The Czech Financial Administration reduced request resolution time by 30% and unified 150 branches with ALVAO

About the Organization

The General Financial Directorate (GFD) is a key pillar of the Czech Financial Administration. It employs more than 14,000 people across over 150 locations, processes millions of tax returns each year, and operates ADIS, the nationwide tax information system. As the central authority of the Czech tax administration, GFD is responsible not only for stable tax collection but also for maintaining the digital infrastructure that supports these operations.

Challenge

Before implementing ALVAO, there was no unified process for handling requests. Issues and service requests were managed through emails, phone calls, or informal in-person communication. This approach was manageable while support teams operated locally, but as the organization gradually moved into a centralized government cloud environment, the limitations of the existing model became increasingly critical. 

The main challenges included: 

• Limited Visibility: Management lacked clear insight into the actual workload of support teams. There was no centralized record system, clearly defined ownership, or reliable data for strategic planning and decision-making. 
• Unclear Prioritization: Important requests were often buried in email inboxes, while technicians frequently prioritized less critical issues reported informally in person. 
• No Single Point of Contact: Employees often did not know where to report issues or how to proceed. Even after submitting a request, they had little visibility into its status or expected resolution time. 
• Lack of Software Visibility: The organization lacked a centralized overview of installed software and license usage, creating risks related to shadow IT and inefficient license management. 

“The level of support wasn’t consistent across the organization. Some technicians were very proactive, others less so. We lacked a tool that would allow us to systematically measure service quality.”
— Petr Grochol, Director of the IT Division, GFD

The Solution 

As part of a proof-of-concept evaluation, Petr Grochol’s team compared ALVAO with several other service desk solutions. ALVAO was ultimately selected because of its flexibility and its ability to adapt to the needs of such a large and complex institution. 

Phased Implementation to Maximize Adoption 

Deploying a unified solution for 14,000 users required a careful and structured approach. The rollout was therefore implemented gradually. The Service Desk was first introduced within facility management for handling routine operational requests, such as building maintenance, office equipment repairs, and shared workspace issues. This strategy proved highly effective. Once employees realized that requests submitted through ALVAO were resolved faster than those reported by phone or email, resistance to the new system dropped significantly. This helped accelerate adoption across additional departments and business areas. 

“It was one of the fastest and most successful implementations I’ve experienced in a government institution of this scale.”
— Petr Grochol, Director of the IT Division, GFD

Key Benefits of the Solution

• One Place for All Tickets: A centralized portal with more than 140 services was created. Employees can now submit and manage all tickets in one place without sending countless emails or searching for the right contact person. 
• Clearly Defined Responsibilities and SLAs: Requests are automatically categorized and assigned to responsible teams with predefined priorities and service-level agreements (SLAs). 
• More Efficient Collaboration Between Teams: IT specialists and business owners working on the same request can quickly transfer tickets while maintaining a complete communication history. This eliminates misunderstandings and endless email chains. 
• Centralized Software Asset Management: All software and license information is now managed in a single system, enabling more efficient procurement planning and license optimization. 
• Clear Accountability for Assigned Assets: Each employee can directly see which IT assets they are responsible for, simplifying onboarding and offboarding processes. 
• High Flexibility and Customization: Processes and workflows are continuously adjusted to meet evolving departmental needs, including integrations and customizations such as connections to web forms. 
• Visibility and accountability: For the first time, IT teams were able to demonstrate their actual workload and performance using real data. This proved critical in communication with management, especially in situations where the volume or complexity of work had previously been underestimated. 

“With ALVAO, we now manage 95% of application-related issues systematically and have reduced resolution times by 30%.”
— Petr Grochol, Director of the IT Division, GFD

Measurable Results 

• More than 335,000 tickets resolved since the system launch 
• 30% faster ticket resolution through process automation 
• 95% incident capture rate with all issues systematically recorded 
• 35% of tickets are unrelated to IT services, confirming broad adoption across the organization 
• More than 800 coordinators and specialists effectively collaborating across over 150 locations 
• More than 14,000 managed endpoints with full visibility into software and license usage 

“For the first time, we were able to show management exactly what we were working on using real operational data. We finally gained true visibility into our workload.”
— Martin Pipek, Head of Service Desk and Monitoring Department, GFD

Conclusion 

ALVAO helped unify fragmented communication between support teams and end users. As a result, leadership gained a comprehensive overview of individual processes, team workloads, and bottlenecks that need to be addressed. It also enabled clear tracking of thousands of software installations and licenses used across the organization. 

Looking ahead, the organization is exploring the use of AI, particularly for automated reporting and summarization of service desk data. It also plans to integrate ALVAO with additional government support tools. 

“ALVAO has become an integral part of our organization. Departments now approach us proactively because they want to move their own processes into the Service Desk after seeing that it truly works.”
— Petr Grochol, Director of Application Systems Department and Deputy Director of the IT Division, GFD

Want to bring the same order to your services and asset management as the General Financial Directorate did? Let’s schedule a brief, no-obligation call.