Employees are now empowered to resolve IT issues independently through self-service. The team created a service catalog, knowledge base and self-service portal that automatically directs requests to the appropriate technician.
The knowledge base integrated into the service portal is successfully deflecting service requests and reducing the overall number of tickets to the IT help desk. This is freeing up employees to work on more strategic projects and tasks.
By using self-service to reduce the time spent on routine support tasks, the IT team can now focus on strategic projects, proactive problem-solving and initiatives to improve employee productivity.
Industry: Manufacturing
Previous System: KACE
Technology outages are problematic in all industries, but they’re especially disruptive in manufacturing. Network downtime or problems logging into software programs often result in production delays that can prove costly to an organization’s bottom line.
Fujirebio Diagnostics, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based maker of in vitro diagnostics (IVD) products and solutions used for testing analytes in blood and other body fluids, has improved its delivery of IT service with the help of TeamDynamix.
Using the flexible and versatile TeamDynamix platform for IT Service Management (ITSM) has made Fujirebio service desk employees more efficient. Moving to TeamDynamix has also supported a shift to more employee self-service, leading to fewer support tickets overall and a faster resolution of IT problems.
With the time they’re saving on support-related tasks, IT staff are now able to focus more attention on strategic IT projects that further the company’s mission.
“We actually have the ability to spend time on projects instead of being distracted by answering the same questions over and over again,” says Senior IT Support Technician Darrin Johnson.
Aside from business-related applications such as Oracle ERP, the company’s enterprise resource planning solution, the IT team also supports MasterControl, a quality management system (QMS) that Fujirebio uses to manage its manufacturing processes.
“Nearly everyone in our company is on that software on a daily basis,” Johnson says. “Without it, managers can’t sign off on manufacturing projects.”
In other words, if an employee has trouble with that system, it could delay the manufacturing process.
Fujirebio was using another IT Service Management system before, but IT leaders realized they needed a more modern solution. The company’s legacy system required a lot of administrative upkeep, and it lacked features that would allow for greater IT maturity.
“We wanted to implement more employee self-service and the automation of key tasks,” Johnson says. “We weren’t really getting that with our old system. We were limited in what we could do.”
In TeamDynamix, Johnson and his colleagues have a highly configurable ITSM platform that supports more automation and self-service.
TeamDynamix allows organizations to build automated workflows easily with no special knowledge of coding required. The software’s integration and automation capabilities enable users to create integrations between various applications and processes using a simple, drag-and-drop process.
In addition, TeamDynamix includes tools that organizations can use to define a fully customizable service catalog, create and store knowledge base articles, and develop a self-service portal. In the case of Fujirebio, when employees use this portal to initiate IT service, the software asks them a few questions about the nature of their request and then routes their request automatically to the appropriate team member for a response.
Johnson and his colleagues have used TeamDynamix to build customized workflows that automate certain tasks involved in the onboarding and offboarding of employees, for example. These automated workflows have streamlined key processes while reducing the amount of time that IT staff have to spend on routine tasks.
Implementing a service catalog and enabling employee self-service has also saved IT staff time by deflecting some of the service requests they would normally receive. When employees have an IT-related problem or question and they go to the service portal, they see a box at the top promoting the company’s knowledge base articles. Often, they can find an answer to their question right there, without having to initiate a service request.
“Giving everyone the ability to see knowledge base articles in our client portal has helped us reduce the number of tickets we receive,” Johnson says. “We can see that our knowledge base articles are being read, and the tickets we do receive are getting resolved a lot faster.”
“We actually have the ability to spend time on projects instead of being distracted by answering the same questions over and over again.”
With the time they’re saving from promoting self-service, IT staff are able to work more strategically. Instead of merely reacting to problems, they’re able to be more proactive by examining the root cause of frequent IT issues. They also have more time to spend on projects that help employees do their jobs more effectively.
“We’re always looking for ways to improve automation and self-service,” Johnson says, “so fewer tickets come in and we have more time to work on projects.”
In addition, TeamDynamix staff were extremely helpful throughout the implementation process, he says, noting that TeamDynamix consultants provided useful suggestions for how to get the most out of the platform.
Implementing TeamDynamix has been “a breath of fresh air” for the company, Johnson concludes.
