Mission impossible made possible: overhauling System C’s IT service desk
About System C
System C is the UK’s leading health and social care software supplier. Its products include the Medway electronic patient record and associated products, CarePlus Child Health, Vitalpac mobile clinical care, Careflow care messaging and the Liquidlogic range of social care software supporting adults’ and children’s services.
System C offers a hands-on deployment service, delivering all aspects of a project from the preparation of the initial brief to post go-live support. Their products are installed across 58 local authorities and 108 NHS Trusts.
A challenging brief
The System C team had been working on sourcing and implementing an ITSM solution for two years before new owners were brought into place, changing the scope of the project.
The owners agreed that a transformation of System C’s current IT service desk was required, but also wanted to complement this with a large scale Jira Software implementation, along with a move into the cloud.
«We’d previously been using an internal bug tracking system, but it really wasn’t working for us» says Averil Franklin Stewart, Atlassian Tooling Expert, System C.
«External customers had no view into the status of their requests, and agents had to manually enter phone conversations and copy and paste email transcripts in order to lodge requests.»
The delivery of a new service desk solution hinged on a number of key criteria:
- Affordable
- Intuitive for both staff and customers to use
- Able to support improved performance against SLAs
- Simple to implement within a three-month deadline
With such a short timeframe, the team moved quickly to research a reputable implementation partner. After comparing Valiantys against another competitor, the System C team chose Valiantys to lead the project after a process totalling 10 days.
«The fact that Valiantys was a platinum partner initially drew us in, as well as all the useful information we found around Jira Service Desk on the website» Averil says.
«But we also liked the way the company talked and presented itself – their attitude really hit the mark with us… we liked their style!»
Working against the clock
With time in tight supply, the Valiantys team provided in-depth consultancy for two weeks, pouring over ideas, concepts and data to devize a solution that would effectively fit System C’s needs.
«We made great use of Valiantys’ consultancy – they were incredibly in-depth and fast-moving, enabling us to implement three service desks and two ancillary systems within a very tight deadline» Averil says.
Once Jira Service Desk was firmly in place, Valiantys then worked to move System C’s development teams to Jira Software for better traceability, improved reporting capabilities and better stability across the software development lifecycle.
This project was driven by an aim to become more Agile and improve development practices. Over time Valiantys has implemented the SAFe framework for Agile development, with teams trained on Scrum and Agile to leave them better equipped to respond to business challenges and achieve faster time to market.
Productivity on the up
While the switch to Atlassian tools came with a steep learning curve, both feedback and tangible results have been very positive.
«Both the techies and devs love the new tools» Averil says.
«While the change was very rapid, staff were quick to get on track and pick up on the huge raft of benefits of what they can do with Jira Software and Jira Service Desk.»
«Even some people who were initially resistant to the change came up to me and said they really loved Jira!»
Jira Service Desk now enables the team to work with bulletproof SLA calculations, and the team also benefits from a cast iron audit trail – greater transparency means that customers can access the system themselves and see the status of individual items.
In the last 18 months the team has received 35,000 tickets from staff and customers, and is easily taking more than 1,750 calls a month. SLA breaches are also down to almost zero.
Jira Software, meanwhile, boasts a host of features that the team has harnessed to save time and drive productivity. These include:
- The ability to set up and configure individual dashboards quickly and easily
- Big jumps in productivity thanks to Agile boards
- The Jira Miscellaneous Workflow Extensions add-on to automate the system – items update problems automatically as they transition through the workflow process
- The Valiantys Exocet add-on, which makes it simple to move items around across teams and departments
«The tools have changed the way we capture data and move calls around, and the dashboard and reporting capabilities in the tools are phenomenal. We have lots of confidence in these functionalities – they enable us to see exactly where we are at any given point in time.»
What’s more, the service desk model can now be replicated across the business as a standard when new companies are acquired. Averil explains:
«as an enterprise, this means you can compare like-for-like across all areas of the business, as reporting is the same across the board.»
An end-to-end transformation program
«When we came to Valiantys we were asking the impossible» Averil laughs, «but they completely delivered to the brief»
As well as helping System C to deliver real organisational and cultural change, Valiantys has provided an end-to-end service encompassing implementation, Jira and Confluence training, hosting and support.
Hosting and support packages have enabled System C to benefit from expert maintenance and troubleshooting of any problems that arise. Averil explains:
«Valiantys’ ongoing service is truly impressive. I don’t know anyone else who has that level of knowledge – in fact, it could take you years to learn that much knowhow!»
«The team’s enthusiasm and ability to actually get the job done is unique. If we ever want to know how to do something, they will always know – and give an answer within a matter of hours. The team's expertise and professionalism really is unparalleled.»