How ServiceDesk Plus Helped Ashton Park School

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Ashton Park School is a Specialist Sports College located in Bristol, UK. Earlier its IT department used Microsoft Outlook task system to handle requests and Microsoft Access based application to track assets. This setup was failing to meet the requirements of the IT Support Staff. Ashton Park School’s Help Desk Staff were looking for an efficient proactive Help desk solution at an affordable price.

Ashton Park School researched and evaluated 6 competing Help Desk products extensively for 3 months and finally chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus. ServiceDesk Plus enabled the Help Desk staff to efficiently manage user requests, manage assets and streamline purchases, all at an affordable cost.

The Challenge

Ashton Park School is one of the 141 schools in Bristol, UK, to be declared as a Specialist Sports College. Its growing IT environment was managed by loosely coupled Microsoft Outlook task system for request handling and used a Microsoft Access based application to track IT assets. All user requests were tracked using Microsoft Outlook and tasks were created accordingly. When a request came in, the Help Desk staff had to query the Microsoft Access databases to pull out the workstation details associated to the requestor. In such an environment, even a simple requirement to find all requests from a particular workstation was complex. This drastically increased the request response time and reduced the quality of service.

The Help Desk Staff were determined to change the situation and wanted to proactively manage their IT environment. They wanted a Help Desk Solution that can offer all related information along with the request, such as associated workstation details, associated asset details, all requests from a particular workstation, hardware and software installed in a workstation, and workstation history. The Help Desk Staff understood that once all the related information is available, they can reach a quick conclusion or rule out basic options to probe further into the request for faster resolution. Apart from detailed request management, the IT Department wanted an efficient and affordable Help Desk to manage user requests, assets, and purchase to simplify support and increase end user satisfaction. Ross Hamilton, ICT Technician at Ashton Park School evaluated 6 competing Help Desk Solutions for around 3 months and finally chose the right Help Desk Solution to manage the situation at an affordable cost.

The Solution: ServiceDesk Plus

ServiceDesk Plus enabled Ashton Park School’s Help Desk Staff to introduce a self-service portal and considerably reduce level 1 requests from users. Unresolved level 1 and advanced requests were automatically categorized and automatic notifications were sent to the associated technicians. ServiceDesk Plus eliminated mundane request dispatching and assigning jobs, helping technicians to get started on immediately and work towards resolving the request. Unlike the earlier system, whenever a request came in, technicians were able to get complete details about the workstation and associated assets. Further, the technicians could dive deep into the problem by analyzing the workstation history. The integrated Asset Management helped the IT support staff to use the domain scan to identify and manage workstations. The domain scan gave a clear picture of all the hardware and software inventory items available in the network. Based on the number of licenses procured, ServiceDesk Plus enabled the help desk staff to assign licenses to workstations. It also provided a snapshot of licensed and unlicensed installations, which helped technicians to take remedial action to comply with software and hardware audits. The Help Desk staff were able to associate contracts with assets and the contract expiry reminders helped them manage contracts easily.

ServiceDesk Plus enabled the Help Desk Staff to have fine-grained tracking and control over every inventory item. For example, Ross was able to track the total number printer cartridges purchased, number of printer cartridges used by different departments on a regular basis, this general trend analysis helped the purchasing department to plan and provision for future purchases. Today, Ashton Park School uses a new purchasing system to send purchase orders to different vendors. Today, they are able to manage different purchase orders, agreements, and terms and condition from multiple hardware and software vendors.

"ServiceDesk Plus helped Ashton Park School with a comprehensive IT Help Desk Solution to manage Incidents, Assets, and purchases at affordable cost", Ross Hamilton concluded.