House of Fraser chose Hornbill's solution for its functionality, ability to be configured to run four distinct helpdesks supporting different areas of the business and for Hornbill's support services. House of Fraser has over 140 support staff using Supportworks, and since implementing the solution last year has handled over 50,000 support calls both of a business and IT nature from staff across its 52 stores and head office operations.

House of Fraser has one help desk providing purely IT support, one desk providing both IT and business support for a combination of internet and external users of IT services supplied by the company and two desks that primarily support specific business processes within the group.

To enable each of the support teams to have access to the correct data, Supportworks has been configured with partitions using separate data dictionaries. The potential internal customer base comprises 20,000 House of Fraser staff – both full time and part time- who use the IT and business systems, and relevant information about staff has been updated into Supportworks from the HR system, so that each agent knows who is calling, which store they work in and their job position.

There are also plans to update Supportworks with information on each user and the systems that they are able to access internally, further profiling them when they log a call. In addition to the internal customer, the IT team has populated the database with details of over 10,000 suppliers.

Since implementing Supportworks, 90% of the calls are resolved first time, the remainder are passed onto the second line support. Calls that cannot be handled in-house may then be passed on for resolution to business partners who provide both business and IT service support to the company and these instances are tracked using Supportworks.

"As well as product functionality, one of the key reasons for selecting the system was its ability to be configured to run separate helpdesk solutions to support different areas of the business. The look and feel was important and we were impressed with the Supportworks' Windows-type user environment. We had also received feedback that Hornbill provided good, consistent service and support – another key criteria in our selection process," explained Adrian Crisp, User Services Manager at House of Fraser. "Since implementing Supportworks we have been able to manage calls much more effectively. The next step is to move to web self-service – that will really take our customer service to the next level."

Gerry Sweeney, Managing Director at Hornbill Systems commented, "Companies such as House of Fraser have complex and varied support needs – ranging from broken printers and communications links to finding out when deliveries are due to a particular store and information on stock lines and promotions. Centralising and managing enquiry management for both internal staff, external partners and suppliers and customers with a tool like Supportworks can dramatically improve the efficiency of business functions."

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NOTES TO EDITORS
About The House of Fraser
House of Fraser is Britain's leading retailer of designer brands. The acquisition of the Jenners business, along with recent store openings at Croydon, Dublin and Maidstone, has recently increased the House of Fraser store portfolio to 52 stores.

With over 150 years of retailing experience, the company was founded with Frasers, Glasgow in 1849 by Hugh Fraser and James Arthur. House of Fraser has grown through the acquisition of other leading store groups including Dickens and Jones, Rackhams and Army and Navy.

House of Fraser department stores stock household wares, home furnishings, women's, men's and children's clothing, furniture and electronics. Its stores operate under 15 banners, including Rackhams, Army and Navy and Binns. It also houses many well-established brand concessions in its stores including Armani, French Connection and Moschino.

For more information, please visit www.houseoffraser.co.uk