Press Release: St Helens first to hit new standard with EMC Infra Service Desk
News7th July , 2008
EMC Infra process automation and reporting delivers ISO compliance
‘4 Star’ rated St Helen’s Council has selected EMC Infra Service Management software for its ITIL Service Desk implementation. The system enables Service Desk analysts to proactively manage the Incident, Problem Known Error lifecyle and provides 24 x 7 self-service via the system’s integrated Customer Portal. Customised reporting makes it easy to monitor performance with 98.5% of all Incidents now resolved within SLA. With EMC Infra underpinning its service delivery, St Helens has also become the first UK Council to achieve certification for the ISO/IEC 20000, the IT Service Management gold standard.
According to ICT Business Manager at St Helens, Ste Sharples, “The EMC Infra Service Desk is specifically designed to automate key Service Management processes, allowing us to focus less on how to implement ITIL principles and more on developing a closer relationship with the business.
“St Helens is the first authority in the UK to be awarded certification against the ISO/IEC 20000 standard. That we were able to achieve compliance without difficulty – in fact we were 80% compliant already – is due to the team’s on-going commitment to best practice and the support provided by the EMC Infra Service Desk.”
Supported by the EMC Infra knowledge base, the first line resolution rate has increased to 6 out of 10 calls, with analysts using the bulletin board to proactively advise users of known errors and planned outages. Introducing the integrated customer portal has also provided out-of-hours support for up to 3,000 users without increasing Service Desk costs.
The EMC federated CMDB allows easy integration with the Council’s existing systems, such as Active Directory and Zenworks, the latter providing much greater visibility of the Council’s IT real-estate. The transparency afforded by the system enables managers to undertake cost benefit analysis to establish budget priorities.
St Helens have also been able to address Availability and Capacity management issues, and formalise Change and Release practices. The IT department is planning to integrate Change Management processes fully into the EMC Infra system as part of its on-going commitment to continuous improvement and its forthcoming adoption of ITIL V. 3.
About St Helens Council
Rated a top performer by the independent Audit Commission, the body that ensures sound financial management and best use of public resources, St Helens Council is committed to providing both quality and value-for-money in local services. Serving 180,000 residents and catering for more than 7 million visitors to the Borough annually, the ‘4 Star’ rated Council pursues a policy of rigorous performance measurement and continuous improvement. For more information see www.sthelens.gov.uk.
About EMC
EMC Infra provides a 100 percent Web solution that automates IT Service Management processes throughout the enterprise. The award-winning ITSM software with integrated customer portal supports industry best practice methodology such as ITIL and KCS (Knowledge-Centered Support) and delivers the best upfront and ongoing value for comparative depth of functionality. See www.infra.co.uk
EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world’s leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC’s products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.
Contacts
David Percy
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EMC Corporation
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Janet Willis
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