Festival Foods Discusses Key Factors to Consider When Evaluating ITSM Software

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

"It’s drag and drop, and it’s completely customizable. There’s not a lot of work we have to do to maintain it. It just works."

There are many IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms available, and the right fit for one organization might be quite different from that of another. But a key factor for IT leaders to consider, says Alex Turek of the grocery chain Festival Foods, is how much time and effort it takes to operate the platform – ITSM administrative drain can really hamper a company’s success.

“I’ve used a couple of tools now,” Turek says, “and I’ve found that the biggest question is: How many IT resources do you need to maintain them? There are fantastic platforms out there for IT Service Management, but you might need two full-time head counts just to keep them up and running.”

In contrast, what stood out to Turek about TeamDynamix was how easy it is to use and maintain. The platform’s “low-code, no-code” design makes configuration and operation a breeze.  Creating custom forms, fields, workflows and portals is easy and does not require any coding and scripting – making the platform very easy to administer and easy to deploy to other groups such as HR and Facilities.

“This tool can run itself,” he notes. “I’m impressed with the lack of coding knowledge and IT terminology you need to know to set it up. It’s drag and drop, and it’s completely customizable. There’s not a lot of work we have to do to maintain it. It just works.”

Festival Foods’ previous IT Service Management platform required deep technical expertise to make any changes. This was becoming an issue because it was draining the IT Service Desk employees and taking up too much time.

“Our developers were very booked and didn’t have time to maintain it, so this fell to the service desk,” Turek says. “I’m not a developer, so trying to make changes and configurations was hard. Our end-users were very dissatisfied in trying to use the tool. They didn’t like submitting tickets. And our IT team was not very satisfied with what they could get out of it, either. We did some research, and the TeamDynamix all-in-one tool was very appealing to us.”

At Festival Foods they operate about 40 grocery stores, and the IT team supports 9,000 employees with an IT staff of 40, including a seven-member service desk.

Rapid Time to Value

“I led the implementation of the IT Service Management software,” Turek says. “It was honestly fantastic. We had a consultant from TeamDynamix, who helped give us a deeper knowledge (of the platform). In turning on features and setting them up, the actual process itself was very easy. And even the TeamDynamix knowledge base was comprehensive. I’ve never seen another vendor that has such an extensive, easily accessible knowledge base. It was a smooth implementation. We were always ahead of deadlines, and there were no hiccups in the launch.”

Less than a year into using TeamDynamix, the company has already seen dramatic improvements for end-users and IT staff alike.

From a user perspective, it’s now much easier to submit tickets using the self-service portal. “We went from having over 160 different service offerings to about 45 with TeamDynamix, under nine different categories,” Turek says. “We had a TeamDynamix service consultant help us whittle down our service offerings. The portal is now very easy to navigate. And the forms themselves are intuitive, simple and dynamic. So, end-user feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”

"I’ve never seen another vendor that has such an extensive, easily accessible knowledge base. It was a smooth implementation. We were always ahead of deadlines, and there were no hiccups in the launch."

Viewing all Tickets and Projects Together

On the back end, the experience for IT technicians is much better as well. “Before, they couldn’t customize what their desktop looked like,” he says. “They couldn’t get their own reporting or metrics. Now, the technicians make their own dashboards showing what they need to see. They can run their own reports. Metrics and key performance indicators are very easily set up, and these go to our leadership team automatically so leaders can see what we’re working on and what our pain points are.”

Aside from the simplicity of using TeamDynamix, another feature that appealed to Turek and his team was the ability to have IT Service Management and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) within the same platform.

“Before, we had no project governance process,” he explains. “It was very ad-hoc. Whoever could scream the loudest got the most IT resources. Finding a tool that also included PPM was huge.”

Managing projects and IT services within the same platform has brought significant benefits, leading to improved efficiency and accountability.

“Technicians can see their project work and their IT work in one space,” Turek says. “This means it’s easier to communicate and ensure follow-through. Project managers can assign tasks to my service desk team within the same dashboard they’re using to resolve tickets. Those pop right up, helping them be aware of all their tasks and priorities so they can easily meet their deadlines.”

Up Next: Enterprise Automation

The next step for Turek and his team is to leverage the integrated Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) capabilities within TeamDynamix to automate their most repetitive processes.

“We’re looking to automate tasks such as password resets, user account deactivation, user onboarding and other tasks we do often, so we can reduce the daily workload on our team,” Turek says.

He concludes: “TeamDynamix checks all of our boxes.”