The James Hutton Institute , a world-leading scientific organization based in Scotland , works to resolve global challenges in food , energy , and water security .

The Institute ’ s IT team had been taking a fragmented approach to capturing requests from its 600 users . One site used a SharePoint solution , another a service automation solution . But neither solution really met the Institute ’ s service demands . “ We didn ’ t have a single place for all staff to submit their requests ,” said Ben Watt , end user computing manager at The James Hutton Institute . “ This made it hard for the end users , but also for the team of 14 working on the requests .”

Lack of full visibility was one of the team ’ s biggest challenges . “ Without visibility across the process we could not easily allocate resources and deliver an effective service ,” Watt said . “ We wanted to provide a better experience for everyone , and create a service portal that would not just be used for IT requests , but for our estates , communications , and finance departments as well .”

The Institute selected Micro Focus Service Management Automation X ( SMAX ) to provide a digital self-service experience for IT and non-IT users . Today , the SMAX-driven service desk manages about 500 IT requests and 300 non-IT requests a month . Users leverage smart virtual agents to receive automated assistance , 24x7 , along with email . A fully integrated self-service portal makes it easy for users to raise requests , check the status of existing requests , and leave comments or questions for IT .

Issue resolution is easier too . Now the IT team can see all open tickets and use knowledge articles to reduce ticket volumes . Written by IT , knowledge articles are short answers to specific questions . For more details , users can link to the complete article in the SMAX knowledge management module . “ Our views across all knowledge articles are now in the thousands , compared to the tens of views we had in the past ,” Watt said . “ In addition , SMAX Hot Topic Analytics , using advanced search and analytics capabilities to recognize request patterns , has helped us create knowledge articles or problem records to address common issues .”

After every request , SMAX sends a survey to the user . According to Watt , the SMAX survey platform has streamlined the survey process and boosted the response rate from 10 percent to an impressive 50 percent . The team also uses SMAX Hot Topic Analytics to highlight keywords in the surveys and determine if extra services or knowledge articles are needed .

With SMAX , the Institute has successfully delivered self-service for all . “ Our SMAX service portal is well liked by staff , and we regularly receive requests for other departments to be included ,” Watt said . “ Users are very comfortable doing their own research through the various channels at their disposal , which helps us focus our resources where we can add the most value .”

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