Simplified customer service and field operations

Disparate processes lead to sub-optimal service
Flinders University has an enviable record of delivering excellence and innovation in education and research services. It aims to foster a vibrant and engaging university experience and prepare students to overcome challenges and embrace an unpredictable, exciting future.

With three campuses in metropolitan Adelaide and several satellite facilities in rural and remote areas across South Australia and the Northern Territory, the university faced challenges in handling large volumes of service requests. As processes for receiving requests, managing work across different locations, and completing on-site services were disconnected, Flinders needed an enterprise-level customer and field service solution to provide a single view of the end-to-end process and support the diverse needs of over 2,200 staff members.

Improved resource allocation with a single platform
Before ServiceNow, each department had its own tools and processes to manage a variety of requests – from admission queries to facilities issues. Requests would also come in by phone or email, and user visibility was poor unless someone responded to an email.

Exacerbating the problem was a lack of knowledge among faculty and staff members about whom to contact for maintenance issues, such as having an air conditioner repaired. Communication involved either chance meetings in corridors or emailing requests to different support teams, which often led to duplicated or wasted efforts to handle requests. Support teams were also required to manually translate information between up to five different systems, resulting in longer resolution times and poor resource management.

“We looked at other options but decided that ServiceNow was the best choice because of its capability and global reputation in the market,” says Manu Manuel, IDS Platform Lead for Service Management and Process Automation, Flinders University.

Through process automation with ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) and Customer Service Management (CSM), Flinders now has a single place to track the statuses of requests across 20 business areas. It has also eliminated the need to have multiple teams managing multiple systems, resulting in increased productivity and a more efficient use of resources.

“Since ServiceNow CSM went live, we have had 130,000 cases logged into the system over three years. Now, we can quickly and easily handle 35,000 cases a year across 129 different service types,” Manu explains.

When a request is closed, ServiceNow CSM also triggers an automated process that invites users to complete a quick survey. Respondents can simply choose a ‘smiley face’ to indicate their satisfaction level, with an option to provide additional written comments.

“From the moment a request is received to it being actioned and ultimately resolved, ServiceNow has enabled the university to deliver excellent services,” says Jayne Preece, Manager of Customer and Business Improvement for Property, Facility, and Development Division, Flinders University.

Real-time visibility in field service operations
With campuses spread across different locations, Flinders also required a system capable of supporting large volumes of facility work orders for approximately 24,000 assets.

Asset information is stored in ServiceNow’s Configuration Management Database (CMDB), accessible by both ServiceNow CSM and ServiceNow Field Service Management (FSM). This helps the university to efficiently manage a wide range of asset service requests, including contract lifecycle management and property maintenance across business areas including education, research, facilities, IT, and general services. Flinders now also uses ServiceNow FSM for all planned maintenance programs and reactive work requests received through its customer service center.

“Thanks to ServiceNow, we now have real-time visibility of our field service operations between customer service teams and technicians. This has empowered us to handle nearly 2,000 maintenance plans and 70,000 work orders since going live,” Jayne says.

Departments looking to procure a new service or buy equipment for a research project simply log a request in ServiceNow CSM. Automated workflows then initiate the procurement and legal processes, with users able to view and track key contract milestones, such as renewal and payment dates, via the ServiceNow platform instead of the previous spreadsheet-based process.

With the dynamic scheduling function in ServiceNow FSM, the campus operations team can assign the right people to the task and resolve work orders quickly and efficiently. Prior to ServiceNow, the average cycle time to complete a cleaning case was over 15 days; with ServiceNow, this has been cut by 75% to just four days. Caretaking can be closed in four days instead of 11, and bin-emptying work orders typically take 47% less time to complete.

“Many tasks require more than one tradesperson or technician. As all information pertaining to each asset and the service request is in ServiceNow, we can manage resource allocation more effectively and resolve issues faster with fewer operational interruptions,” adds Jayne.

Ensuring safety and compliance via a mobile app
When engaging external contractors to work on-site, Flinders has specific work safety policies to ensure that they are appropriately registered and insured. With numerous entry points to the university, contractors can also arrive at a campus without anyone being aware. Working with ServiceNow Partner Enable Professional Services, Flinders extended the ServiceNow mobile platform to create Toolbox, an application available on the ServiceNow store.

Toolbox focuses on occupational health and safety processes and is configured to meet Flinders’ service needs. It provides a single place to manage end-to-end facility orders safely and register over 1,700 contractors to ensure that they all meet the occupational health and safety compliance requirements. It also allows the university to maximize its ServiceNow investment in CSM and FSM.

“It was great to work with Enable as they were flexible and understood our requirements. They also brought their knowledge and experience to ensure a successful implementation,” Jayne says. “Instead of emailing and chasing up people’s insurance certificates when they expire or ensuring they have the correct certifications, we can now manage all these things in real time through the mobile app. That’s very valuable for us.”

Contractors can also use the mobile app to check in, notify the person in charge when they have arrived on-site, and carry out the required health and safety induction training.

“Our technicians love the mobile app. They can view real-time statuses for their tasks and update incident details with a few taps,” Jayne adds.

Leveraging for the future
ServiceNow solutions have transformed how Flinders University works. Employee satisfaction has vastly improved, with improved visibility and reliable data empowering staff to complete tasks quickly and on schedule. Support teams can now focus on more complex and interesting parts of their work rather than copying and pasting information between systems.

Flinders is now planning to continue leveraging its investment in ServiceNow and is actively looking at hardware and software asset management solutions.

“ServiceNow is flexible and innovative. It enables us to grow and adapt with our business, no matter which direction it takes,” Jayne concludes.

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