What is our primary use case?
We use it for IT, HR, Facilities, Client, Staff payroll, and Finance.
How has it helped my organization?
We are using SysAid in information technology (IT). That was what we originally started using it to do: incident requests, changes, and problems. Then, people loved SysAid so much that other support departments, like human resources, finance, and our facilities department came to us, and said, "Could we also use the same SysAid platform for all the staffing in our agency who are looking for support since everybody likes the user interface?" Also, if they're asking for support around IT issues, they could theoretically ask for support around HR, finance, facilities, etc. Over the last three or four years, we expanded the use of SysAid so it's not just used for IT. It is used by any support department who provides support to the rest of the agency. E.g., our facilities management team loves it. The solution allows them to do analytics if they have a problem with a piece of equipment.
For the end user, they don't have to deal with going through multiple systems for support. They go to one system for support instead. The benefit for end users is that it's very convenient. They use the SysAid Self-Service Portal which allows them to pick different categories of requests for support, incidents, requests, etc. Then, we use the SysAid workflow engine, based on the categorization of the issue, to automatically route an issue to a particular user. If it is a payroll related issue, then it will go directly to the payroll team. If it is a HR related issue, it will go to HR team. If it is an IP related issue, then it will go to the IT team, and so on.
All our service management is integrated into one system. Our response time is much faster because we have a visual into what is going on.
Using the workflow engine in SysAid, we can automatically route incidents to the respective support teams. E.g., if support needs helps with escalating an issue because certain SLAs are not being met, all of that is very easy to manage. It makes the process very transparent, both for the person who is asking for support and also the person who is providing the support, because we can then see who is currently working on helping to resolve the issue and how long it takes for them to respond and resolve that issue. Therefore, it gives us a much better overall picture of governance, improving our ability to provide support to our staff.
In terms of resolution, we use a metric called First Call Resolution. E.g., if a person reached out to us for help, were we able to resolve that issue without having to go through an escalation process? Going through a Level 1 to Level 2 support on through that route, we have resolved about 85 percent of our issues within the first contact. That's a pretty good metric for us. Because 85 out of a 100 times, we are able to resolve the issue at the level that the issue was routed because not all issues are routed only to Level 1. There are some issues that could get directly routed to Level 2 depending on the category. Without having to go through multiple levels, we are able to resolve 85 percent of those incidents at the level which the ticket was generated. We manage those kinds of metrics, but those are not really put into some of the other support areas.
Metrics for response and resolution times are different depending on whether the issue is somebody from the service desk trying to help a person on the phone remotely versus our desktop team who travel sometimes to locations. Overall, our response time metrics typically depend on the priority of the issue. For example, with a Priority 1 issue, we respond in less than 15 minutes. For a Priority 4 issue, our response time could be as long as four hours. Usually between the P1 and P4 issues, the average response time for us is anywhere between 10 to 15 minutes no matter what the priority of the incentives. We are pretty quick with at least acknowledging the fact that we've received your issue. We will work on it and get back to you or resolve it and get back to you. We do pretty good in terms of responsiveness.
What is most valuable?
My team uses the change management software and Knowledge Base. They give us workflows and allow for an approval process. Within my department (IT), we use SysAid for change management. Anytime the network, server, application, or desktop team have to make any changes, we have templates in SysAid specifically for certain types of changes. E.g., if a server engineer would submit for a change, it gets approved by a first level manager, like a server lead or network lead. then it comes to me for approval. Only after I approve the change, do we actually implement the change and document the outcome of the change. Similarly for requests, if our end users are asking for net new equipment, e.g., they need a PC, laptop, or printer. Those requests also are managed in SysAid and the end user request is typically approved by a department manager who has budgeted approval. They come to IT for review and approval, then we will begin the procurement process, set up installation, configuration, etc. Therefore, we used SysAid for managing both requests and changes.
It also gives us the ability to host knowledge articles. Therefore, if a user is submitting a request for help with email, they have the ability to do one of two things:
- They can see if anybody else in the agency has submitted a similar or related issue and what happened. Then, is this something that they can kind of help themselves?
- In some cases, we actually create a one or two-page guide, where we say, "If you're trying to set up Outlook for the first time on your PC because you're a new employee, these are the steps you have to go through to set up Outlook on your PC." You don't necessarily have to contact an IT service desk to help you with that.
The user interface is easy to use. It makes it easy for users and administrators to put in different requests and get support by putting tickets in the queue.
There have been different versions of SysAid that have evolved. One of the newer things that my staff love with SysAid is their Self-Service Portal. Earlier, we only had an end user portal, which had some limitations around being able to categorize incidents differently in a better way. With the Self-Service portal, things are much clearer and simpler. For our end users, SysAid is easy to use. You don't need to do a lot of training for end users to give them access to SysAid and get them started. It gives them transparency on the process. At any time, an end user can know where a request is in the support process: Who is working on it? That is where when you look at return on investment on SysAid, I think we got a return on investment, even within our first year.
