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IssueTrak helps Flood & Peterson’s IT Team provide stellar service
As one of the largest insurance brokers in Colorado, Flood & Peterson is a company that takes pride in its long-term business relationships. While it maintains a strong focus on customer care, that same level of commitment is directed toward each of its 120 employees. IT director Michelle Hoffert considers the F&P workforce an extension of the firm’s paying clients. �We really see them as our internal customers and always try to give them our best,� she says. Despite the team’s efforts, there have been challenges. Without an effective tracking tool, issues were falling through the cracks. The company tried a basic software package that ultimately fell short. �Prioritizing issues and assigning tasks was difficult,� she admits. �And we could not link tasks together. If we had a printer malfunction, we might have 10-15 tickets all related to this one printer; but with our original tool, these tickets could not be tied together. What we needed was something that was going to make our list of issues more manageable.�
Enter Wikipedia
Hoffert’s team members made a list of issues they wanted to address with a new system, and then began searching. Initially, the group struggled to locate a source for unbiased information. Then they entered the Wikipedia Web site where they found a detailed, 12- point comparison of 35 issue tracking systems. Hoffert says they went down the list, selected products that matched their requirements and began to evaluate all the options.
Task Management, Small Footprint
The first priority: to find a tool that would allow them to effectively manage and prioritize all tasks associated with an issue. �Sometimes a single issue needs several people � and several actions � to resolve it,� Hoffert says. �Our new tracking tool had to let us create sub-tasks and assign each sub-task to the same or different people.� The tool also needed to be lightweight and responsive. �Our first tracking tool was a real resource hog,� she says. �You’d click �open’ and wait forever. The new tool needed to be a really thin install, and it had to perform. We felt that web based was the way to go.�
Metrics, Flexibility and Price tip the scale in IssueTrak’s Favor
IssueTrak and two other tools made the initial cut. One of the three was quickly eliminated after Hoffert realized its tracking database could not be kept on company premises. �It seems like every online application wants to charge you $50 per user, per month to maintain your data, and you don’t even have 24×7 access. IssueTrak gave us the option of keeping our data on our network and didn’t force us into a monthly maintenance agreement. We liked the fact that IssueTrak gave us a choice.� With the tracking database, Hoffert required the ability to extract the history of issues and capture and report on key metrics such as �turnaround time� and �effort to resolve.� �As technicians, we need to be able to quantify how much time we spend on an issue and how long it takes,� says Hoffert. �IssueTrak gives us everything we need. It automatically keeps track of time and allows us to manually enter time worked. Our old tool had this feature as well, but it was like pulling teeth to generate meaningful reports.� In the end, IssueTrak met 100% of their needs and at a quarter of the cost.
Technical Support Offers Solutions, Best Practices
Having experienced poor service from her old system’s support team, Hoffert found IssueTrak’s customer care refreshingly different. �During our implementation, they helped resolve problems that were specific to quirks in our infrastructure, and they advised us on best practices. It’s nice to know there’s someone there we can talk to. They’re going to be a great resource going forward.�
IssueTrak’s Transparency helps IT Team Provide Better Service
After a successful launch, Hoffert is now enjoying the transparency that IssueTrak’s web based interface provides. She says users can track the progress of their issues online anytime, and she’s already eying IssueTrak for other departments as well. �Anyone who needs to track issues or requests can benefit from IssueTrak,� she says. �If you know how to use e-mail, you can use IssueTrak.�
Tim Johnson is the webmaster for IssueTrak, Inc.
tim.johnson@issuetrak.com
http://www.issuetrak.com
