CSD (Customer Service Direct Ltd), a public - private partnership between BT, Suffolk County Council and Mid Suffolk District Council, has successfully adopted Supportworks ITSM from Hornbill Systems, a leading provider of IT support and service management solutions. Supportworks ITSM provides an ITIL based Service Management Platform, that is accessible by up to 500 staff in CSD Operations to provide centralised service desks for ICT and HR support for 30,000 local authority staff across Suffolk.

Jeff Bartrop, Service Management Consultant, at BT commented, “One of the key drivers of the CSD partnership is the commitment to deliver high quality services by working together, sharing expertise and resources whilst delivering significant service benefits. Supportworks is the enabling technology that allows us to deliver on our service commitment and this shared vision.”

All incidents and cases dealt with by the HR and ICT teams are routed through a single call routing system and then captured on Supportworks by the HR and IT helpdesks. The ICT team is using Supportworks for all IT support calls. The centralised HR support team has a ‘front’ and ‘back office’ – on average 75% of the incidents and cases captured by Supportworks are handled by the first line HR support team. Specific enquiries, such as promotions or grievances are passed onto the more experienced or qualified HR professionals. A common database ensures that the information on individuals that the teams access - position, department, IT equipment assigned – is the same (with secure access on confidential personal data).

“CSD is unique in that it offers shared ICT and HR services to a two tiered government partnership. The flexibility of Hornbill’s Supportworks enables the teams to run reports that are relevant to the specific clients, yet using the same processes,” said Jeff Bartrop. “Supportworks gives an accurate view of the work carried out and the incident volumes handled, which has been invaluable information for future planning and improvements.”

Gerry Sweeney, Managing Director of Hornbill Systems commented, “Hornbill has invested resource into developing a platform that supports the ITIL framework – increasingly customers, both in industry and the public sector are demanding ITIL based solutions and we are able to support them in this. CSD has successfully adopted ITIL since implementing Supportworks. The flexibility of Hornbill’s Supportworks enables CSD to operate centralised service desks, with all of the advantages of shared resources and cost efficiencies, and provide the highest level of service to its customers – in this case council employees.”

NOTES TO EDITORS
About Customer Service Direct Ltd.
Customer Service Direct is a partnership between Suffolk County Council, Mid Suffolk District Council and BT that brings council services together to customers in one place.

CSD provides an online facility, via its website, (as well as a customer contact centre) to make payments, find information and report problems or submit requests for Council Services. Progress of all requests can also be monitored online. CSD also provides HR, ICT and Finance functions for Suffolk County Council and Mid Suffolk District Council

In 2007 the organisation was short listed for GC Awards for Innovation.

For more information please visit www.csduk.com