Improve University IT Service Management and Reduce Workloads

In an area where women do not often find the same advantages as men, this university set out to do things differently. They were on a mission to promote equal rights for women, and they have been doing so by combining a well-articulated academic curriculum with on-the-job training, individual research and community extension activities.

As anyone who is working in an academic IT setting can appreciate, supporting such an expansive mission takes a lot of planning, coordination and professional technology support. It was a huge challenge, and the university team was facing some specific challenges.

IT Problems Slow Support and Limit Academic Successes

The university had recently introduced a new integrated application system. This system was causing an increased need for professional support from the IT department. Its introduction resulted in:

• very long resolution times,
• dissatisfied customers, and
• countless unanswered inquiries that the university’s overloaded IT department was no longer able to cope with.

Frustration was running high among the IT team. And, the university was constantly fielding complaints from students and parents who were not getting adequate help.

Integrated IT Service Management Solution

The university began looking for an IT service management solution that would be easy to use and implement in order to support their IT department and resolve the service problems they were facing.

IT Requirements for an ITSM Solution

The search was led by the IT team as they were trying to resolve their own service delivery problems. They sought out an IT Service Management software  solution that offered:

• A reasonable price point
• Quick support possibilities that would enable service management by 10 agents who were handling approximately 200 tickets/month
• Software based on ITIL

Business Requirements for an ITSM Solution

As professional ITSM solutions were reviewed, it became clear that their usefulness could support other areas and departments within the university. This meant additional requirements were added to better support the overall academic environment, including:

• Facilities management
• Integration with student accounting
• Integration with library management
• Complete customizable reporting capabilities
• Support for multiple languages to allow business operations in English and Arabic

More Than Software: OTRS ITSM Solution Supports Strategy to Operation

Using this criteria, the university staff began researching and comparing solutions. OTRS provided the IT department with an integrated IT services solution – easy to use and enables flexible integration with third party systems.

Simple Agent Interfaces

• Customizable Dashboards. These allowed agents to see new requests coming in more quickly and focus on the most important tasks first.
• Automated Routing. As requests came in, they were automatically sent to the right team for processing.
• Complete overview of each department. Requests and communication were able to be sorted and organized based on team.

Easy Inter-departmental and Student Communication

• Multi-channel communication. The university was able to send and receive information via several communication channels. OTRS supports email, telephone, requests via the portal, and social media.
• External Portal. The university could publish any information or resource to the public which makes communication with students, parents and stuff much easier. Plus, requests were able to be created directly from this page.
• Faster resolution times. With automatically structured and documented communication as well as all student, equipment or facility information connected together, it was much easier for requests to be completed thoroughly and quickly.

University ITSM Reporting

Universities can generate a wide range of reports based on customized criteria, giving their management a complete overview of each department’s performance at any point in time. This helps administrators make strategic decisions easier and faster, which improves things for the university staff and students.

ITSM Integration with Third-Party Tools

The search required that the software support more than the IT department. It would also be used in other areas, such as facilities management. This meant that integration with tools and systems used by other departments was crucial.

For instance, the university’s “education system” is used for student accounting and library management. The ITSM solution must be able to integrate with this so that staff and agents could determine the current standing of the student or parent who had initiated the request.

ITSM and Automated ITIL Processes

The university expressed interest in ITIL processes; OTRS satisfied this request by using all requirements and best practices of the IT Infrastructure Library. Today ITSM software, combined with ITIL processes, is more in demand than ever within education systems – making schools work more efficiently, employees more motivated, and students/parents more satisfied. OTRS can be used to incorporate the ITIL framework, meaning that universities can ensure the quality standard of their IT service management efforts. The automated ITIL-based processes allow education systems to quickly establish these processes in their organization quickly and then customize or  roll back the implementation later if desired. This is all possible without any major changes to the software.

Today, the university has resolved the service delivery slowdowns. Their operations are moving smoothly and communication with students, faculty, staff and parents flows.

If OTRS can support your education technology team, contact our experts today.

OTRS ITSM Solution Positively Impacted University IT Service Management

The search concluded with the selection and implementation of OTRS. With the support of expert OTRS Group consultants, the integrations and customizations were quickly established. The university – and more importantly the students – saw the impacts quickly:

• Reduction of complaints by 35%
• Smoother processes between departments
• Reduction of the IT daily workload

As the university’s data center manager concludes: “The drop in complaints shows that we made the right decision by choosing OTRS. We increased end-user satisfaction through shorter resolution times and an improved IT service management.”

If your academic institution would benefit from the use of an ITSM solution, contact us today to discuss how OTRS can best support your teams.