Specialist Schools and Academies Trust team up with Richmond Systems

Richmond Systems is helping the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust’s new IT manager, Jahangir Janmohamed (JJ), to integrate service support into the running of the organisation, following the extension of its use of Richmond SupportDesk. The service desk software has been used to log calls to the IT team for the last two years, but under JJ’s leadership it has been further enhanced to integrate more fully with the Trust’s internal processes.

JJ commented: “My predecessor had bought Richmond SupportDesk but it wasn’t being used to its full potential. With help from the team at Richmond Systems, we have been able to extend its use from the IT team logging calls into a service that all staff members can use to flag IT problems. Richmond SupportDesk works intuitively, so was quickly taken up across the organisation whilst raising the profile of IT and making a real difference to the way employees interact with the department.”

Ease of use was particularly important in facilitating system acceptance by employees. Richmond SupportDesk actively encourages system use through clear screen layout, customisable views and time-saving features like single click recording of common issues.

“Now, all IT requests are logged, although it took something of a culture change in the organisation, as some people seemed to think their problem wouldn’t get answered unless they visited the IT team in person. The Trust’s 320 users now realise that going through the proper channels ensures an effective and timely response to their IT issues. Calls are managed properly so that mission-critical problems take priority without other issues being ignored. The IT team now has the tools to prioritise workload, preventing unfair ‘queue-jumping’ and, ultimately, everyone knows they are having their requests dealt with effectively with the resources available.”

“We’re now much better able to support all of the Trust’s employees, which is really important as we’re looking after seven regional offices as well as those based at our Millbank Tower headquarters. At first we got the usual complaints that HQ was getting better service than the branch offices, however using Richmond SupportDesk’s Customer Satisfaction Surveys we are able to directly monitor the service experience of every employee in the trust and use satisfaction scores to allay misconceptions about preferential treatment. Using Richmond SupportDesk has enables us to answer queries in a timely manner, wherever they are in the country, and provide best practice service to the Trust.”

Alleviate IT Staff Work Pressures with Self Service and Mobile Solutions

With the ever increasing demand on IT Staff to deliver, support and maintain new technology, whilst adhering to stringent service levels, the need for innovative solutions to assist them in their challenging roles has never been greater.

Companies are starting to realise that ‘going mobile’ is a necessary way of increasing productivity whilst saving money. IT support staff must not be forgotten as they play a key role in making this happen. They need tools not just to support the mobile workforce effectively, but to make their own work more flexible; being able to access job information while off-site or on the move.

In addition to mobile solutions for IT staff, extending support capability to provide customer self service empowers users to find answers to their support questions whilst reducing workload and freeing up service desk resources.

Richmond Systems will be launching two new solutions at the Service Desk & IT Support Show 2008, Richmond SupportDesk Mobile and a Self Service Portal to help address the work balance requirements for IT support staff.

Richmond SupportDesk Self Service Portal provides customised, interactive access to the service operations via web browsers. The fully configurable solution is designed to meet the specific support needs of diverse internal and external customer groups. Managed Service Providers can add value to their services by tailoring the interface and user experience for each customer.

Richmond SupportDesk Mobile provides service desk staff with live incident management on the move through any device supporting the Windows Mobile™ operating system. This maintains real-time interaction with the central service desk.

“IT support staff face huge demands on a daily basis, providing them with the tools to work as effectively as possible with limited resources helps alleviate some of their daily pressures” commented Eric Wright, managing director at Richmond Systems.