Gratz Bank Leverages Enterprise Service Management for Improved Workflow

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Reliable IT service management is especially critical in a banking environment. The Gratz Bank is using the TeamDynamix platform to gain the visibility they need into technical operations and build sound change management processes. They are even using it outside of IT to help with enterprise service management.

"We now have a robust help desk application available, we have more visibility and can plan for our IT needs.”  - Katie Hayes, Project Manager

Timely and reliable IT service management is critical in all fields, but especially in a banking environment. Bank IT staff must keep systems running smoothly and securely, as any downtime or breaches in security can be very costly for businesses. To meet this challenge, IT staff needs comprehensive visibility into technology operations and sound change management processes. The Gratz Bank was outsourcing its IT service to a third-party provider. However, IT leaders found that this practice didn’t give them the visibility they needed to plan effectively for meeting the bank’s current technology needs or anticipating future requirements.

“We wanted to own these processes ourselves as we matured,” says Chief Technology Officer Mark Yerger. The Gratz Bank needed an affordable, yet highly flexible and customizable solution that would help IT employees provide reliable service.  The solution they chose would have to fill the bank’s existing needs while also accommodating future growth. Yerger had used TeamDynamix previously and knew the platform worked exceptionally well in helping to manage both IT and enterprise service, as well as projects, change, and assets.  “TeamDynamix is flexible and has a very good price point,” explains Yerger; making this ideal for enterprise use.

Improved Visibility Leads to Better Change Management

The Gratz Bank is using TeamDynamix to automate and streamline workflows for delivering IT service, managing projects, and change requests, and tracking technology assets. “It’s a very configurable tool,” says Project Manager Katie Hayes. Hayes has set up forms within the TeamDynamix platform for employees to request IT service tickets, projects, or changes. These forms collect the information needed to understand the nature of a request and then route it automatically to the appropriate team members.

TeamDynamix has allowed us to take ownership of IT service management and create a foundation that we can expand on as our organization grows.

Every action taken on a request is logged into the system so that everyone who’s authorized has full visibility into the status of each request. Change control is vital for success, Yerger notes — especially in a banking environment. Introducing any change in hardware, software, or network configuration can create unforeseen problems, security holes, or outages. A well-designed change management strategy can reduce the chances of this occurring, and that’s what The Gratz Bank has created with the help of TeamDynamix. By tracking the steps involved within TeamDynamix, Yerger, and others can see how the change might affect other systems and can easily troubleshoot if any problems should arise.

Enterprise Service Management Made Easy

Although The Gratz Bank's use of TeamDynamix began with ITSM, other departments caught on very quickly and understood that the tool could be used to manage workflows throughout the organization. For instance, the accounting department saw there was an opportunity to help them create a better process around paying vendor invoices and expense reimbursements. 

Hayes was able to set up an application for the accounting department, so employees could track the status of their reimbursement and to know if vendor checks had gone out on time. This has made a positive impact on the department. Because TeamDynamix is highly flexible, The Gratz Bank can use it for a variety of applications beyond IT.

TeamDynamix has automated and simplified what can often be complex, multiple-step processes, making it easy for the IT team at The Gratz Bank to manage workflows. It has also improved their visibility into IT operations, so they can easily see how well they’re serving the needs of employees and where the most common technology-related problems are occurring.

“Because we now have a robust help desk application available, we have much more visibility and can plan for our IT needs more effectively,” Hayes says. “Without this tool, we couldn’t do that.” Concluded Yerger: “TeamDynamix has allowed us to take ownership of IT service management and create a foundation that we can expand on as our organization grows.”

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