Progressive Building Society, one of the "Top 20" building societies in the United Kingdom, has recently selected Hornbill's Supportworks Essentials help desk management software to support over 150 users across the organisation. The IT team uses Supportworks Essentials to log and track all calls and queries from users located in eleven branches throughout Northern Ireland. Progressive selected Hornbill's solution for its functionality and straightforward pricing model, having evaluated other competitive products. Since implementing the system, the IT Team claims improved, efficient working practices and a better service to end users.

According to Julian Cigognini, IT Support Analyst at Progressive Building Society; "Our existing system had only very basic functionality, so we knew when we started to evaluate other products what we required. We looked at several options, but Hornbill's Supportworks Essentials matched our requirements for functionality, scalability and an easy to use interface. We have several large projects coming online in the future and know that Hornbill's solution will be scalable to enable us to integrate these."

"The other systems were modular based – and so also was the pricing. What we liked about Hornbill's solution was that it was a complete system at one price, with no complex add-ons and extra licensing issues," he added.

The IT team comprises eight people in total - four dedicated to front line support and four to second line. All of the team use Hornbill's system to log calls, with the built in notification and escalation features enabling all logged calls to be tracked effectively.

The integration with Hornbill's Assetworks was also a key factor in the final decision. The company wanted to use an asset discovery tool to complement existing auditing software and enhance its capacity to collect and report on both hardware and licensing information. Future projects include the potential for other departments within the organisation – Mortgage and Investment sections – also using the system to provide a common help desk platform for their business functions.

Since implementing the system, the team has made customisations, tailoring some of the screens to improve the display of data, making it easier and faster to view. Workflows have also been tweaked to support their working practices.

Gerry Sweeney, CEO of Hornbill Systems commented, "Both the IT and Financial Services are dynamic industries. A service desk system must provide the functionality that supports the business needs today, while being able to be easily integrated with new systems as they are required. We have designed Supportworks Essentials to be quickly adopted to provide the features for an operational help desk today, yet scalable to meet future needs."

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NOTES TO EDITORS
About Progressive Building Society
Progressive Building Society is an integral part of the life of Northern Ireland despite its humble origins. Born out of the merger of 5 tiny societies it first opened its doors under the "Progressive" name in 1914.

Today the organisation has grown to become one of the "Top 20" building societies in the United Kingdom with assets nearing £1.5 billion. Progressive continues to build its reputation for the finest quality of service mainly by word of mouth through the recommendations of its Members. Progressive remains dedicated to its aim of sharing profit by the application of beneficial interest rates that reward its Members for their loyalty and association. The company has over 150 staff, 11 branches and around 60 agencies throughout Northern Ireland.

For more information, please visit: www.theprogressive.com