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Pacxa Works with Island Holdings to Streamline IT Support Processes

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.

Q&A with In Line Flooring

Pacxa customer In Line Flooring, the Kalihi-based commercial floor installer and essential business, faced a daunting challenge as the realities of the pandemic set in; how to keep employees safe while remaining fully operational? Turning to Pacxa for help, In Line President, Taryn Miyamoto, learned that a suite of apps installed on employees’ phones could be a game changer. ServiceNow’s user-friendly Emergency Response Management suite gave In Line the tools they needed to handle health checks, exposure tracking, and more.

We talked to Taryn and her Office Manager, Joana Story, about their experience. See our full Q&A below.


What challenges were you facing before you started using the apps?

We are an essential business, so closing during the initial COVID shut down was not an option. Our employees and their families were concerned about their levels of exposure to COVID in the workplace, so our biggest challenge was figuring out how to create an environment that was safe for our employees. As flooring installers, we could not work from home. Because the virus spreads mainly from person to person, we needed to find a way to monitor and track who our employees were going to work with. 

What were you looking for in a solution? 

We needed a way to track if someone was or could have been exposed to COVID. Tracking needed to be done daily, so the process had to be straightforward and responses needed to be quickly accessible. We sought a solution that was simple, reliable, and offered a mobile platform. 

How did you choose the ServiceNow offering? 

We are a small business with little experience in technology. We were introduced to ServiceNow by Pacxa, who gave us the opportunity to use the platform to contact trace our employees. Pacxa makes things easy for us. If we had any questions or needed help, they were always responsive. 

How challenging was it to get employees to use the apps? 

From the start, our employees understood the purpose of the app: to help provide a safe work environment. Not everyone in our company was familiar with or comfortable using technology, so the initial set up took a little more time for some employees. The main challenge was creating the daily habit of submitting responses. (We require each employee to enter a response before work each day.) By the second week, we were at a 90% response rate. 

How much extra time do they have to spend using the apps? 

It takes less than one minute to create a response. 

How has it made a difference in your operations? 

The ServiceNow app simplifies our processes and saves us so much time. Everything is automated, so we do not have to send out notifications or input data. Information is timely and easy to access. It allows us to focus our resources on running our business instead of on COVID.

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