Dept. Regional Development (NI) Selects Infra (email this article)

The Department of Regional Development (DRD) in Northern Ireland has selected the Infra (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies) web-based service management software to manage its IT services. The DRD, responsible for roads, transportation, water and sewerage services, ports and airports across Northern Ireland, is using Infra for IT incident and problem logging, change, and configuration management.
 
100 DRD staff are using Infra in its initial implementation, logging calls to the central help desk from 150 department locations and satellite help desks. The calls are partitioned in the Infra database, so that each satellite help desk and division sees only their own work, while the central help desk can see the whole picture.
 
“With Infra, we have a much better picture of the number and type of calls we receive and how well we perform against our targets,” said Michael Harnett, Help Desk Manager at DRD.
 
"The improved quality of service we were able to provide after the first implementation of Infra ensured that the management team were prepared to invest further in Infra technology to bring the rest of the organization up to the same standards,” he said.
 
The DRD is additionally using Infra to run a weekly customer survey to all Roads Services staff, following up any below satisfactory ratings and negative comments. “Previously it took one person over half a day a week to manage the survey. Now that it’s automated it takes just a couple of minutes,” said Harnett.
 
Following the success of the Infra system for call logging, the department has also begun using Infra for configuration management. Infra will integrate with the Microsoft SMS database that holds the specification and location details of all PCs on the DRD network. Infra will interrogate the database and populate the configuration management database with the information, removing the need to key in all the data for over 5000 users manually - a considerable time saving.
 
"Ultimately the configuration management database will be used to manage our three year PC replacement policy. It is an easy way of identifying those PCs that are due for replacement, and of course, assessing the actual value of the assets,” said Harnett.
 
The DRD is additionally using Infra’s change management module to implement an automated work request system to request new IS services or to purchase new IT equipment.