Tufts University Information Technology (UIT) early last month launched TechConnect, a new information technology service management (ITSM) tool that enables students, faculty and staff to check the status of their IT help requests online and to receive email notifications throughout the process.
Based completely on the Web, TechConnect is designed to make IT support more accessible to members of the Tufts community, according to UIT Client Relationship Manager and ITSM Project Manager Kara Bilotta.
"We can do a lot more of the business that an IT organization needs to do, all in one system," she said. "It allows us to be more efficient and provide better customer service."
Users can use the TechConnect Service Desk to submit either an incident or a request for IT assistance by completing a short form. An incident is defined as the report of an issue, while a request is something that the user needs to be done. The TechConnect Service Desk can be accessed with a Universal Tufts Login Name (UTLN) and password after clicking on the appropriate link at IT. Tufts.edu, Bilotta explained.
Since a UTLN is required, the system will automatically be able to recognize each user's affiliation with the university, she said.
"TechConnect will pre-populate as much information as it can for you," she said. "We don't need you to tell us who usually fixes your computer or helps you with your email account. The system can figure that out."
One of the Service Desk's integrated features is an email notification system that alerts the client when progress has been made on an issue, according to UIT Application Services Team Leader and ITSM Project Team Member Ellen Fitzpatrick.
Bilotta emphasized the self-service aspect of TechConnect, explaining that users can track their IT help requests simply by logging into the system.
"I think that knowing what's going on as their incident is processed will be desirable to students," Bilotta said.
"In the past, clients didn't have a way of knowing what the status of their request was, short of calling or physically visiting an IT office," she added. "It makes it much easier to interact with us."
Once a client has signed in, the website includes an option to view the technician's notes, she explained. Users can even add or make changes to information they initially supplied about their incident.
"It definitely allows students to see a little bit deeper into the process," said Kevin Murphy, the manager of technology support services for the Tufts University School of Medicine's Office of Information Technology (OIT) and an ITSM project team member.
For many years, IT support groups had been utilizing the BMC Remedy ITSM and Request Tracker ticketing systems to manage client requests, Bilotta remarked, but a more advanced ITSM system seemed most conducive to their needs.
"The previous systems were getting outdated," she said. "Now we've combined the IT groups that were using those two systems into using this one ITSMsystem."
Due to the wide distribution of IT groups on campus, crucial information was often lost between the two main ticketing systems, Bilotta recalled.
Fitzpatrick believes that TechConnect should prevent further lapses in communication, as all technicians are now working off of the same online platform.
"They can collaborate more easily because they're using the same terminology," she said.
The ITSM Project Team — comprised of staff members from UIT, OIT, Information Technology Services (ITS), and the Hirsh Health Sciences Library IT group — has worked since the spring of 2011 to design TechConnect through an intensive process that involved discussion and feedback, Murphy said.
He added that ServiceNow, the vendor that hosts TechConnect, was selected based on a unanimous vote.
"I'm very pleased with the way that the development process was handled," he said.
ITS Tech Services Supervisor and ITSM Project Team Member BidiakAmana stressed that TechConnect is still in its early stages. The team hopes to expand the functionality of the system by incorporating more features, such as step-by-step instructions for solving common computer issues.
"We are definitely happy with the outcome, but there's a lot more that we want to do," Amana said.
