Solving customer problems at once: IT service provider replaces several legacy systems with one.
“Due to our background and fast growth, we had a collection of more than 10 different systems to perform our core processes in the supply chain,” says Kristo Jokela, Customer Service Director at Istekki. Employees needed, for example,
four separate systems to receive service requests, create tickets, record work hours, and update equipment data. Additional systems were used for CRM, project management, procurement, warehouse management, and BI and analytics. This was the end of 2016. Two years later Istekki operates only two main systems: Efecte, the cloud-based service management system, and another integrated system for invoicing.
Kristo Jokela,
Customer Service Director,
Istekki
Besides basic ICT services, Istekki manages hospital systems and medical equipment. Therefore, those who need assistance may be users of smartphones, laptops, or even blood pressure monitors.
“Our service desk offers a single point of contact, and we aim to solve most problems at once. If further expertise is needed, it’s important that we can track the case easily,” Jokela says.
According to him, easy tracking has been possible since Efecte was implemented, and it will soon be available for customers in the form of self service, too. “End-users can follow up their service requests via our self-service portal. Also, they may be able to find a solution in the portal even without contacting us. They save time, and we do, too.”
Istekki employees save time also by taking advantage of the role-based workflow in Efecte. Each user gets to see the exact things they need in their own work. “It makes work a lot simpler and faster than before. It’s also easy to register a new employee to the system.” Jokela himself makes good use of various reports that relate to the quality and costs of customer service. “The whole supply chain has become much more transparent. It’s easier for us to anticipate and forecast our operations.”
Replacing more than 10 legacy systems by one service management system is bound to be an enormous project, no matter what. “Together with Efecte, we wanted to make the switch as smooth as possible. So, we split the project into work packages that were small enough to handle, and we maintained a steady flow of communication and workshops,” Jokela says. The system was configured and implemented for one user group at a time, in order to secure uninterrupted customer service, Istekki’s lifeline.
The system was also further developed while first users were already testing it. By the end of 2018 all employees were using Efecte. “The system is now up and running, but we want to continue development work with Efecte to ensure the longest possible life cycle for the system.”