHCT to adopt best-practice processes for IT service management - ITIL version 3 in practice.

The roadmap for transforming the IT service management model according to ITIL

The application of best-practice processes for IT service management - ITIL version 3, as advised, needs to be implemented in stages. Implementing it in stages will help NHCT achieve the following:

Prepare and standardize operational processes to ensure stable operations, achieve the highest results, and comply with ITIL processes.

Prepare and standardize the workforce.

Identify any issues that arise in each stage to enhance and make adjustments in the subsequent stages.

According to the recommendation, building an IT service management system based on ITIL processes should go through a minimum of four stages. Each stage will include multiple core processes and supporting processes, alongside the implementation of management system solutions. Subsequent stages will involve addressing any issues, upgrading processes, the previously built management systems, and adding new processes and management systems.

The processes within each stage do not necessarily have to be implemented simultaneously; they can be reasonably allocated over a period of 6 months to 1 year.

Based on the above recommendation, the transformation roadmap is as follows.

III. ACHIEVED RESULTS

Track 1

All vital components within NHCT's network system including routers, switches, firewalls at regional centers, branches, QTK, and PGD nationwide are monitored and managed through the network management system. Events in the daily operation of the network system such as connectivity loss, etc., are promptly identified through detailed alert notifications.

Components in NHCT's IT infrastructure such as LDAP, DNS, Unix servers, AS/400, and Oracle databases, etc., are also monitored for operational status through an event management system (servers, databases, and special applications). This system provides a centralized console through which administrators can almost instantly identify which monitored components in their system are experiencing issues and the cause of these issues. This centralized console is tightly integrated with the network management system to receive network system activity information, providing a single observation point for administrators to monitor managed component activities.

Serious incidents automatically generate Incident tickets in the Service Desk system for statistical tracking, monitoring, and updating of incident handling processes.

NHCT reduces the time to diagnose incidents occurring with monitored components. It identifies components with potential performance-related issues.

NHCT receives regular reports on key metrics in the operation of managed components such as resource utilization levels, statuses, performances, etc., to statistically analyze operational status and plan equipment provisioning for the IT system.

Track 2

Components in NHCT's IT system include servers, network devices that automatically collect information about CPU, memory, vendors, etc., through systems like HP DDMI to serve asset management tasks. This information is then updated into the shared asset management database of the Asset Manager system, with an easily accessible interface, providing ad-hoc and periodic reports on the use of IT assets throughout the NHCT system. Other devices such as printers, projectors, UPS, etc., are manually updated into this database through simple operations, helping NHCT have a centralized IT asset management system (servers, PCs, network devices, UPS, printers, projectors, etc.).

All support requests from NHCT's IT system users are registered, centrally received, and managed uniquely through the Service Desk system. These requests, as well as incidents automatically recorded from the event management system, are then monitored, managed, and statistically analyzed through the Service Desk system, helping NHCT have a comprehensive incident management system throughout the incident lifecycle, controlling incident handling tasks, minimizing risks, shortening incident handling time, and enhancing service quality. All handling tasks, information updates, are directly and automatically notified to users, support departments, as well as superiors.

The Service Desk system provides a knowledge document module, where information about incidents and their resolutions, or user instruction information, etc., is stored. Users can access this module to search and self-fix common errors.

ITIL-compliant processes are provided and operated through the Service Desk system, ensuring compliance with ITIL v3 in managing NHCT's IT services.

Track 3

Detailed information about network devices and configuration changes of these devices is recorded through the change and configuration management system, providing network system management departments with information about unauthorized changes, planned changes, and unplanned changes.

Network device configurations are automatically stored, serving storage and system recovery purposes. In addition, configuration changes on individual devices or across the entire system are easily updated, ensuring control over configuration-related errors and facilitating easy troubleshooting of configuration-related issues.

Network devices are automatically updated with the latest security policies and security patches.

Track 4

NHCT's software projects are managed through a centralized quality management system, linked to business requirements, necessary resources for operation, and related errors throughout the application development process. Applications also provide version management capabilities, ensuring control over occurring errors, minimizing time and costs throughout the application development process.

Applications are functionally and load tested during the development process as well as monitored throughout operation to ensure that applications are managed through a complete lifecycle, meeting business operational requirements.

IV. Key solutions in the project

The operations of managed components within the IT system are enhanced, enabling support teams to prevent and address issues before they impact services and business operations.

Implementing management systems helps NHCT establish tighter integration between IT and business, enabling IT to meet the demands of the business, providing maximum support in achieving positive business outcomes.

Minimizing costs, risks, and time in managing the IT system, enhancing the quality of the IT system.

Improving user satisfaction with the IT system.