The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is Australia’s fourth-oldest university, established in 1890. It has won more teaching awards than any other Australian university, and ranks in the top 2 per cent of universities worldwide. This recognition emphasises the high calibre of education offered across numerous academic disciplines at UTAS.
The university has more than 33,000 local, national and international students and 2,600 academic and administrative staff across four campuses.
Challenge
With tens of thousands of IT users, UTAS needed to improve its responsiveness to IT issues and requests. The university had no easy way to let people know what services the IT team offered, or how to access those services. The help desk was managed manually; staff and students called, emailed or simply walked into the IT department to ask for help.
This made it difficult for staff and students to work effectively, since IT issues disrupted their ability to access networks and drives. The average help desk ticket closure time was 5 days.
Nathan Tenaglia, manager of Enterprise Services and Networks, University of Tasmania, said, “UTAS needed to introduce a capability for users to log a help desk ticket and then track the progress of their issue.
“Ideally, we also wanted a knowledge base so that people could try to resolve their own issues before logging a help desk ticket. And, we wanted a service catalogue that would describe the services we offer and let people request those services."
“Importantly, we needed to address the time it took to resolve issues. Response time was too slow so we needed a solution to help speed up the process.”
“UTAS needed to introduce a capability for users to log a help desk ticket and then track the progress of their issue.”
Nathan Tenaglia Manager of Enterprise Services and Networks, UTAS
Solution
The UTAS IT team conducted an exhaustive investigation into what was possible in terms of help desk solutions. It was apparent early on that a portal would be the best way to enable user self- service, and the team was reluctant to add complexity into the existing system.
Tenaglia said, “I began looking at the capabilities of ServiceNow and was pointed towards Ohio State University in the U.S., which is one of the leading ServiceNow users. I spoke with the Ohio State project manager about their implementation and his experience was so positive that we decided to engage with ServiceNow to design the portal. They recommended we approach one of their partners, so we put out a request for a proposal (RFP).”
DXC Technology’s ServiceNow practice responded to the RFP, outlining the way the team could work with UTAS to achieve the university’s objectives.
Tenaglia said, “It was clear from DXC’s response to the RFP that it had the experience necessary to successfully deliver the self-service portal we needed. Discussions with DXC’s professional referees confirmed that the company was the right choice for UTAS. Even talking to the DXC team before we started the work gave us a sense that we would work well together. The team was friendly and professional, with the skills and know- how we needed.”
DXC implemented the UTAS Service Portal, based on ServiceNow. It has 40,000 active staff and student accounts with access. The knowledge base lets them solve their own issues, and the service catalogue lets them find out what services are available and log requests accordingly.
Users can track the status of their jobs easily, and can add notes and comments for the IT team while the ticket is open. Users can also see notes added by the IT team, so communication remains open and consistent throughout the resolution process.
“It was clear from DXC’s response to the RFP that it had the experience necessary to successfully deliver the self-service portal we needed.”
Nathan Tenaglia Manager of Enterprise Services and Networks, UTAS
Benefits
Since the portal was implemented, it has overtaken email as the most popular channel for communicating with the IT department, which was considered a significant win for UTAS.
In fact, on average 350 tickets are logged via the portal each week, which makes up about 40 per cent of total tickets logged. There are on average 1,800 active users per week using the Service Portal.
Tenaglia said, “There are fewer phone calls and emails to the service desk as most people are using the Service Portal. More people are becoming comfortable with the self-service option, so the IT team doesn’t have to do as many basic tasks, freeing them up to add more value.
“The Service Portal has changed the way we work. Users are trying to self- help first. If that doesn’t work, they provide feedback through the portal so we can see where the knowledge base may need to be updated to make them easier to follow."
“We expect to see this figure improve as we release some new enhancements to the portal, which will also result in the closure of our service desk email as a contact channel.”
The Service Portal has given users increased visibility into the services available to them, which has increased uptake. This was an important result for the IT team.
Tenaglia said, “We wanted people to take more advantage of the services on offer. Previously we had many ways to communicate these services but the information was not all in one place and, sometimes, the information in one place contradicted information in another place. Now we have a single pane of glass. People can see not just what services are available but also the status of their current requests.
“For example, all staff and students are provisioned with Microsoft Office 365, which entitles them to download the latest version of Office onto up to 10 devices of any kind. Most staff and students weren’t aware of this, so we weren’t getting the full value of these licences. Since the Service Portal was implemented, utilisation of this service has increased remarkably, demonstrating both the value of the service itself, and of the Service Portal.”
The Service Portal has also lessened the burden of IT issues on users. Previously, a user would be bombarded with emails after logging a ticket. This was especially true if the IT team needed the user to do something specific. It was difficult to extract the necessary information from the standard emails that were sent.
As a result, the IT team often had to telephone individual users to ask them to complete certain tasks to help with their issue resolution. Now, users visit the portal to find out the status of their ticket and get instructions from the IT team.
Tenaglia said, “The Service Portal delivered by DXC has let us develop a service delivery strategy that lets us improve the customer experience and the use of our existing resources.”
“It took 5 months from project inception to delivery, which is very quick. Language style was important, so we put together a working party of staff and students who helped determine the language that was being used.”
Nathan Tenaglia Manager of Enterprise Services and Networks, UTAS
Plans
The university plans to extend its use of ServiceNow, for example, by adding the live chat module, which will introduce even more efficiencies.
Tenaglia said, “We are planning to add an asset management module in the future, since there is no formal asset management system in place currently. It will be integrated into the portal so users can see their own assets including when they are due for upgrades and replacements. Not having to constantly ask this question will massively save users time, and having this knowledge at their fingertips will also greatly help managers in terms of budgeting and planning."
“We will also put a systems status module in place, which will let people check the health of their system.”
DXC delivered the project in just 5 months, with a fast, seamless implementation process.
Tenaglia said, “It took 5 months from project inception to delivery, which is very quick. We started with a project team and a map of our requirements. Language style was important, so we put together a working party of staff and students who helped determine the language that was being used. This was crucial to make sure the system was easy to use and easy to understand."
“DXC’s project management was excellent! We had ad hoc meetings daily, and formal meetings every 2 or 3 days, with constant communication in between. As a result, we were able to successfully implement the portal without encountering any significant roadblocks.”