Tampere Universities

Tampere university merger leveraged unifying of service management systems

Tampere University community has been using Efecte as their ITSM system since 2019. Thorough mapping of existing IT- infrastructure and processes laid a solid foundation for the project. The number of Efecte licenses has more than tripled since the merger and the system is continuously scaling up for other service functions of the organization. Tampere University community already uses Efecte as a full-scale ESM system in many core services.

logo_TUNI_eng_purple_CMYK

Founded 2019
End-users 35 000
Workstations 10 000
Efecte users 600
Tickets per year 150 000

 

The Organization: Tampere University community

The University of Tampere and Tampere University of Technology were merged in 2019 establishing the new foundation-based Tampere University that maintains close ties with Tampere University of Applied Sciences.

When preparing for the merger, Tampere University saw the changes in the organization as an opportunity to review and renew existing systems, processes, and tools.

Acquiring a unified IT service management system (ITSM) was a logical choice to start with. ITSM would allow the key support service personnel to familiarize themselves with the system and to collect user experience data. Then, they would scale up the service management solutions to meet the needs of the entire organization and serve as a full-scale Enterprise service management (ESM) system in the future.

“To have a uniform system to collect relevant data for decision making has been important. Efecte has various reporting templates and the possibility to customize them according to our needs.”

mikko mäkelä, ICT Service Manager

Tampere University

The Challenge: Many users, lots of data

Tampere University community aspired for an ITSM system that would be efficient and agile, less labor-intensive, and minimize any unnecessary downtime. Instead of a customer having to make a separate ticket for each service, the objective was to establish an end-to-end service model for optimal user experience.

The three organizations went through careful mapping of their existing IT infrastructure, service processes, and workflows as part of the tendering process. This helped to recognize the potential for streamlining the processes and to create a better customer experience for ITMS users.

It was necessary to make the groundwork well in order to avoid hiccups at the execution stage, as the time frame for the merger was relatively short.

“It was important first to get a clear view of our processes and related resources. Doing our homework well enabled us to make the call for tender and to evaluate the bids realistically”, says ICT Service Manager Mikko Mäkelä of Tampere University.

Mikko Mäkelä Tuni (3)

Mikko Mäkelä, ICT Service Manager, Tampere University

When preparing and executing the merger, Tampere University wanted to ensure that:

  • the IT Service Management (ITSM) would be uniform and functional for the whole organization,
  • the system could migrate all the key data from the preceding organizations, and
  • the IT services for students and staff would need to run without interruptions.

To meet the needs of the organization, the Tampere University community chose Efecte as the ITSM solution. “Efecte met our requirements and we were able to get the project moving quickly. During the negotiation phase, the open dialogue with Efecte helped us to further define our specifications”, concludes Mäkelä.

Resource effectiveness was also one of the drivers for change. “To have a uniform system to collect relevant data for decision making has been important”, notes Mäkelä. “Efecte has various reporting templates and the possibility to customize them according to our needs.”

The most visible push for implementing Efecte was to launch 40 000 new usernames and passwords at the start of 2019. The ICT services had prepared for the number of tickets to multiply because of this, but the numbers remained moderate. As the merger took place, the system was in operation as planned.

The Solution: Building service workflows for customers, starting with ICT services

Existing SLAs can be integrated into Efecte’s agile ITSM system. Tasks can be amended according to the availability of a person or a team, and changes tracked. Customers can view how and where their requests are being handled through the self-service portal. Automatization of the target lead times ensures efficient prioritizing of the workflows. If any anomalies occur, they appear on the dashboard and can be acted on.

“The number of customer requests bouncing to-and-from has dropped significantly since the launch of the ITSM system”, says Mikko Mäkelä.

“The necessary information related to the service request doesn’t need to be duplicated during each step, as it is already put into the system and refined in it. This makes the process smoother for both the customer and IT services.”

As a part of the ITSM, Efecte provided chat functionality to the customer interface. “For us, it was essential that a chat could be automatically converted into a service request.”

The Future: Expanding to other services

The number of Efecte licenses at Tampere University community has more than tripled since the merger. As the customers and service providers have found the best practices for service management, Efecte allows for customizing the service system accordingly for optimal performance, and for scaling it for other parts of the service functions of the organization.

Aside from ITSM, the Tampere University community uses Efecte as a full-scale ESM system in its:

  • Education and Learning
  • Facilities Management
  • Financial Services
  • Laboratory Services
  • Library
  • Research Services

Tampere University ICT services are facilitating regular meetings with the designated ITSM administrators, other Efecte heavy-users, and Efecte’s consultants. The meetings are not only to exchange information but also to challenge each other, to build even more cohesion between the different service providers. “As a new organization, we are still learning a new way of operating. Old habits die slowly, but we are very satisfied with the choice we have made”, notes Mäkelä. “We are taking measures to ensure that we keep learning.”

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