Flexible ITSM software lets you quickly and easily build workflow.
A move to self-service with improved ticket triage and workflow.
Go beyond IT for true enterprise service management for HR, Facilities and more.
Industry: Hospitality
End-users: 1,100
Previous System: ServicePro
Customer service is the cornerstone of the hospitality industry. Providing exceptional service by attending to guests’ needs in a timely manner is essential to building relationships, earning loyalty and generating repeat business. Behind the scenes, it’s the IT support staff who are responsible for serving the needs of hotel employees. If IT staff don’t do their jobs well, then employees can’t service guests effectively. Shaner Hotel Group, a hotel management firm that oversees more than 60 properties across 15 states and four countries, achieves its success using a flexible ITSM platform from TeamDynamix.
“With limited help desk employees, we wanted to reduce calls requesting support. We’re trying to push everybody online instead,” explains Steve Shala, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Shaner Hotel Group.
Prior to TeamDynamix, the hospitality business was using another help desk platform to manage IT services for employees. However, the program was “the most painful, complicated software I’ve ever used in my life,” says Vice President and Chief Information Officer Steve Shala.
With the prior solution, “we needed a dedicated programmer to make changes to our workflows,” Shala explains. Even creating IT support tickets wasn’t an easy process. Shala realized it was time to find a better system.
Shaner Hotel group now uses TeamDynamix to manage IT service for its 1,100 employees—and both employees and IT staff alike have noticed a huge difference.
Shala had used TeamDynamix at a prior job. “I loved it,” he says. So when the opportunity presented itself to bring TeamDynamix to Shaner Hotel Group, Shala jumped at the chance.
The team can easily configure the system or make changes without coding.
Self-service adoption is allowing the IT team to address the most critical issues faster.
A flexible ITSM software platform allows the team to quickly deploy workflow and expand usage to enterprise groups such as HR and Facilities.
Using TeamDynamix for ITSM has saved help desk staff considerable time and led to better IT service for Shaner Hotel Group employees. Here are some of the many ways IT staff and employees alike have benefited:
Self-Service Made Easy
TeamDynamix simplifies the intake process for IT support tickets with the use of a convenient self-service portal. Because it’s web-based, employees can initiate service requests from their phone or another mobile device. That’s an important benefit for an organization where many employees aren’t sitting at a desk all day. “With limited help desk employees, we’re trying to cut down on the number of phone calls we get requesting support,” Shala says. “We’re trying to push everybody online instead.”
When service requests come in through the online portal, they’re routed automatically to the appropriate team member for a response. Because help desk staff are answering fewer phone calls, they can respond to service requests faster and more effectively as they use the portal.
Efficiency through Automation
TeamDynamix allows organizations to set up automated workflows for handling critical tasks. This moves processes along more efficiently and ensures that nothing falls through the cracks, which is especially helpful for managing multistep processes.
For instance, fulfilling requests for new user accounts can be complicated, because it involves getting input and approvals from many people. New employees need access to many different systems depending on their role with the company, such as networked security cameras or purchasing software.
To accomplish this, IT staff must work with multiple departments to get the approvals. The customizable workflows within TeamDynamix automatically trigger messages to the appropriate people asking for their approval at each step in the process, so there are no delays and no steps are overlooked. “Workflows might be the platform’s nicest feature,” Shala says.
No Code Workflow Building
Not only can organizations create and manage fully customizable workflows within TeamDynamix, but this process is so simple that any authorized staff member can make changes without needing specialized programming knowledge. This feature allows Shaner Hotel Group’s IT department to be more agile and responsive to users’ needs.
End-user Visibility
With TeamDynamix, managers and employees have full visibility into the status of support tickets and service requests that pertain to them. This openness has improved communication between IT staff and other company employees.
Extensive Reporting
TeamDynamix includes extensive reporting features that improve accountability. One feature that Shala appreciates is the ability to keep track of how much time IT staff spend on various service tasks. At Shaner, this time is billed separately to each property. Shala used to spend at least 30 minutes each month compiling this information by hand. Now, he simply clicks on a button—and it’s all done for him instantly.
TeamDynamix can be used to manage any type of service request, not just IT. Shaner Hotel Group has plans to use the platform to streamline workflows and manage tasks within its contracts and licensing, construction, human resources and procurement departments as well.
As for IT, Shala expects to use TeamDynamix to manage more extensive projects as well as service requests, such as upgrading the TV and Wi-Fi service in various hotel properties.
“With more employees working remotely, it’s much easier to have automated digital workflows for the management and fulfillment of projects and service requests,” he says—and TeamDynamix makes it easy to establish these.
