Queen’s University

Queen’s University

Graduating to Smarter ITSM at One of Canada’s Leading Research Universities

More user friendly and more robust, SysAid was the obvious choice in a complex IT ecosystem that supports the educational mission of Queen’s University.

About Queen’s University

Queen’s University is a public research university in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the nation’s leading research-intensive universities, with a fully integrated network of six libraries and several outstanding museums and arts facilities. Established as Queen’s College in 1841, the institution currently has eight departments and schools. At the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, an eight-person IT team supports approximately 4,700 undergrad and graduate students, 150 staff and 125 faculty.

Putting All the Pieces Together

From workflow design to integration with Microsoft Teams, Queen’s University is streamlining IT processes and interactions thanks to SysAid. Service Automation and smart ITSM is enhancing every aspect of service delivery, with robust self-service, ticket triage, asset management, and much more. 

“From workflow design to integration with Microsoft Teams, Queen’s University is streamlining IT processes and interactions thanks to SysAid. Service Automation and smart ITSM is enhancing every aspect of service delivery, with robust self-service, ticket triage, asset management, and much more.”

Paul Hiles, Associate Director, IT The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Queen’s University

The Clear Choice 

Having outgrown their service desk technology, the IT team leadership at Queen’s University Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science looked at four leading ITSM vendors as possible alternatives. As a publicly funded institution, the university was required to provide a detailed assessment for any large procurement. 

The IT team ranked SysAid 25% higher than the competition for meeting current service management needs and providing features that support ongoing growth. 

Overall, according to Paul Hiles, Associate Director, IT, the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Queen’s University, “SysAid stands out in how it delivers all the pieces together, not only the ITIL aspects, but also their interconnections and peripherals. The product is just more friendly and more robust.” 

In addition, the SysAid implementation “went swimmingly well,” Paul noted, adding, “I’m pleased with the amount of communication and the level of organization.”

Streamlining Life in Microsoft Teams

The administrative staff and faculty at Queen’s University use Microsoft Office 365, Teams, SharePoint, and other applications for their day-to-day activities. The institution is, as Paul described it, “a Microsoft campus.”

 SysAid’s AI Service Desk fits seamlessly into that environment, providing an outstanding employee experience by making sure it’s easy for them to do their job – and that they do not get stuck waiting for help. 

How does that work? 

“eliminating the need to copy-paste requests and related information from online conversations into the ticketing system,” Paul stated. 

The AI Service Desk brings IT directly to where end users are working, reducing interruptions and dramatically simplifying in-house interactions. 

For IT support personnel, AI Service Desk offers an opportunity to deliver faster resolutions, while staying in their usual work environment, i.e., SysAid. Plus, they’re able to leverage service automation and self-resolution – meaning the admin doesn’t need to touch the ticket once the automation process is in place, and sometimes the opening of a ticket can be avoided altogether.

Helping Users Help Themselves with AI-Driven Automation 

AI Service Desk also provides rapid, automated resolution of common issues and auto-routing, streamlining workflow processes such as HR onboarding, purchasing, and student services. 

“Anything we can do to make the users able to help themselves is a great, great feature and all the more so when it also helps our IT team.” Paul said. 

One example is the automatic assignment of software licenses to students who need them to complete their assignments or coursework. When a student logs into their campus account and requests a license, they are automatically provided what they need and notified of its activation  without any manual intervention. Queen’s University is using SysAid to provide similar logistical support for services like automated authorization for certain school activities and even access to campus buildings. 

Another element of the flexible, scalable platform SysAid provides Queen’s University is the Self-Service Portal. It makes managing the rapidly growing numbers of remote service requests more efficient, with automation of routine processes, intelligent ticket prioritization, routing and tracking, as well as a growing number of self-help options. In addition, proactive email notifications keep users informed of progress toward a resolution. 

“It would not be a stretch in the slightest to say that our ability to provide remote support has had a real impact on the quality of education the university provides,”  Paul stated. 

The CMDB Is a ‘Big Deal’

With SysAid, the Queen’s University IT team met its need for an easy-to-use configuration management database (CMDB) that can handle an increasingly complex technology ecosystem.

“That’s been a big deal for us,” Paul commented. “We were excited to see the directionality work, the graphical views, and how easy it is to set up relationships and customize configuration item (CI) types.”

SysAid’s CMDB software maps out the university’s hardware, software, contracts, and services, and the connections between them, as well as serving as a repository of information about those CI types. This provides insights for maintaining control of remote and on-campus inventory, and for assessing the potential impact of any changes to configurations, relationships, or ecosystem components.

In fact, all contracts (anything that needs a renewal) for the Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science at Queen’s University are set up as CIs. As a result, they’ve achieved zero missed or delayed contract renewals. Even better, the renewal process is automated so that the contract owner is notified about renewal, and on approval, the purchase workflow is automatically initiated. “This one small facet of the CMDB,” Paul stated, “has greatly increased our confidence level with respect to our contract status. No manual checks or searching is required, freeing up my dispatcher for other tasks.” 

Multiply this out by the faculty’s current 275 contracts and the CMDB is a game changer: 

• Zero missed contract renewals since implementation 

• Zero time spent reviewing reports on deadlines = 100 hours saved per year 

• Automated ticket creation for renewal approval = 30 minutes saved per contract = 140 hours saved per year 

• Automated ticket creation on contract renewal approval = 30 minutes saved per contract = 140 hours saved per year

The Easy Way to Design ITIL Workflows

Members of the IT team at Queen’s University found SysAid’s Workflow Designer, an intuitive ITIL workflow builder, to be just what they needed. It did not require them to learn an entirely new way of doing things, it just made the process easier and more efficient with drag-and-drop functionality, end-to-end visibility, codeless customization, and time-saving automations.

The Workflow Designer’s visual workflow editor uses a graphical interface for easily creating multi-step processes, including multiple dependencies, statuses, notifications, and actions. Repetitive and routine tasks involved in such workflows can be fully automated, as well. 

The improvements in efficiency, speed, and accuracy in IT workflow design lead to increased productivity and service quality, and greater responsiveness to changing organizational needs.

Native Intelligence

The IT team is working on empowering faculty, staff and students even further by re-architecting incident categories and expanding self-help options in the SysAid Self-Service Portal. The system will display more targeted service requests and knowledge base content from the moment an end user begins entering text in the portal to describe their IT issue, providing faster, more effective support. The knowledge base articles, currently tagged for keywords and associations, are being imported into the SysAid service desk to further bring self-help under one umbrella.

The Service Desk Is Going Places

“We are looking forward to rolling SysAid out to other Faculty units,” Paul said, explaining that SysAid has already been beta tested for the marketing and communications team, which is responsible for website content, newsletters, and providing information to the students. 

There are a number of testing laboratories operated by Queen’s University that the IT team is also planning to bring into SysAid. Longer-term plans include expanding it to manage tasks for the Finance and HR departments.

As an organization, the Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science at Queen’s University is realizing the great value of a more seamless and well-supported student and staff experience. With this in mind, the Faculty has adopted a development strategy that seeks to embed more IT technology and SysAid services across the educational journey. The goal, as Paul explained, is for everyone to be working with the same service desk solution, so complex workflows can be managed in real time, with the right teams alerted, and the best outcomes for every end user.