Download PDF
Cireson Platform Accelerates Service Manager Performance for Kitsap Credit Union
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries
- Finance & Insurance
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Facility Management
Use Cases
- Process Control & Optimization
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
System Center Service Manager (SCSM) was the credit union’s first professional help desk solution. Their original system was a homegrown product comprised of 4 different systems. “Service Manager proved too simplistic for us. We needed more options and features. It was also different for each department, and not straightforward. You had to know the person who would help you with your problem, before submitting a ticket,” explained Kevin Goodwin, Business Systems Analyst. Since the credit union already owned the System Center suite, it was a natural choice for them to pick Service Manager for their new help desk solution. The credit union’s IT team deployed SCSM in mid-2015, without using an outside consultant. “It was a process of trial and error. The basic functions were easy to deploy, since a lot of information is Googleable. Customization features were difficult, since there is not a lot of resources out there to figure it out,” said Kevin Goodwin. The credit union used SCSM with no add-on products for about 10 months. Their primary complaint was that SCSM was very slow. “Microsoft portal is Silverlight-based,” said Kevin Goodwin. “It always took a while to load. The HTML5 version was buggy, and didn’t work right.” The credit union’s IT group learned about Cireson through word of mouth. They decided to try the apps from Cireson to make SCSM faster, and more user-friendly.
About The Customer
Kitsap Credit Union is a financial institution headquartered in Bremerton, Washington. Serving the needs of individuals and businesses of the Kitsap county, it provides a variety of services, from loans to checking and savings accounts. Kitsap Credit Union has 12 IT professionals in its IT department. The IT workers support about 300 users in 17 locations, and manage over 400 devices. About 99% of the company’s IT infrastructure is Windows-based.
The Solution
Deployed in April 2016, the apps from Cireson have quickly made a noticeable difference for the credit union’s IT workers, as well as their end users. The deployment was quick, without any major problems. “We only had to open one ticket,” said Kevin Goodwin. “It wasn’t different from deploying any other stand-alone app.” The increase in speed was the first thing noticed by the IT workers. “It’s definitely faster,” commented Kevin Goodwin. “We like the Cireson Portal from Cireson much better than the Service Manager console. It’s nice to have it in a browser.” The credit union intends to use Service Manager and Cireson apps for more than just their IT needs. The plan is to expand the capabilities to other departments, including facilities, training, and others. The Cireson Portal from Cireson allowed the credit union’s management group to get a better understanding and overview of the entire groups’ requests. “Our Management wanted to know what was going on with their groups. It wasn’t possible with Microsoft. With Cireson, we can see the entire portal, and requests from each team.” The combination of Service Manager and Cireson benefited not only the IT group, but also the end users. “One of the biggest benefits was the centralization of help for our employees. They now have a single link to submit their requests, and the system automatically forwards it to the right person.” “Cireson’s portal visually makes sense to people,” concluded Kevin Goodwin. “Cireson’s portal visually makes sense to people. 95% of our users like it better than Microsoft’s product.”
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Real-time In-vehicle Monitoring
The telematic solution provides this vital premium-adjusting information. The solution also helps detect and deter vehicle or trailer theft – as soon as a theft occurs, monitoring personnel can alert the appropriate authorities, providing an exact location.“With more and more insurance companies and major fleet operators interested in monitoring driver behaviour on the grounds of road safety, efficient logistics and costs, the market for this type of device and associated e-business services is growing rapidly within Italy and the rest of Europe,” says Franco.“The insurance companies are especially interested in the pay-per-use and pay-as-you-drive applications while other organisations employ the technology for road user charging.”“One million vehicles in Italy currently carry such devices and forecasts indicate that the European market will increase tenfold by 2014.However, for our technology to work effectively, we needed a highly reliable wireless data network to carry the information between the vehicles and monitoring stations.”
Case Study
Safety First with Folksam
The competitiveness of the car insurance market is driving UBI growth as a means for insurance companies to differentiate their customer propositions as well as improving operational efficiency. An insurance model - usage-based insurance ("UBI") - offers possibilities for insurers to do more efficient market segmentation and accurate risk assessment and pricing. Insurers require an IoT solution for the purpose of data collection and performance analysis
Case Study
Smooth Transition to Energy Savings
The building was equipped with four end-of-life Trane water cooled chillers, located in the basement. Johnson Controls installed four York water cooled centrifugal chillers with unit mounted variable speed drives and a total installed cooling capacity of 6,8 MW. Each chiller has a capacity of 1,6 MW (variable to 1.9MW depending upon condenser water temperatures). Johnson Controls needed to design the equipment in such way that it would fit the dimensional constraints of the existing plant area and plant access route but also the specific performance requirements of the client. Morgan Stanley required the chiller plant to match the building load profile, turn down to match the low load requirement when needed and provide an improvement in the Energy Efficiency Ratio across the entire operating range. Other requirements were a reduction in the chiller noise level to improve the working environment in the plant room and a wide operating envelope coupled with intelligent controls to allow possible variation in both flow rate and temperature. The latter was needed to leverage increased capacity from a reduced number of machines during the different installation phases and allow future enhancement to a variable primary flow system.
Case Study
Automated Pallet Labeling Solution for SPR Packaging
SPR Packaging, an American supplier of packaging solutions, was in search of an automated pallet labeling solution that could meet their immediate and future needs. They aimed to equip their lines with automatic printer applicators, but also required a solution that could interface with their accounting software. The challenge was to find a system that could read a 2D code on pallets at the stretch wrapper, track the pallet, and flag any pallets with unread barcodes for inspection. The pallets could be single or double stacked, and the system needed to be able to differentiate between the two. SPR Packaging sought a system integrator with extensive experience in advanced printing and tracking solutions to provide a complete traceability system.
Case Study
Transforming insurance pricing while improving driver safety
The Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing the car insurance industry on a scale not seen since the introduction of the car itself. For decades, premiums have been calculated using proxy-based risk assessment models and historical data. Today, a growing number of innovative companies such as Quebec-based Industrielle Alliance are moving to usage-based insurance (UBI) models, driven by the advancement of telematics technologies and smart tracking devices.
Case Study
MasterCard Improves Customer Experience Through Self-Service Data Prep
Derek Madison, Leader of Business Financial Support at MasterCard, oversees the validation of transactions and cash between two systems, whether they’re MasterCard owned or not. He was charged with identifying new ways to increase efficiency and improve MasterCard processes. At the outset, the 13-person team had to manually reconcile system interfaces using reports that resided on the company’s mainframe. Their first order of business each day was to print 20-30 individual, multi-page reports. Using a ruler to keep their place within each report, they would then hand-key the relevant data, line by line, into Excel for validation. “We’re talking about a task that took 40-80 hours each week,” recalls Madison, “As a growing company with rapidly expanding product offerings, we had to find a better way to prepare this data for analysis.”
