streamlined and consistent process for reporting a fault or maintenance request and has opened up other opportunities for both ICT and facilities to learn from each other. Achievements include:
-Facilities have an effective asset receipting process which ICT hook into for IT asset management.
-ICT has an effective procedure for communicating planned and unplanned activities that have an impact to users. Facilities have a similar need and small changes have been made to assist in this, with discussions underway for a more comprehensive solution.
-ICT produces formal Post Incident Reports (PIR) for major incidents. ICT staff have provided templates, mentoring and training to Facilities staff and PIRs are now produced for facilities major incidents.
-ICT manages a Risk Register to record, manage and report risks. This has recently been extended to include facilities risks.
-Knowledge management and problem management, both currently in place for ICT, could be extended to facilities. This could be expected to have similar benefits for facilities users as for IT users within TAFE SA.
-No service level agreements are currently defined for facilities requests, but could be implemented as services mature.
The implementation of facilities service offerings into the IT Service Management customer portal had an immediate positive effect. This is best illustrated by the recorded 3,686 service requests logged in the first 6 months of operation. Service requests continue to increase as more and more staff log maintenance, security and minor works requests. Previously there was no visibility from a management perspective of this level of activity.
The manager responsible for facilities in TAFE SA has confirmed the success of the planning and the implementation of this activity and the successful outcomes and benefits it has provided. According to the facilities manager this activity has “raised the bar in promoting efficiency and effectiveness in customer service, supporting business continuity and creating a baseline for data analysis”. Specific benefits identified by the facilities manager include:
-Improved visibility of the facilities workload
across the asset portfolio to inform the appropriate allocation of resources.
-Improved the level of service offered to people logging requests. Specifically, groups such as visitors and contractors are now able to log facilities requests which were problematical using previous methods.
-Improved the collaboration between facilities and ICT, allowing the sharing of expertise between teams and identification of future opportunities of a service management framework.
-Demonstrated the potential benefits and future opportunities of a service management framework.
Team Contribution
TAFE SA ICT Services and Facilities are separate teams, and do not generally have a direct relationship on a day-to-day basis. Planning and preparing the facilities request offerings allowed for the collaboration between the teams and fostered a sense of achievement to allow a new, modern and innovative way to request facilities services.
The success of the implementation of new facilities request offerings within the IT Service Management customer portal has contributed to further examples of collaboration between the ICT and Facilities teams in TAFE SA. By demonstrating the benefits of formal service management processes, the relationship has expanded into other areas. Additionally, ICT staff have been excited to contribute their professional expertise to their facilities colleagues.
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