The Challenge
Island Holdings had recently established a Shared Services department to provide services across its family of companies. The IT help desk was now tasked with servicing requests from eight different entities, and the disparate processes amongst the companies made it challenging to operate efficiently. Without a consolidated ticketing system, they had no means to effectively handle requests, automate workflows, or track real-time metrics. Then came the pandemic and the transition to remote work.
The help desk was flooded with a threefold increase in requests, further underscoring the need for modernization. In addition to everyday workloads, the help desk was suddenly responsible for supporting the setup of work-from-home equipment, collaboration tools, and supplementary infrastructure.
Island Holdings needed to streamline its processes and redefine its service levels to meet the challenge.
The Solution
Island Holdings aimed to employ a single ticketing system for the entire enterprise and gain visibility into consolidated IT metrics to properly align resources. They evaluated ticketing systems, such as Freshdesk and Zendesk, but needed to ensure their solution could be tailored to their unique needs and business goals. Pacxa, a member of the family of companies, introduced the ServiceNow software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to Island Holdings.
ServiceNow emerged as the optimal solution for the enterprise system because it could be quickly customized for Island Holdings’ unique needs and business goals while enforcing industry best practices for IT service management. The ServiceNow solution also distinguished itself as a powerful platform to expand the digital transformation of their companies beyond IT Shared Services. As a local company with a proven ServiceNow track record, Pacxa was chosen as the solution delivery partner. Island Holdings had also worked with Pacxa on previous projects, including Office 365 migrations, Teams and SharePoint deployments, Microsoft licensing, and other cloud-based SaaS offerings.
The Implementation
Pacxa provided project management, detailed requirements gathering, development, testing, and training for a successful ServiceNow delivery. The timeframe was impressive despite resource challenges due to competing pandemic-related priorities. The first meeting with Pacxa was in March of 2020, and the solution was smoothly rolled out by September.
Although the solution would provide the enterprise system, eventually renamed “Laulima,” the tools to work effectively, it would also bring significant changes to the help desk team and the 730 end users, including staff members and other associates. Organizational change management (OCM) components were integrated to allow for optimum user adoption. Pacxa’s OCM team assembled a series of communications, including emails, videos, and live demonstrations, to disseminate all the information needed to raise awareness and ensure readiness across the organization. Although ServiceNow requires very little training due to its user-friendly interface, the team also developed e-learning training resources for users to independently access self-paced learning tools. Throughout all stages of the implementation, users were updated on what was happening and what they could expect. From day one, users were able to download the mobile app and use it to report an issue from wherever they worked.
The Upshot
“ServiceNow has given us visibility into the technical challenges faced by each of our companies,” said Grant Gurtiza, AVP, IT Shared Services, Island Holdings. “This solution has given us justification to acquire more resources and provide better customer support to the family of Island Holding companies.”
Now, employees can report issues quickly and easily track the progress of their tickets. Also, the help desk team is fully equipped to service incoming tickets and communicate with users within the service portal via chat. Common issues, such as software installations and password resets, take less time to resolve. The team has improved its level of support and leadership can actively gauge their efforts.
By implementing ServiceNow, Island Holdings established Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standards and best practices. ITIL is a set of detailed practices for IT service management that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of businesses. In addition, the solution adheres to Island Holdings’ cloud strategy, helps to streamline IT services for employee onboarding, and provides an enhanced user experience through the self-service portal.
“Pacxa has been an instrumental partner for us,” said Jeff Fabry, CIO, Island Holdings. “Their team helped us take a critical look at our existing platforms, establish a growth mindset, implement our first enterprise-wide application, and lay the groundwork for future innovation. We are already in discussions with the team about additional upcoming projects to expand our ServiceNow capabilities beyond IT services.”
Final Takeaways
Island Holdings has realized a series of benefits with the new Shared Services system in place. Because of the restructured ticketing process, issues are handled more quickly and efficiently, allowing users to get back to business with minimal interruptions. The IT team is better able to track and manage resources, and the global perspective allows them to proactively respond to common issues that crop up before they become problems. Users across the Island Holdings family of companies have an easy way to submit, respond to, and view their requests. Overall, Island Holdings is better equipped to adapt its workflow processes and improve productivity as the service and support demands of the organization continue to evolve.
