Case Study / Interview City Of West Torrens Now we are identifying issues clearly, be that with a user, or a piece of equipment or an application, we now have a better idea of what is going on. From a management perspective there is a clear and structured workflow as well as a managed workload. Liz Bailey, IT Systems Analyst, City of West Torrens
Organization: City of West Torrens Where Solution Used: Adelaide, South Australia, URL: www.wtcc.sa.gov.au Industry: Local Government versasrs HelpDesk BACKGROUND The City of West Torrens is situated between the Adelaide CBD and the Gulf of St Vincent bounded by the River Torrens to the North and Anzac Highway to the South. From its historical beginnings in Hilton and Thebarton the City is now home to the Adelaide International Airport and the Great Southern Railway Passenger Terminal at Keswick. INTERVIEW Liz Bailey, IT Systems Analyst, City of West Torrens DATE 27/07/2010 Key VersaDev Product Used: versasrs HelpDesk Key Technologies Used: MS.Net Framework 2.0 ASP.Net MS SQL Server 2005 MS Exchange 2003 MS.Net Windows Services Active Directory Web Services www.versadev.com 2 Delivering Business Software Solutions
Please describe the IT Department within The City of Torrens Council. The IT department at the City of West Torrens Council provide support for over 300 Full Time Employees. Employees log problems or change requests with the IT department that cover a wide range of areas, from hardware or software issues, through to website updates. We manage close to 250 work stations. We try to encourage everybody to log help desk tickets, or we will log them for them if they call. It s our way of managing the requests that we get. We have one form that they can access via Outlook. This is a replication of what we had for our previous system we wanted it to be as seamless as possible from their point of view. So when we implemented versasrs we had this form custom-made by VersaDev to seamlessly integrate between Outlook and versasrs. The employees find it very easy to use. It takes data directly out of versasrs and can feed the user s input directly into versasrs to create a new ticket in the system. The tickets raised go to a queue simply called Help Desk which is constantly monitored. That ticket is then assigned to someone. This works really efficiently, and the users know that if they use this method we can attend to their requests more efficiently. Also, we can determine the priority of the case, and other factors depending on what the user has selected on the form. Employees can log tickets by simply completing the form linked via their Outlook or by ringing us and we will then log the ticket manually for them. What were the issues faced by the business unit prior to implementation of versasrs? Prior to versasrs HelpDesk we used a purely email-based system in Outlook. The problem was there was no visibility across any raised issues, or in terms of the workload among IT department staff. We had no way to report on issues, no way to query Outlook. What products had you reviewed prior to using versasrs HelpDesk? We have been running versasrs HelpDesk for the last 5 years. Had no reason to move to another solution as so much is configurable in SRS. We knew that the City of Charles Sturt and Adelaide City Council were using it. It came around then that that a better system was required so we approached VersaDev. We had a demo presentation, it fit within our budget, and the implementation was straight forward. Was versasrs HelpDesk easy to implement? The implementation was very simple because we chose to not make it complicated. We had some training in it, but unfortunately there wasn t anyone who was a central administrator of the software. How many technicians currently use versasrs HelpDesk? Everyone in IT use it, so that is 8 full time users and half a dozen part time users. We have our standard Help Desk queue, Records Management queue, scheduled task queue, and our webmedia/webmaster queue that looks at requests for changes to the website or intranet. We actually have another form on our website that directly creates tickets in versasrs. From there it is allocated to someone. We have also set up versasrs with routing rules that, according to subject for example, pre-define certain aspects of the ticket, for example which queue it is assigned to, or which keys are set. Whereas, in the scheduled calls queue, we have set up a call template that is triggered on the 1 st of every month as a reminder to perform a system task, for example to reboot or apply updates to a server. We also have scheduled daily tasks and weekly tasks. We set it up because we have a server that needs to be checked every day. Before that we used to forget to do that check. Now we have a daily ticket that is emailed and appears in my queue as a ticket and a reminder. Did you know what versasrs HelpDesk was capable of? We actually thought from an early stage that we did not need all of the capabilities of the software. However, since I ve taken control of the software ownership this year, we have found we are tweaking and fine-tuning features and capabilities more than before. www.versadev.com 3 Delivering Business Software Solutions
For example, I have set up quick links in versasrs that allow me to log calls with predefined templates, which makes creating calls a much quicker process. Was any formal training required? Internally we have all been self-taught. It s not a hard system to get to know once you know what it can do and read the help files. What is the biggest impact versasrs has made on your business? It probably ensures that if we log the ticket, it gives us a better indication of the type of requests that are coming through. Now we are identifying issues clearly, be that with a user, or a piece of equipment or an application, we now have a better idea of what is going on. From a management perspective there is a clear and structured workflow as well as a managed workload. Management can easily see what the current load is on a particular person. As a manager then you can say, why does this person have so many tickets, and this other person doesn t? The other area where we have seen a large impact is in the area of asset management. We have around 250 works stations to manage. These have all been entered in the versasrs Asset Management module. We have now expanded this to include other hardware, such as PDAs, phones, etc as well as software. We can then match tickets raised with particular assets. We can then see an entire history of that asset, from purchase information to eventual re-sale and de-commissioning. We can see warranty information, leasing information, who is it assigned to, etc etc. Now we can report on issues with assets as well. How do you think versasrs HelpDesk may have contributed to your customer s satisfaction or business delivery? The users now know that if they log a ticket, they will have someone attending to their request straight away if required. There is now a faster turnaround. We also use versacat, so the users can look at their requests and see where they are at, or communicate via the ticket. We also use the automatic update of contacts in versasrs from Active Directory, which eliminates the manual process of adding or removing employees from the system. This runs in the background on a daily basis. www.versadev.com 4 Delivering Business Software Solutions
About VersaDev VersaDev is an innovative software company specializing in enterprise-wide mission-critical Microsoft.NET applications for small to large-sized businesses worldwide. Our flagship product, versasrs HelpDesk is HelpDesk/Service Desk software that is built on cutting-edge Microsoft.NET, XML, and Web services technologies. versasrs HelpDesk enables organisations to quickly and effectively deploy comprehensive Service, Incident, Configuration and Service Level Management processes with a minimum investment in infrastructure. In addition, versasrs HelpDesk enables businesses to leverage off their existing investments in technologies such as Microsoft s Windows, Internet Information Server and SQL. VersaDev also provide custom software development for global enterprise clients with specific business needs in the areas of business process improvement, workflow and automation processes. VersaDev s customers range from small to large companies in manufacturing, computing services, agriculture, retail, health, government agencies, universities and professional firms of all kinds. VersaDev Pty Ltd 134 Gilbert Street Adelaide SA 5000 Australia t:: +61.8.8463.1914 f:: +61.8.8212.8447 e:: sales@versadev.com w:: www.versasrshelpdesk.com www.versadev.com 5 Delivering Business Software Solutions