FCC Services

Background

FCC Services Inc. functions as the service arm of parent company, Farm Credit Council of Washington D.C., a not-for-profit organization. Members of this organization are comprised of Farm Credit System entities, a Federal Government sponsored program. Primary responsibilities of FCC Services include handling insurance needs for the 150 entities belonging to the organization, in-house training for the 27- member board of directors, and outsourcing management performance training and consulting.

Operating on a Novell platform and utilizing a SQL database, FCCS maintains nine technicians, an IT manager, and 35 employees.

The Problem

FCCS, with its limited IT staff, encounters all of the various tasks and problems universal to every organization. The IT department oversees the hands-on requirements of the work environment including setting up desktops and applications, database maintenance, and handling all aspects of the network environment. In addition to ensuring the hands-on needs, the IT staff also supports each department and employee with technology / technical support for every aspect of their technology infrastructure – from backup maintenance to email.

FCCS was relying upon a paper-ticket system of requesting, referring, and referencing questions and needs. Lolita Hayes, IT manager for FCCS, said, “The paper system we had in place was completely ineffective. We had problems of every kind from that system; tickets getting lost on my desk, starting a process of problem resolution and forgetting to follow-up, inability to solve a problem and then go back and reference it, and no way to remember the specifics of a particular problem or how it was filed.”

With this system, if someone’s problem didn’t need immediate attention, that person’s needs would go on the backburner with no way of following up and knowing where the staff was in the process of problem resolution. The inability to track, record, and expedite departmental needs was costing FCCS valuable resources. The responsibilities of the IT department were over inflated due to the inability of FCCS personnel to help themselves.

Situation after GroupLink Solution

FCCS needed a solution that could allow its IT staff to function at a higher level, and provide the personnel with the support necessary to fulfill their responsibilities. “We used to just send someone – anyone with experience in that particular area of need out to the individual’s workspace to answer any level of question they had about any type of situation,” said Hayes. “Different individuals represented different personal ‘helpdesks’ for every occasion. “The only support that proved effective was hands-on, meaning we were always going to a user’s desk to provide any assistance required.”

With the implementation of GroupLink’s HelpDesk, FCCS’ IT staff was able to transform its IT department’s ability to manage problems into a full functioning and resource-saving environment. “GroupLink provided us with a tool that allows our staff to come up with their own solutions,” said Hayes. “We literally took HelpDesk out of the box, installed it, and we were ready to go.”

The system is simple; every user has access to FCCS’ catalog of categories for any given problem or need. A user simply submits a ticket through the system and the system then automatically sends an email to the appropriate person or department. The user then gets a return ticket confirming that the request has been received and by whom. “Unlike before, now if a ticket is submitted and goes without attention we have a system that automatically issues an alarm to the people involved,” said Hayes.

“Our ability to implement immediately was an added bonus,” said Hayes. “We have several off-site personnel who will call in for support form various locations around the country; before the implementation of GroupLink’s HelpDesk we were often times unable to help them in a time-efficient manner, if we could help them at all. Now solutions are literally at our fingertips.”

Conclusion

GroupLink’s HelpDesk was able to provide for FCCS a system that eliminated clutter, minimized efforts, and maximized efficiency. “It is a nice change not having everyone running to my desk to get assistance,” said Hayes. “The ability to take so much from off my shoulders and keep it on everyone else’s is a wonderful change. It allows me to perform my duties more completely by no longer being the bottleneck for every issue under the sun.”