Business Challenge
Organizing & Tracking Help Desk Requests
A Texas-based floral greenery company is one of the world’s top two providers of greenery for floral arrangements, shipping product all over the globe. With 7,800 acres of farms and 1.5 million acres of managed forest land, the company grows, processes, distributes and sells 16 million bunches of greens every year.
With a compact workforce of 70 managers and about 300 agricultural workers, the company strives for maximize efficiency. The experienced and innovation-driven Director of IT needed to roll out extensive upgrades to the office technology.
The first priority of the director’s IT modernization strategy was to find a way to organize and track IT help desk requests. The previous manual, office-based system was overwhelmed by requests and employees were never sure who to call or whether their problems were close to resolution.
Solution
Accessible, Cloud-based Help Desk
Seeking a system that delivered accessibility, traceability, and accountability, the IT director returned to Issuetrak’s solution, which he had used earlier in his IT career.
“Having been obliged to use a different system in my previous role, I believed that there was nothing to compare with Issuetrak. It fits the cloud approach to business, it’s not cluttered with irrelevant features, it’s highly customizable, and time to implementation is really fast. It just plain works,” said the IT director.
The IT director encourages use of the system by committing to rapid touchback: when an email is sent to the help desk it is typically acknowledged within 30 minutes, so that anyone with a problem is aware that it has been noted and a fix is under way. He is also focusing on helping users understand some of the more valuable features, especially the opportunity for self-help from the information repository containing responses to many common issues.
Issuetrak’s Asset Management module is now used to keep track of software license renewals. Another Issuetrak-enabled change is the move from ad-hoc computer purchases to a central system linked to HR processes. “The process is now smooth and standardized,” says the IT director. “Once an employment offer is issued, HR requests the equipment and a ticket is generated so that IT can order and set up the device so that everything is in place on the employee’s first day.”
The IT director is currently working with HR to develop an employee onboarding/offboarding process. “This will have a critical impact on efficiency. We have a lot of shift in the workforce, as many of our agricultural workers are with us on a seasonal basis rather than full time. Also, we moved our outsourced benefits system to an in-house model so it is now our responsibility to ensure compliance with multiple State Federal regulations. Issuetrak will help us streamline and optimize a number of key processes.”
Benefits
Installed just a few months ago, Issuetrak is at the heart of a new, email-triggered collaboration portal. The system is used to track and fix the resolution of a wide range of hardware and software issues, from frozen systems to password reset or email problems. For ease of use, the IT director built and preloaded an email shortcut onto all desktops, and at the back end created workflows that categorize issues for speedier response.
“I did not expect such a substantial improvement within such a short period,”
The IT director confirms that Issuetrak has revolutionized the IT help desk, providing speedy resolution of issues and freely available access to information. “It is a complete paradigm shift for the whole organization. The majority of people eagerly adopted the system and already wants more,” he says.
The goal for the IT director is to make a contribution to the success of the business by focusing on strategic initiatives. “If I can prevent unrealized revenue by fixing a software or hardware issue that keeps a container stuck on the shipping dock, I’m contributing to the bottom line. But I am also focused on analyzing the data I’m getting from Issuetrak to identify recurring problems to address or areas of excellence to replicate. By providing actionable insights to the management team, IT is able to make a real contribution to the company’s financial success.”
For example, a high number of tickets about a software program might point to a need to adapt the training process. Other data might provide insights about where an investment in personnel or systems changes could support the company’s vision for the future.
Although it’s somewhat early in the Issuetrak adoption to provide concrete ROI figures, the IT director believes that processes are already running more smoothly. Time to resolution of problems per individual is reduced from days to hours. “I did not expect such a substantial improvement within such a short period,” he commented. “I am glad to be partnering with Issuetrak again – it’s refreshing.”