University of Dayton Spins Up COVID-19 Contact Tracing Using TeamDynamix

Case Study: University of Dayton

When looking to find way to brings students and staff back to campus safely amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Dayton turned to TeamDynamix to track COVID-related incidents and build workflows to automate notifications for contact tracing.

The University of Dayton has been using TeamDynamix for enterprise service management for a number of years. The platform started in IT for IT Service Management (ITSM) and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) and then was expanded to nearly a dozen other departments for true Enterprise Service Management (ESM) including advancement, events management and more. 

So, when university leaders were exploring tactics to bring students and staff back to campus safely for the fall 2020 semester amid the pandemic, they realized there were many steps that would have to be followed if anyone tested positive for COVID. The committee responsible for COVID planning on campus began looking at various options for software that could manage these processes effectively. 

Senior Director IT Services Jamie Luckett told the committee that, while IT Client Services would support whatever system they chose, TeamDynamix could do everything they were looking for — without the need to invest in new software.  

“We were looking for a case management system, and case management is basically service management,” he explains. “We checked with our legal team to make sure we could track COVID-related incidents within the system, and they said yes.” 

I’ve been told by multiple people that without this system or something like it, we wouldn’t have been able to have students on our campus.

Building COVID workflows 

With a course of action charted, Luckett and his staff faced a tight turnaround to make it happen. At this point, it was already late July, and students and staff were scheduled to return to campus in early August. 

A lead systems analyst, the person responsible for managing the platform at the university, created mockups of forms that could be used to trigger various workflows the committee deemed essential. With the committee’s approval, he got to work building the forms and workflows within the system. “The platform’s no-code nature makes setup and configurable workflows a simple process”, explains Luckett who said the analyst was able to build complex the necessary workflows in under a week. 

The forms that were built included a Positive Case Disclosure Form for reporting a positive COVID test result, a Close Contact Form for contact tracers to fill out, and a Daily Check-In Form for students and staff to report their daily symptoms. 

Each form automatically triggers appropriate workflows and notifications. When someone reports a positive COVID test, for example, contact tracers are alerted so they can reach out and begin this process. If the affected person is a student, the Dean of Students is notified, and if it’s a faculty member then his or her department head and the HR department are informed. If the student lives on campus, the housing department receives a notification to begin the quarantine process. 

Several IT teams worked together to set up dashboards within TeamDynamix for tracking COVID outbreaks on campus. University leaders are using this information to target their COVID testing based on where outbreaks occur, so they can reduce the spread of the virus. 

“We’re pulling information not only from TeamDynamix but from multiple databases, such as up-to-date information from our housing system showing where students are living and what buildings need to be cleaned,” Luckett says. “Because TeamDynamix has a very good API, it’s easy to collect information from multiple sources.” 

With the help of TeamDynamix, Dayton is weathering the COVID storm

Enabling in-person instruction 

What has made all of this possible is the flexibility of the TeamDynamix platform — and because the system is easy to use and configure, Dayton has been able to make changes quickly to adapt to continually evolving circumstances. 

With the help of the platform, the University of Dayton is weathering the COVID storm by supporting in-person instruction safely and responsibly. 

Observes Luckett: “I’ve been told by multiple people that without this system or something like it, we wouldn’t have been able to have students on our campus.” 

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