The information technology (IT) division of BOSASA - a group focused on social development through a range of different subsidiaries covering areas as diverse as youth rehabilitation and development programmes, security services, catering, cleaning, and transport and logistics - has implemented HEAT, the service management offering from FrontRange Solutions, to improve the effectiveness and availability of IT facilities within all the group's companies.
BOSASA IT Chief Information Officer, Fred Vivier, says that, with several separate companies and as many as a 100 sites to service, the IT division went looking for a solution that would ensure greater help-desk efficiency.
"Many of the BOSASA companies have government clients and much of the work they do is mission-critical, particularly in the logistics and security sectors. So it's vital that we not only respond to their IT calls as quickly as possible, but that none of the calls fall through the cracks.
"Even though I had used HEAT in a previous job and knew how capable it was of boosting efficiencies and providing an audit trail that would eliminate uncertainty in our management of calls, we still did an exhaustive investigation into competitor products to make sure we got the best possible solution for our particular needs.
"In the end, we chose HEAT because it was rated best among complex businesses like ours - so we had the confidence of knowing that it would handle whatever we threw at it."
What BOSASA IT threw at it right from the start was South Africa's first HEAT configuration for Microsoft Active Directory. The solution has also been SMS-enabled and integrated with Cisco IPC.
"With 500 calls a month, efficiency was our priority," Vivier says. "Integration with Microsoft and Cisco meant that as a ticket was opened in HEAT, the help-desk agent would be able to see all the caller's information as well as details, down to serial number, of the technology allocated to him or her. We would also be able to see a history of calls from that particular user.
"All of which would enable us to respond faster and more relevantly. And, as a by-product, we'd be able to see very quickly what user training needs are. That's crucial in a group like BOSASA, which is so focused on skills and other development."
BOSASA is in the process of implementing a new call centre with 120 seats that will operate 24x7. "The call centre will service government customers directly and will become our biggest single client within the BOSASA group," Vivier says. "Also, we plan to link HEAT to the software that controls all the Department of Correctional Services facilities country-wide.
"So the demands on us here in IT will increase by an order of magnitude. But HEAT stretches easily in all directions, especially on voice technologies, so I'm happy that my team of 10 will cope very well with the new requirements.
"In addition, HEAT will help us track our own skills needs, so that we never have too few skills to meet the demands on us."
FrontRange Solutions (SA) product manager for Africa, Paul Bornhutter, says in today's dynamic markets the need to do more with less is becoming progressively more acute. "You really have no choice but to hand off as much of your routine operational activity to computers as you can and apply your very expensive intellectual capital where it matters most - at the interface between your business and your customer.
"HEAT enables that at two very important levels. The first is its exceptionally high intelligence in automating common business processes, enabling you to get up and running on it quickly.
"And the other is the ability it gives you to analyse both your own and customer information so that you always have accurate vectors by which to steer any refinements or enhancements to your business - or theirs."
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