Aiming to modernise and streamline its IT support function, Holmesglen deployed Novell Service Desk as part of a broader three-year deal covering multiple Novell technologies. The new solution provides intuitive self-service portals, enabling users to get support faster and more easily, and helping the IT team to achieve more with less effort.
Established in 1982, Holmesglen has grown to become one the largest providers of TAFE (technical and further education) in the state of Victoria. The organisation offers over 600 programmes to more than 50,000 enrolled students across four major campuses. Holmesglen’s programmes include degree and graduate certificates, apprenticeships, short courses and trade accreditation.
To prepare its IT support infrastructure for future challenges including BYOD (bring-your-own-device), Holmesglen decided to replace its existing IT service desk management solution from CA. The organisation wanted a more modern and open solution built around ITIL best practices, and the total cost of ownership for the new solution was also a very important consideration. Significant cuts in the budget provided by the state government have increased the financial pressure on Holmesglen.
To overcome this broader challenge, Holmesglen embarked on a strategy both to increase its revenues by attracting more students and to cut its administrative costs. For the IT function, this translated into a commitment to deliver annual savings of 250,000 AUD in software licensing costs—while maintaining or improving service levels.
Holmesglen is a long-term user of Novell technologies for a number of core IT services, including directory services, IT resource management and collaboration. The organisation recognised that deploying Novell Service Desk to replace its existing solution would simplify integration with its core systems and provide a stronger negotiating position for a new software licensing agreement.
“With an eye on the long-term cost of ownership, we also liked the openness of Novell Service Desk, which means that we’re not locked into a particular vendor’s technology,” said Paul Abschinski, CIO of Holmesglen.
Novell worked with Holmesglen to understand its budget constraints, and put together a three-year licensing deal that met all its requirements, including additional training for Novell and NetIQ products.
“Novell really stepped up to work with us during tight financial times, enabling us to reduce our annual cost in return for a longer commitment—which we were more than happy to make,” said Abschinski. “Our experience has convinced us that Novell technologies offer lower TCO than competing options from Microsoft, not least because we don’t have any of the integration and support issues that our peers seem to experience. With Novell, everything works well out of the box without additional license or product gotchas.”
The user-friendly web-based interface to Novell Service Desk is helping to drive adoption of the solution at Holmesglen, making it quick and easy for teaching and administrative staff to report issues and request support. At the back end, the solution is integrated with Novell ZENworks®, enabling technicians to apply fixes directly to remote machines. Novell Service Desk provides clear, easy-to-navigate information on outstanding issues, helping Holmesglen IT support staff to prioritise and track tasks.
With Novell Service Desk, the relatively small IT support team at Holmesglen is able to manage a large volume of work efficiently and effectively. The solution enables management to plan staff resources and schedules more accurately, both for incident-based work and for project work, helping Holmesglen achieve the optimal balance between cost and service levels.
“Novell Service Desk helps us to achieve more with a small team, supporting our aim of reducing IT costs while maintaining high service levels for users,” said Abschinski. “The links with Novell ZENworks are good, and the roadmap will deliver further integration down the line. We already automatically link incidents to specific IT assets and provide all the relevant configuration information to the first-line support team—accelerating resolution and improving service to our users.”
Holmesglen is using the workflow engine in Novell Service Desk to automate selected provisioning tasks—integrating with Identity Manager for authentication—and plans to extend this automation.
“We see significant untapped value in integrating and automating processes across our Novell landscape; for example, delivering new software directly to a user when they request it through Novell Service Desk,” said Abschinski. “As we look to enhance the user experience in support of our business growth strategy, our vision is to be able to automatically provision the appropriate resources for any user on any device. The openness of our Novell environment gives us confidence that we’ll be able to adapt to whatever the future may hold.”
One of the largest providers of vocational and higher education in Victoria
Industry:
Education
Location:
Australia
Products:
Results:
"Novell Service Desk was very competitively priced, fully aligned to the latest ITIL standards and offered close integration with both Novell ZENworks and Identity Manager from NetIQ."
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