The University of Pretoria has implemented Peregrine ServiceCentre in a project to upgrade and centralise its in-house IT functions. Local Peregrine Systems partner in collaboration with the university`s project team conducted the implementation.
As the largest residential establishment of its kind in SA, the university wanted to implement a solution that would ensure a management-oriented approach to its IT operations across all aspects of the IT support service.
The university`s deputy director of IT (division User Support), Dr Hennie Venter, says the aim was to improve service to users and re-engineer the existing help-desk processes to align them more with ITIL, the universal IT best-practice standard.
"The old help-desk system had serious deficiencies that had to be addressed," Venter says. "For one, it completely lacked any management information or functions for configuration management. We wanted to introduce a system that was broader than just a help-desk, and that could handle other IT functions efficiently and effectively. Peregrine ServiceCenter met most of our requirements straight out of the box."
The university`s help-desk supports 5 000 employees directly and 40 000 students indirectly.
"One of the factors that the university considered when deciding to implement the solution was the fact that it is an ITIL-certified solution, enabling users to consolidate and standardise on a common service management model and set of business processes," says iLAYO Software Solutions MD Inana Nkanza.
Peregrine ServiceCenter required little additional programming and customisation to fulfil the university`s needs. The initial solution was used mostly out of the box with only 15% customisation done, including the building in of business rules with scripting and format controls; e-mail and network systems integration; and migration to a relational database management system, Nkanza says.
The project was completed in less than three months. The Peregrine solution is highly scalable and offers the university a strong development path, he says.
"The impact on the helpdesk has been significant," Venter says. "With seven help-desk agents working shifts between 7am and 4.30pm each day, first-call resolution rates over the phone now stand at an average of 60%; they used to be only 20%. The call rate has also increased, which is an indication of a new found faith in the service among the user community. As user confidence in the new system grows, the calls per day steadily increase."
As part of the overall strategy to centralise many of the IT tasks, the University of Pretoria plans to implement several other Peregrine modules. Peregrine`s service level management module will help the university to align services with the business by providing a framework for establishing and monitoring service requirements.
"Services can now be closely measured against user entitlement, availability and response time for the business units supported," Nkanza says. "This has improved the relationship between the users and the support staff, and contributed to proper allocation of resources."
Using the Peregrine incident management module, all calls and incidents are managed according to ITIL recommendations.
Web-based solution Get-Services enables end users to use an additional channel to request the service they need and to monitor the progress of that request. This solution allows the university to measure customer satisfaction levels and take the necessary action to see that any issues arising are followed up and resolved.
"iLAYO has acquired strong technical knowledge and specialised skills to facilitate implementation, customisation and support," Nkanza says. "We believe that our quality of staff and continuous skills training provide us with the ability to meet all needs in the local and international market."
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