Getting feedback from customers is an important, and possibly the most satisfying part of my job. Last week I spoke with Alex Walker, Project Coordinator at Claims Consortium Group about his experience of the selection process and going-live with Hornbill Service Manager.
The search for a modern Service Management tool
Alex explained that the search for a new Service Management tool began in June 2016. Claims Consortium Group used an on-premise tool called Spiceworks to manage tickets, but wanted to invest in a product that they felt added the most value and best customer experience. The IT team had already investigated other solutions but found that the subscription and implementation costs didn’t fit within the allocated budget.
Following a demonstration at the Service Desk & IT Support show in London, Claims Consortium Group’s IT Security Officer recommended that they take a look at Hornbill Service Manager. The team browsed through the videos and tutorials on the website and concluded Hornbill Service Manager seemed like a good fit. The company particularly liked the customer testimonials and transparent pricing model.
Enlightening 30-day trial, with fantastic knowledge transfer
Alex said that the 30-day trail and switch-on was invaluable in helping him validate that Hornbill Service Manager was the right tool. A Hornbill Product Specialist provided input and guidance throughout the switch-on process, which enabled the IT team to evaluate the tool with their own data and processes, set up and ready to go, so they could see exactly how the tool performed in their environment.
Alex said, “You don't realise the potential of the solution until you get into the trial. Although there's lots of information available on the Hornbill website, there's so much more you can do with Service Manager. Once you pick things up, and get assistance from Hornbill’s Product Specialists, you realise that it's an incredibly powerful tool. The switch-on process was fantastic for knowledge transfer. By the end of the first week, I’d learned to configure our services, design our business processes and set up the Service Portal. I’ve configured the Boards feature in Hornbill Service Manager to visualise our change request process. This is tied into the business process, so the Board is automatically updated as change requests are progressed. This gives us fantastic visibility of the change backlog and the status of each change, so everyone is aware of the progress we’re making”.
An exciting journey
Claims Consortium Group initially concentrated on their Asset and Change Management processes. Alex is spending time with different parts of the business to understand their needs, so that Incident and Request Management can be deployed effectively.
The end of the 30-day trial signaled the beginning of an exciting journey for Claims Consortium Group. Alex Walker suggests that they have only scratched the surface in terms of what can be achieved with Hornbill Service Manager. “We’ve just rolled out the Service Portal to a number of users that are involved in our change process and feedback has been fantastic. Once I’ve completed the reviews with other areas of the business and configured additional processes, we’ll be rolling out the Service Portal to the entire business, and ultimately, the Customer Portal to our external customers. I’ve been exploring the collaborative features of Hornbill Service Manager and I anticipate that Document Manager and Workspaces will increase IT transparency and improve communication between teams”.
30-day Trial and Hornbill Satisfaction Guarantee
There’s a significant amount of risk when selecting a new Service Management tool. You don’t know for sure that you’ve made the right choice until the tool is up and running. We introduced the 30-day trial and the Hornbill Satisfaction Guarantee to remove that risk.
At the end of the 30-day trial, Hornbill Service Manager is up and running, allowing customers to make an informed choice and either subscribe, or walk away, without financial or contractual commitments. It’s a very different approach, which enables our customers to go from trial to go-live, with no complicated implementation projects, or expensive consulting. During the 30-day trial, we ensure that our customers have all the skills they need to get the most from the tool; and as Alex confirms…”the knowledge transfer is fantastic”.
