Digitizing the education experience
Tecnológico de Monterrey (TEC) has led the development of higher education in Mexico since its foundation in 1943. With 26 campuses around the country, TEC de Monterrey is viewed as a pillar of community and economic progress.
However, educational development refuses to stand still. Reputation counts for only so much. Increasingly, education providers are being judged on new, digital capabilities. Digital promises to transform the reach of education and streamline the processes for education providers.
For TEC de Monterrey, the starting point for its digital transformation was to reimagine how its internal services were delivered. Each campus had its own tools and systems; there was no consistency around usage and monitoring processes. Tickets were submitted based on the type of service requested. If it wasn’t the correct platform for that service, a user would have to open a new ticket on another platform, which made it difficult to measure and monitor users’ requests over time.
Transforming service process and outcomes
ServiceNow Customer Service Management and ServiceNow IT Service Management establish a consistent approach to services. Within three months, the adoption consolidated 95% of operations from the university’s legacy platforms, standardizing processes and providing a unified user experience.
The implementation was designed, planned, and delivered alongside ServiceNow. Saúl Zermeño, Manager of Service Automation at TEC de Monterrey, says the engagement ensured the process was smooth, efficient, and transparent. “ServiceNow’s support throughout has been great. If there is a problem, I know help is only a phone call away.”
Thanks to ServiceNow Impact, a first-of-its-kind value acceleration solution, TEC was able to design a roadmap that allowed it to leverage the capabilities of the ServiceNow solution faster, as well as provide different paths for training and team development during implementation. One of the biggest benefits was having ServiceNow experts on hand to assist, with the capability to escalate issues immediately if needed. This support boosted the team’s motivation which was fundamental to increasing productivity. The project was viewed as an opportunity to reevaluate all internal processes, and to upskill or reskill service teams. The buy-in of senior management was crucial in gaining momentum across the 26 campuses.
Finding fresh insight in live reporting
Key to the adoption of the ServiceNow platform is the service portal as well as the workspace. Immediately, the look and feel of the new portal reinforces the idea that workflows and processes are unified and streamlined.
Thanks to the integrations with SAP and Banner, which improve incident resolution times, service agents can now more easily access information relating to each ticket without having to search other platforms. TEC reports user satisfaction rates of 87% with the new portal and 88% of tickets resolved after initial contact with the service desk.
Likewise, it is now possible to track the entire user journey. Both the IT service desk and end users know the status of individual requests, 24/7. The availability of the service portal means there is no need to contact an agent or raise another ticket to chase a status update.
More effective planning to reduce resolution times
From a situation where there were multiple tools and different approaches, TEC now has a consistent position on its service status. The reporting function within ServiceNow CSM and ServiceNow ITSM enables TEC to measure each stage of the request process, creating a clearer picture of requests. It also allows agents to create their own lists, make their own dashboards, monitor their requests, and view their backlog in real time, avoiding process delays; all of which would have depended on a third party previously.
From a resource allocation perspective, this function is particularly valuable given the department typically handles 110,000 service requests per month.
As a result of more effective planning, the operations department has decreased response times and request escalations. Currently, 20% of the total tickets received are resolved at level 0, while those previously categorized as level 3 or 2 are resolved at lower levels. The categorization is now more dynamic than the previous manual process and allows service teams to assign the same workflows to different categories or campuses.
The efficiency benefits of ServiceNow CSM and ITSM extend beyond IT to the university’s administrative staff. Users can now get immediate support with password resets, solving their platform access issues and detecting computer failures. The digitalization process allowed the administrative team to improve their service capacity by monitoring the service journey and automating some manual tasks.
“There were people who had been managing certain processes for a long time. It wasn’t until we showed them the capabilities of the ServiceNow platform that they realized it was possible to modify them. With ServiceNow, we can provide capabilities that add value to their work,” says Saúl. “This has led to more automation, fewer manual processes, and a culture shift in terms of appetite for process improvement. The result is that service teams have more time to focus on more meaningful tasks that add value to customers.”
Enhancing the student experience
The successful consolidation on the ServiceNow platform has generated the desired momentum for TEC’s wider digital transformation. Saúl says the engagement has served to inspire new conversations across the organization focusing new efforts on empowering users, giving them more autonomy and improving their experience. The power of the tool has also triggered the exploration of other solutions such as IT Operations Management and IT Asset Management, which will allow the university to have a robust service in the same ecosystem.
“ServiceNow has become TEC’s platform for digital transformation. People come to us and ask to be part of this evolution. We are consolidating ServiceNow as the institutional tool,” says Saúl.
“In the future, we want all students to be able to interact with the platform, at any time. We want to have each step documented and use the Artificial Intelligence capabilities of the platform to study their interests and gather valuable information that can enhance their overall experience. We can be more proactive in our student support.”