Hornbill Service Management has today announced that Tyne Metropolitan College, a large college of further education in North Tyneside, England, has invested in Hornbill's Supportworks ITSM Foundations service desk management software to support over 500 staff and thousands of students based in its two campuses. The IT helpdesk has replaced its previous in-house developed ticketing system for Supportworks, which is used to log and track incidents - by email and phone - from staff and students using the college IT equipment and network. The college selected Hornbill's software over competitive offerings for its proven ITIL framework compatibility and SelfService capability. Automating processes for call tracking and resolution has enabled the team to improve service and meet SLAs with a reduced service desk workforce, resulting in a return of investment in just six months.
According to Stephanie McCluskey, Head of IT Services at Tyne Metropolitan College; "We wanted to streamline our service and improve efficiencies. We were losing a member of staff that we would not be able to replace and so had to find improved ways of working. Supportworks ITSM Foundations was the best priced solution, offering us value for money and the 'bite-size' approach to ITIL adoption met our needs exactly.
"The web SelfService feature was also an ideal way for us to fill the gap in our service provision during the holidays. In just six months we have seen a return on investment from using Supportworks - the efficiencies gained and the new working practices mean that our overall service now is so much better."
The team selected Supportworks in September 2009 and rolled it out six weeks later. All IT helpdesk staff log incidents and change requests and assign the calls to a technician to resolve, using Supportworks. It provides fully-automated incident management, prioritising calls, assigning them to owners and recording a full audit trail.
The IT helpdesk supports both staff and students of the college during term time, while out of hours support is managed through a SelfService portal. Calls logged via SelfService are tracked and followed up to ensure that they are handled in the same way that an email or telephone call is managed.
The IT team also uses the management reports to monitor performance against SLAs and review agreed targets. With the positive benefits that the IT department has seen, the college is looking to extend the use of Supportworks to cover the MIS department and estate management office.
Frank McIlroy, CEO of Hornbill Service Management said; "Tyne Metropolitan College provides an excellent example of how organisations today are reshaping the way that they work to try and achieve more with less. For IT service desks, streamlining routine processes and adopting best practice can really provide measurable gains in how staff spend their time. Automating routine tasks not only releases helpdesk staff to be more proactive and efficient, it has the added result of an improved service to users."
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Tyne Metropolitan College
Tyne Metropolitan College is a large college of further education in North Tyneside, England. The college was formed on 1 March 2005 by the amalgamation of Tynemouth College and North Tyneside College. Tyne Metropolitan College is organised into two Centres and five Directorates covering;
Academies for 14 to 19 year olds
- Vocational Academy
- Sixth Form Academy
Career Development @ TyneMet - 19+
- Pre Employment
- Work Force Development
- Higher Education
As well as the North East Sports Academy, where in addition to their chosen course students can enrol as a North East Sports Academy student and receive up to 10 hours of high level coaching in their chosen sport.
For more information, please visit: www.tynemet.ac.uk
