Having a very functional user-friendly help desk solution can make a difference in ensuring efficiency and productivity. Just ask the State of Vermont’s Department of Buildings and General Services (BGS).

 

BGS provides state agency department facilities, vehicle fleet inventory management, and services, the latter including such technology-intensive functions as copying/printing, purchasing, and coordinating workers compensation and liability claims. Rare is the facet of the state’s operations that BGS does not touch or gets involved with.

 

BGS carries out its tasks with over 450 employees. They generate nearly 250 support calls each month. And since late 2005 they have been indirectly relying on Alloy Software’s Alloy Navigator to resolve their issues via the agency IT department’s help desk, which supports desktop computers, printers, web publishing, and network and e-mail account creation. 

 

Alloy Navigator is used for a variety of business processes in BGS including documentation, notification, incident and problem tracking, and change management. It also enables the department to track service agreements, maintain outside vendor contracts, and write all purchase orders. It assists the help desk team with features such as an integrated knowledge base, self-service web portal, and automated notification e-mails.

 

The solution has enabled much faster issue resolution, easier reporting that has permitted the department to recognize trends quicker and solve problems more effectively, and it has equipped the help desk to handle much larger call volume should the need arise.

 

 “Although we have not calculated specific cost savings, [the efficiencies gained] has allowed us to spend more time on other important business needs, rather than duplicating our effort,” explains Dave Fortin, Information Technology Specialist II for the State of Vermont’s Department of BGS. 

 

BGS had sought a help desk solution that would align with its business processes and which could track all technical issues related to computer systems, the network, software/hardware, and websites. After much research it selected Alloy Navigator for its ease of configuration, user-friendliness, and Alloy’s help desk.

 

 “The technology within our department was pretty stagnant and relied on simple client/server organization, rather than any kind of cutting-edge technology,” recounts Fortin. “We wanted to implement a system that would make the help desk run smoother and more effectively. We felt that the right service desk solution would improve multiple business processes within our organization.

 

“When comparing features and functionality, Alloy Navigator was by far the best choice for us,” he adds. “Alloy Software’s Technical Support Department assisted us in implementing automated workflows into the product, tailoring it to our specific needs.”

 

Setup was easy and quick: about a week spread out over a couple of hours each day; server installation took less than an hour. The inventory analyzer populated computer audit data within minutes, and synchronizing the product with active directory information took even less time. BGS also added a few fields to the web portal, several business rules, and customized e-mail templates for notifications. 

 

“All in all, there was not that much customization done to the product, but just enough to give it the look and feel that we wanted,” recounts Fortin.