Comet, the leading specialist electrical retailer with 250 stores throughout the UK, has dramatically improved IT service provision to 10,000 employees with Hornbill's Supportworks ITSM. Since implementation, visibility and trend analysis of calls has enabled the IT Service Desk to reduce call volumes by 40% through more efficient working practice. The IT department uses Supportworks ITSM for Incident Management, Problem Management and is about to go live with Change Management. In addition, the HR department is also using the solution to manage enquiries from employees.

Rob Gwatkin, Service Desk Manager at Comet Group Plc said; "Since implementing Supportworks ITSM we have been able to manage and measure calls, enabling us to successfully implement Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Our SLA rates now reach 94% consistently, and with the measurements we have in place we are able to demonstrate that of the fixes that we carry out, 80% are much faster than the SLA target. Now as a department we often receive 'thank yous' from colleagues across the business."

The IT department is planning to introduce Customer SelfService. Rob Gwatkin explains, "Customer SelfService through Supportworks ITSM is the next big delivery for us – the benefits of this will be huge – our target is to reduce our call volumes by 50% giving us a total reduction of 70% since implementing the system." The IT department is focused on enabling customers to be more self-reliant. Supportworks ITSM call statistics show that 20% of calls received by the Service Desk relate to password resets. "IT has introduced a nominal departmental cross charging system that could be adopted. By providing visibility of the cost of service provision, we aim to encourage users to initially look for answers to their questions on the company intranet before calling the Service Desk."

Supportworks ITSM is being used by the HR department to manage employee enquiries with Facilities and Property departments also interested in using it to deliver a best-practice approach to customer service, based on the ITIL framework. Rob Gwatkin said, "Supportworks ITSM has enabled us to adopt the ITIL framework for service delivery, but, we don’t refer to ITIL when we talk to the business. We prefer to use terms like 'common sense', and 'good practice'. We find that we get greater buy-in from the business when we use terms that are not specific to IT."

Gerry Sweeney, CEO of Hornbill Systems said; "We have designed Supportworks ITSM to be a toolset that provides the functionality an IT department needs 'out-of-the-box' to get them up and running with little customisation required. It enables IT teams to quickly apply good practice to manage and measure Incidents and Problems, and provide a more responsive service. Being able to measure and baseline service delivery performance enables teams to quickly identify inefficiencies and to apply resource where it is most effective to service demand."

We see many organisations now adopting IT best-practice and adapting it to facilitate the needs of other service departments. Many of our customers now use multiple service desk interfaces on a single Supportworks platform to benefit from economies of scale, reduced cost of service delivery and improved customer service."

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NOTES TO EDITORS

About Comet

• Comet, a leading specialist electrical retailer, has 250 stores throughout the UK, offering a wide range of electrical products. Thousands of competitor prices are checked every week to ensure that Comet offers the best possible value.
• The Comet website - Comet.co.uk - offers easy, convenient shopping and with Comet's Click and Collect service customers can reserve online and collect in store an hour later. The Click and Chat service online also connects customers to a real-time customer services advisor who can give tailored advice on Comet's products and services. Additionally, customers can shop by phone on 0844 800 95 95.
• Comet offers a unique all-round shopping experience with a range of services including home delivery and next day delivery, full installation of products such as televisions, computers and integrated kitchen appliances, take back and recycling facilities for large products and comprehensive after sales service.
• Comet on Call provides instant, expert advice on computer related queries and issues. Technicians are on call from 8am to 10pm, 364 days a year, on 0844 892 09 99.