University of Portsmouth has recently invested in Hornbill's Supportworks ITSM service desk software to support over 3,500 staff and 20,000 students. In the 6 months since implementing the solution in August 2009, the Information Services team is using Supportworks ITSM for Incident, Problem and Change management, reducing calls to the service desk by over 20% through improved call logging and management.

According to James King, ITSM implementation Manager at University of Portsmouth; "We had decided to adopt ITIL best practice, and so went out to tender for a supporting tool. We evaluated three competitive products from which Hornbill's Supportworks really stood out.

"We liked the user interface of Supportworks ITSM service desk software and its ability to support our ITIL processes, rather than us having to make our processes fit a new system. First line support team members now resolve 60-70% of calls and a recent survey showed that 95% of students and staff were satisfied or very satisfied with the service they have been receiving."

Supportworks' customer SelfService portal has been particularly popular with students, resulting in a big rise in customer satisfaction. Students and staff are able to log calls out of hours and download patches and software while the service desk is closed. This has resulted in fewer calls being made to the service desk, since users can often rectify problems or answer queries through the self-help facilities. "We have dramatically increased the efficiency of the way that we work. Easy call logging & automation means we have been able to capture more inbound calls – up to 97% - whereas previously it was more like 60%. We have reduced the number of calls taken by 20% and the man hours saved from automation and the accuracy of information have enabled us to work more proactively. This in turn has also saved us time as we reduce the number of calls – there's a real snowball effect."

Using the management reports from the call data, the team identifies problem areas and takes proactive action. Targeting specific areas of work has also meant that the team can manage its resources more effectively.

The Information Services team has integrated Supportworks ITSM with its other hardware and software monitoring systems. As built-in thresholds are reached, an email notification is sent directly into Supportworks service desk software and logged as a job for immediate attention. Proactively planning Change management has also resulted in less downtime and disruption to the business.
Following the success of the service desk software in the IS department, other faculties and departments within the university are also considering using the solution, given its scalable Enterprise Support Platform (ESP). The Conference and Lettings team who are currently receiving external enquiries are looking to use the ESP platform to book facilities.

"Supportworks ITSM is easily configurable, so we have managed to set up the system for the other departments to use," says James King. “It took just half a day to configure and partition, using the one single database. We are getting more interest from other departments as word gets around."

Gerry Sweeney, CEO of Hornbill Systems said; "Supportworks service desk software enables IT teams to adopt ITIL best practice with its proven benefits and more efficient working. Automating processes frees up IT resources to focus on proactive action, which reduces the user support required overall. It is a win-win for both service desk teams and users."

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NOTES TO EDITORS
University of Portsmouth
University of Portsmouth is a modern city campus, right in the heart of Portsmouth. The university offers 300 different undergraduate courses and has 20,000 students, with 3,000 from overseas.
Its students report very high levels of satisfaction about the quality of teaching on their courses, the approachability of staff and academic support. In the 2008 National Student Survey its students rated it first out of all modern universities (88 per cent overall satisfaction), and highest of all south coast institutions for overall satisfaction. It is one of only 16 universities to have received two awards to fund Centres of Excellence in Teaching and Learning from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
For more information, please visit:
www.port.ac.uk