FrontRange`s HEAT solution keeps University of Western Cape systems running smoothly

For more than 2 500 academic and administrative users of information technology (IT) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), FrontRange Solution`s mid-market service and support solution, HEAT, ensures structured, efficient response to their calls for support. According to Roger Fester, head of the IT department, it has turned `unhappy` users into satisfied ones.

From the outset, UWC`s ICT department`s user support system was paper-based - with all the lack of efficiencies that that involved, including disorganised call-logging, no tracking or escalation capability, no snapshot of job status for managers, and no means of either instituting or enforcing service level agreements with users.

In search of greater effectiveness, the department moved to an early-generation automated system that turned out to be very complex, very resource-intensive - "we needed someone configuring and writing business rules on a daily basis," says Fester - and very expensive in terms of licensing. "Our gains were very small."

Members of the department attended a HEAT user workshop and were impressed that it could supply, out of the box, 80% of the functionality they wanted and boost productivity massively at the same time. Within a week, even with the requirement to input masses of data and UWC-specific business rules, HEAT was integrated into the university`s PABX system, being operated by two call centre agents - and proving itself in terms of greater efficiencies.

FrontRange Solutions South Africa managing director, Tracey Newman, points out that HEAT is so easy to install, customise and use because it is designed according to IT International Library (ITIL) principles. ITIL is a set of best practice guidelines for the design and implementation of network infrastructure. "It therefore stops you having to re-invent the wheel. Every function of HEAT has been considered in terms of every conceivable potential user need and every conceivable type of platform on which it might run. As a result, it automatically optimises every step the user takes to initiate and track customer support."

Even so, UWC user satisfaction lagged. Users didn`t adapt well to logging their calls electronically. They wanted a human to speak to. Then, as part of a business re-engineering initiative, a streamlined ICT department - split into business units covering procurement, IT operations, applications systems and development, network infrastructure and a service centre - was launched to users. By making it clear to users what the benefits were of an automated call-logging system linked to an interactive voice response (IVR) facility, the launch created user buy-in across the board.

HEAT, the IT department and users have never looked back.

The service centre logs, on average, 150 calls a day - going up to 300 on very busy days.

Users key in their user or university IDs, triggering a pop-up screen in HEAT. Once their fault is logged, HEAT automatically assigns it to the correct support person in the 30-strong department. Response times for given faults are built in, with HEAT escalating delayed jobs according to UWC-specific rules.

The system is linked to a screen in the service centre, where the four agents can see from red or yellow indicators what the status of any call is and intervene where necessary. The system also provides the department with a snapshot, real-time view of the number of calls taken and which of them are priority, open or closed calls. This provides realistic statistics against which SLAs can be designed and measured.

Says Fester: "HEAT has added a lot of efficiency for us. It`s mature, robust and stable, so it saves us time and money on maintenance and management of the system. And we`ve had ready and friendly support from FrontRange Solutions and their resellers on the few occasions we`ve needed it."

Newman says users grow into the advanced benefits of HEAT over time. "Initially, they focus on using the system to solve their immediate problems. Once that pain is removed, they have time to explore its very rich functionality. And, as with any other application, one has to get used to thinking in electronic terms and not just in terms of using software to do more efficiently what one did on paper. There are possibilities in information systems that just didn`t exist in the world of paper. If you want to exploit them, you have to think differently about how you want to run your business."