Deakin University becomes a leader in digital transformation

Deakin University supports the success of students through an integrated, borderless Student Service Network. Using ServiceNow, the Student Service Network meets that challenge despite a 20% increase in the student population.

Creating digital workflows

With over 40 years of experience as one of Australia’s leading tertiary education providers, Deakin University has won numerous awards and teaches over 60,000 students each year. 

In the past, the university’s customer service managed one email mailbox for all general enquiries. There was no connection between several channels to see what information a student had been provided with. 

Once an enquiry was transferred to a faculty or a school, customer service had no way of knowing if it was being responded to or what the outcome was. 

Deakin first deployed the ServiceNow platform using IT Service Management to manage the IT help desk across its organization. It then decided to deploy ServiceNow Customer Service Management and Knowledge Management and created its Student Service Network (SSN).

An ambitious vision

“Our vision was to create a clearly identified entry point for all student enquiries,” recalls Rebecca Bone, General Manager of the Student Service Network.

The SSN team scheduled a 12-week period to complete the aligning of 165 processes that were potentially being done in four different ways for each faculty. This was to be followed by the transfer of 21 mailboxes and 14 phone lines to the new central team, before implementing the ServiceNow solution.

Complementing this process was a knowledge management ecosystem encouraging and enabling self-service for both staff and students.

Knowledge is the enabler 

All enquiries flow into Customer Service Management where a case record is automatically created. Within the case record, staff can access knowledge articles and different types of templates.

“This is where ServiceNow dashboards play a really important role.” says Rebecca. “Imagine during peak periods trying to manage 6,000 enquiries a day. The dashboards are particularly helpful, allowing our staff to prioritize what’s relevant to them at that point in time.”

Then along came COVID-19

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, 65 students due to take their exams locally in China were impacted as the five local venues closed. Another 1,400 students could not return to Australia as travel restrictions were put in place. They were prioritized and their enquiry sent straight to the Escalation Management team for a quick response.

Improving CSM with ServiceNow has led to a 33% increase in staff satisfaction ratings over 12 months.

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