Transformation within the Education Sector

Transformation within the Education Sector

Background

 

The overall aim of this project was to explore and understand the potential for this higher education authority to develop a new shared services framework to support services over several different locations and to support a large number of end users. 

A new Service Management tool was a critical output which could be accessed by students and employees alike to provide front-end services, alongside ITIL aligned back-office functionality to assist in delivery.

Cuts to public sector spending were driving the requirement, therefore innovative ways of improving service quality, alongside cutting costs and providing a better customer experience were key outputs which would measure the success of this project.

 

Solution

 

Initial approach included high-level analysis of key outputs from the education service including:

·         Process Maps

·         Policies and Governance

·         Staffing levels

·         Infrastructure

·         Support Contracts and Performance

·         Service Volumes

·         Ongoing/Future Projects

·         Applications

·         Quality Metrics

This enabled the development of a series of Key Result Areas which could then be aligned to the proposed future look of the organisation.

Key areas of focus included the adoption of mobile technology, needed to provide an enhanced service for mobile workers, a new governance structure which aligned closely to the differing structure of the existing teams and a new self-service portal which provided combined functionality for requests whilst utilising technology to provide automation for existing requirements.

The implementation of the BMC Service Management tool Remedyforce was integral to the success of this project, as not only did it provide the layered levels of ITIL functionality required, it provided remote access for mobile workers, configurability to easily combine multiple teams across different works-streams and advanced automation capabilities via workflows to allow for intuitive ticket handling. This coupled up with a user friendly end-portal which provided guidance and advice around common issues, to ensure that infrequent users of the tool found it easy to navigate and rectify issues.

 

Results

 

An initial list of 75 potential opportunities were identified and graded where the benefits of a shared services model could be realised. These ranged from onboarding logical teams, to complex automation requirements, or the combination of siloed teams into single functions.

From this list, 14 were picked which would provide the greatest benefits for Phase 1 and provide the foundations for potential future improvements.

These included moving IT, Facilities, HR, Finance and Procurement onto a single platform, the creation of inter-team automation of standard requests, and the creation of a new reporting structure which allowed improved overall visibility.

Take up of the knowledge base within the self-service portal has proved popular and has reduced the number of tickets by 30%. This is expected to reduce further still with the introduction of new Service Management functionalities such as ‘live chat’ which was previously unavailable.

Savings have also been forecast at approximately 40% thanks to the restructure and rearrangement of teams alongside improvements of productivity and increases in quality. 

These benefits were helped realised by an enthusiastic workforce whom were keen to adopt a slicker more efficient style of work and a proactive buy-in from Senior Management who helped provide a clear and concise picture of where they needed to be.

 

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