In the interests of transparency we have to admit that our upgrade to Footprints, our service desk software, didn’t go quite as smoothly as planned.

It turned out to be a fairly major transition, rather than the incremental improvements that we’re more used to, so it was a bit like going from Microsoft XP to Windows 10 in one step! We had also spent a long time customising the previous version, and not all of that customisation could be translated into the new version.

It didn’t affect any of the services we deliver to our clients, but did cause a lot of background chuntering as we ironed out some of the wrinkles that had occurred during implementation.

Still, we’re pleased to have given everyone the opportunity to laugh at us, and even more pleased that all our grumbles have now been resolved.

From our point of view the system is already making it easier for us to capture information and manage our workflows, allowing us to respond more quickly to system-level problems and share knowledge of common issues amongst all the engineers.

We have also integrated the system with LiveChat, so that any conversations you have with us on Chat are automatically fed into Footprints. It will even generate new tickets if necessary.

It will take a little longer for the benefits to clients to become obvious, but they will happen.

• The emails that let you know what we are doing to resolve a problem will become clearer.
• We are working on improving the customer portal so that you will be able to access your account at any time.
• You will be able to see the number of hours you have used over the previous month and exactly where they have gone.
• You will also be able to check how we’ve measured up to our Service Level Agreements. Later on, we will integrate it with Salesforce, the web-based CRM system, so no point of contact with you will be lost.

‘Footprints has always been a good tool to help us manage the services we are delivering,’ said Operations Director John Crozier. ‘It is flexible and adaptable, as well as being reasonably priced. The new version will help us deliver an even better service, and make everything a lot clearer to our customers too!’

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