British Red Cross Supports Office-based and Mobile Staff with Hornbill's Supportworks ITSM

May 19th, 2009 -- Volunteer-led organisation invests in IT service management software to support IT users including mobile workers using BlackBerrys <br>

British Red Cross has recently selected Hornbill's Supportworks ITSM to service requests from over 3000 office-, home-based, and mobile technology users. Supportworks ITSM is used by the service desk to log and track IT calls, which are resolved immediately or passed onto the technical and network services teams. British Red Cross selected Hornbill's solution for its ease of use and the functionality available out of the box. Supportworks ITSM is the flagship application in the organisation's adoption of key processes using the ITIL framework.

According to Darren Barrett, Service Desk Team Leader at British Red Cross: "We evaluated several systems and Hornbill best met our requirements. We liked the out-of-the-box functionality that Hornbill's Supportworks ITSM offers, as well as its ease of use. Supportworks ITSM required only minimal configuration to be up and running as we wanted it, even with the interface to the Blackberrys that our IT team uses out in the field."

"We liked the way that Hornbill listens to customer requirements and takes suggestions forward – for instance, the BlackBerry interface meant that we were quickly up and running with a support solution for our mobile workers. Supportworks ITSM has made IT's communication with customers much quicker and more efficient – we are able to keep them updated on progress wherever they are, however they work."

British Red Cross has IT service analysts based in a variety of locations across the UK - in Scotland, Wales and England, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland. Incidents and relevant system details are logged in Supportworks with details sent directly to each analyst's Blackberry. Immediate access to information specific to the caller enables issues to be fixed quickly. The IT department also plans to introduce web-based Customer SelfService, to enable users to log and track calls themselves as well as look up known problems and solutions.

Gerry Sweeney, CEO of Hornbill Systems commented: "British Red Cross supports a wide range of users across diverse geographical areas and it is important that the IT team is able to provide an effective service. Supportworks ITSM enables them to respond to users efficiently, making sure that they can track issues and resolve them. Managing the call effectively from first point of contact to resolution ensures that problems are fixed with minimum disruption."
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NOTES TO EDITORS

About British Red Cross
British Red Cross is a volunteer led humanitarian organisation that helps people in crisis. It works as part of a global network of Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies.

It enables vulnerable people at home and overseas to prepare for and respond to emergencies in their own communities. And when the crisis is over, it helps people recover and move on with their lives. The organisation’s work in the UK focuses on four areas: emergency response, first aid training, health and social care and refugees and other vulnerable migrants.
For more information, please visit:
www.redcross.org.uk

About Hornbill

Hornbill develops and markets Supportworks: platform technology and applications for IT Service Management and business helpdesks. Hornbill's software enables its customers to provide excellent service and support, while benefiting from the economies of service desk consolidation on a single technology platform. Supportworks’ service desk software is designed for rapid deployment within any IT or business support environment, including ITIL-compatible IT Service Management (ITSM), IT Helpdesk, Customer Service & Support, Human Resources and Facilities Management with the flexibility to build additional service desks at minimal extra cost.
Hornbill's service desk and help desk software supports thousands of commercial and governmental sites worldwide. Hornbill was founded in 1995 and has offices in London and Dallas. Hornbill has earned many industry accolades including; Service Desk Institute "IT Service and Support Technology Supplier of the Year", "Best Business use of Support Technology" with Sharp Electronics and "Support Excellence Award for Smaller Helpdesks" with Camelot.
High profile service desk customers include Atos Origin (Olympic Games Athens 2004, Torino 2006, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010), Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Plymouth City Council, Greggs, London School of Economics, Natural History Museum, Knight Frank, Comet, The National Archives, and Camelot.
For more information about Hornbill's solutions please visit www.hornbill.com

Public Relations Contacts

Hornbill Service Management Limited
Ann James
T. +44 208 582 8223
E. ann.james@hornbill.com
PR Artistry
Andreina West
T. +44 1491 639500
E. andreina@pra-ltd.co.uk