The solution’s built-in asset management is very good. We have deployed the software onto our PCs and laptops. It shows us what is going on with any app. Currently, we use SysAid to track all our end user equipment. When a user submits a request for a help based on asset management information, we know who the user is, but more importantly, where the user and the asset are located because we are an agency which has about 3,000 employees. These 3,000 employees are working out of more than 17 physical locations, and sometimes our users can work out of more than one location. Therefore, it is very important to connect the dots between an asset and a user, which is why we use the SysAid asset management system.
What needs improvement?
We would like them to approve the security functionalities, e.g., management security features. Currently, the way society is set up in our agency is that we only have two roles. There is either end user roles, where an end user can submit requests for help and incidents, then they can see the status of what is going on with them. We also have what are called system administrators. These are people who are providing the support, but there isn't any role based security. For example, if I could divvy up the security, I would like a staff role and a manager role, so a manager can look at all the different tickets that their staff has submitted and what the status is, as end users. For support people, I would like them to be able to figure out a way to separate out the support that is provided by the IT staff versus the facility staff, HR people, or finance people. Right now, we only have two roles: Either you are an end user, but then you can also be an office admin. This means the facilities people can see every ticket that is in the support queue, which is not great. This is an area where we would like much clearer, broader role based security from SysAid.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using SysAid at our agency for seven years now, so it's been awhile.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It works. The solution is very reliable and stable. We have never experienced any issues with the performance or stability.
We have never had issues with the maintenance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a very scalable solution. We have never had an issue with scalability. A good testimonial to that for us is when we originally started we had about 2,000 users. A couple of years ago, we went through a merger and added another 1,000 users. We didn't miss a beat. We didn't really have to do anything to add additional computer storage resources, specifically because it is locally hosted.
We have 3,000 end users with roughly 300 people who are using SysAid as administrators or people who provide support. Those 300 are included in the 3,000 users who utilize SysAid to ask for support via incidents or requests.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support has been very good, effective, and efficient. We have an ongoing sort of annual support and maintenance. One of the things that is not unique to just my agency is that many healthcare agencies are 24/7, and we are also 24/7. E.g., I have staff who are working at our agency 24/7. Therefore, the support is 24/7. When we have issues with SysAid, though not many, they have 24/7 support. Primary support is via online support. If we need to get a hold of somebody, then somebody will pick up the phone and have a conversation with us.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Our previous solution wasn't good for the long-term, which is why we switched to SysAid. We were previously using a homegrown Access database.
Some of the other support departments outside of IT also love SysAid. Before, our facilities department was constantly chasing paper because people were submitting Word documents in paper form, then they had to either email or fax it to the facilities department. Of course, if you sent it, the facilities guys could be like, "No, I did receive it." Now, that process is more streamlined. SysAid makes it very efficient and effective. You don't have to do finger-pointing, as everybody knows where things are. Then, because everything is electronic and all the data is available, we can now begin to do some analytics and provide dashboards to people, and say, "In the last three months, these are the number of incidents from this location."
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
Their team work very closely with us and got us up and running quickly.
What was our ROI?
We saw our investment back at the end of year one. Return on investment really needs to be around process efficiency or user experience and satisfaction. If I look at what I do and what other support departments do for the rest of our agency from a process efficiency, user experience, and satisfaction standpoint, then there is no comparable alternative. I started with an Access database and I can only begin to articulate the limitations of an Access database to provide support to almost 2000 users. When we implemented SysAid, the bar was so low that the user experience on satisfaction was sky high. It was night and day. At our agency, people love SysAid.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SysAid is a good solution, especially from a pricing perspective.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at a couple options. Previously, I have implemented BMC Remedy, so we looked at BMC Remedy. We looked at another vendor called Cherwell. A couple of years ago, we looked at ServiceNow, but we think SysAid is definitely worth the money that we spent. ServiceNow was just way too fancy and expensive for us. So, we looked at the usual vendors and decided SysAid really works for us.
ServiceNow does a lot more in terms of integration and automation. I'm sure SysAid also has some automation. I don't know how well it does in terms of integration. That is actually one of the next things we are working on with SysAid to implement: Automate Joe and some of their other automation parts. That will probably be sometime later this year as we were actually in the middle of conversations with them, then we all got sidetracked. I am hoping that before the end of this calendar year we will try to do at least some automation within SysAid.
We do other kinds of automation already in our agency, but it's mostly using PowerShell scripts or a third-party automation. So, we are not new to the concept of automation. We just haven't done it within SysAid.
What other advice do I have?
One of the things that we do in my department is a lot of training for our end users on different applications: clinical and financial applications. We use SysAid and the incident data within SysAid as a guide to think about how effective our training process is. Because if you do a good job of training, then the number of requests for support should go down. Sometimes, we do training but look for patterns with the incidents, then we figured out what we need to change with our training. Or, sometimes a particular user or group of users look like they're just not getting it, so we determine if we should do reinforced or targeted training just for them. That is over a period of time and it improves the overall user experience.
I would rate this solution as a nine (out of 10).
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises