Before TeamDynamix, IT technicians at Kleinfelder couldn’t appropriately route tickets which meant there were sometimes up to 3 different technicians working on the same ticket simultaneously.
With automations in place, tickets route automatically to the right technician resulting in a faster response, better service and improved communication between the different tiers of IT support within the organization.
With better reporting in place, Kleinfelder’s IT department can now conduct root cause analysis allowing the team to get out in front of potential issues and preventing them from happening in the first place.
Industry: Services
End-users: 3,000
Previous System: ServiceNow
Uptime is critical for an IT-dependent business like an engineering consulting firm. Employees need a fast response to their service requests and fewer IT problems overall, or the bottom line suffers.
Founded in 1961 and headquartered in San Diego, CA, Kleinfelder is a leading engineering, design, construction management, construction materials inspection and testing, and environmental professional services firm. Kleinfelder employs more than 3,000 professionals and operates from over 100 office locations in the United States, Canada and Australia.
Using the no-code TeamDynamix platform for ITSM and Enterprise Service Management, Kleinfelder has been able to streamline its IT operations and provide better, faster service. This easy-to-use, highly configurable platform has enabled the company to level up its IT service, shifting to more of a self-service model and freeing up IT employees to be more strategic.
As a result, IT staff are able to resolve issues quickly and efficiently, while also identifying the root cause of problems—increasing IT uptime and boosting employee productivity for the company overall.
Prior to moving to TeamDynamix, the software that Kleinfelder was using to manage IT service had limited functionality and could not be adapted to meet the company’s specific needs.
Moving to TeamDynamix has allowed Kleinfelder to develop automated workflows that are tailored to its circumstances using a simple, no-code process. For instance, the company’s IT team has been able to define the unique services they provide, allowing them to route support tickets automatically to the correct team member for a quicker response.
“The ability to configure complex workflows is a great improvement,” says Lorne Pearl, IT Service and Support Manager for Kleinfelder. “We’re able to provide a much better user experience.”
“We have an email inbox that’s monitored automatically by TeamDynamix,” Pearl explains. “Based on the words in the subject line, those emails can be sent to the appropriate group without having to go through Tier 1 and then Tier 2 support.”
“We no longer have three different technicians looking at the same problem,” adds ITIL Process Manager Michael Smith. “Instead, we can skip the first two and get it right to the person who’s responsible for resolving the issue in the end.”
Aside from faster response times and an improved user experience, being able to develop customized attributes and workflows has led to better reporting, giving Kleinfelder’s IT team more insight into their IT operations.
“When we do new computer setups, we have an attribute that defines whether it’s for a new employee, a lease swap or other,” Pearl explains. “Having that flexibility has been great for tracking and reporting. In our old tool, we weren’t able to create a report to say how many new employee computer setups were done, compared to lease swaps or hardware repairs. Now, we can get reporting like that.”
By knowing what they do most often, IT managers can better identify where to focus their resources to bring the most value to the organization.
Using TeamDynamix has also improved teamwork and communication within IT. “Before, we were using email to communicate, and it was external to the support ticket,” Pearl notes. “Now, we can communicate right there within the ticket itself. With all of the information in one place, we have a full record of what’s happening within an IT system. It allows for better troubleshooting.”
“It’s helped us to consolidate our communications,” adds Smith. “There is no more searching your email from five years ago, trying to find a keyword to learn how you solved a particular issue.”
We’re taking those repeated tasks, [automating them] and empowering the people in our organization to do it themselves. That allows our IT staff to look at bigger-picture items, such as finding new services we can provide—because we actually have the time for those things now.
Having greater insight has enabled IT staff to be more strategic. For instance, it allows them to look for the root cause of problems that crop up repeatedly, so they can get out in front of potential issues. “Instead of putting out fires,” Pearl says, “we’re building firewalls and preventing fires from starting in the first place.”
In analyzing the data about the kinds of tickets they work on the most, IT managers can also look for ways to automate those routine tasks.
“We have people in our IT organization who can do scripting, and we’re taking those repeated tasks, turning them into a script and empowering the people in our organization to do it themselves,” Pearl says. “That allows our IT staff to look at bigger-picture items, such as finding new services we can provide—because we actually have the time for those things now.”
Being more proactive in solving IT issues and strategic in the use of resources is just one way that TeamDynamix has helped Kleinfelder improve its IT maturity. The company’s IT team is also building out a knowledge base within the platform to move toward more self-service.
They also recently completed a Health Check, in which they worked with TeamDynamix consultants to identify ways they could use the platform to further improve their IT processes and services.
Pearl, Smith and their colleagues say they appreciate the platform’s superior design and the ongoing best practice education they get from TeamDynamix staff.
“One of the biggest selling points of the software is that it feels like it was made by someone who has done the job before,” Pearl says. “Even little things, like being able to click on the service request number to get a quick copy of that so you can paste it anywhere, make the user experience better.”
He notes that TeamDynamix consultants have been extremely helpful in advising them on how to get the most out of the platform.
“They know their stuff,” he observes. “You ask them a question and they come back with an answer right away. Also, the user community is great. There is a culture of education that exists. Anyone who’s using TeamDynamix wants to teach other people how to use it. I find that very welcoming.”
Smith’s advice for others who are looking to advance their IT maturity? “Look at what you want to accomplish and pick a tool that’s designed to do that. I’ve seen so much work put into trying to get a product like Sharepoint to do the things that TeamDynamix does. The end product is never as good, regardless of whether you have developers or not.”
He concludes: “Invest in a platform that’s designed to do what you need it to do.”
