CASE STUDY
contacting UIS. The module also highlights
communal problems, such as ‘connectivity
problem in the chemistry department’. If
there is still an issue, users can self-serve and
log tickets. When they have identified their
issue from a drop-down menu, they can opt
to connect to a knowledge base of articles
written by service managers who suggest
easy fixes to common problems, such as
‘my printer is broken'. The knowledge base
features a variety of levels to accommodate
all technical abilities. At all times, users can
track their service requests for updates.
UIS hopes to increase self-service usage to
around 25% of all inbound tickets.
HR HAVE FOUND THAT MOVING
FROM A SIMPLE SYSTEM TO IVANTI
HAS IMPROVED THEIR EFFICACY.
Oxford had opted for Ivanti Service Manager
to combine three independent service desks.
With striking similarities between both
universities’ requirements, Cambridge was
able to immerse itself with the platform and
explore the customisation approaches that
Oxford adopted. Armed with insight and peer
recommendations, UIS commenced rollout
with a phased approach to include migration
and merger from existing support desks to full
incident, request, self-service and knowledge
base rollout. Sixty departments were included
in the first migration phase. The complexity
of merging so many different departments
was eased by using the software’s workflow
designer tool to drag, drop, trial and build
workflows that could flex and change before
and during deployment.
Incident management was the first process
to rollout. Given the former systems were
devoid of all metrics and all inbound tickets
were frequently lost between departments,
complaints and dissatisfaction were the
only prior measurement index. Using Ivanti
70
INTELLIGENTCIO
incident management, UIS had access to
accurate first-time fix rates, for the first time.
It was able to correctly classify incidents,
requests and problems, and gain a better
understanding of the types of calls. This in
turn allowed UIS to allocate the best support
resources from the 15-person first-line call
team more effectively.
For the ITSM request module in Phase 2 of
rollout, the system featured 30 automated
service requests, including popular requests
such as ‘password reset’ or ‘increase mailbox
size.’ Today, UIS continues to add further
requests configurations and envisions a total
of 100 automated requests, including drop-
downs for specifying new laptops, attaching
approvals and POs, and providing requester
status feedback.
The self-service module means that requests
are submitted seamlessly via any device onto
the portal for simplified student experience.
On access, relevant planned maintenance
and software updates are highlighted
so that students can self-assure without
With 12 months of rollout and with
increasing confidence and acceptance
of user self-service, UIS reflects on
the significant achievements that
the deployment has afforded: “This
deployment wasn’t just about unifying
old ticketing helpdesks, this was about
providing ITIL-based processes and results
metrics while deploying across IT and
other departments. From the outset, we
understood that we had differing levels of
ITIL maturity across the university, so we
have used the features within Ivanti Service
Manager to simplify and enable custom
roles, layouts and workflows according to
the requirements of those using them,”
said Hoensch.
The results are not just limited to IT,
Hoensch has garnered internal reactions on
usage from HR and Finance. Hoensch shared
the HR departmental feedback: “HR have
found that moving from a simple system
to Ivanti has improved their efficacy, being
able to share tasks and tickets with IT. Using
the same system means jobs are completed
faster without spanning across multiple
systems and productivity gains will be
increased further still as more complicated
HR procedures are turned into service
requests over the next few months.”
Hoensch also shared feedback from the
Finance department after a month of usage:
“The transition in Finance has been simple
due to the customisation of the tool. It is
now easy for us to share tickets directly
and view the process of each job, which
was previously not an option. In total, we
are aiming to create around 400 service
requests to support the finance procedures
and processes.” n
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