Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has implemented Hornbill's Supportworks ITSM Foundations service management software to provide IT service support to all council employees based at its four locations. The Council selected Hornbill's 'bite-size' ITIL solution to meet service level targets as part of its initiative to deliver service excellence and reduce overall ICT costs. The IT team expects to be able to provide a more proactive service to end users of over 200 applications and the Council network, meet agreed SLAs and make significant savings through more efficient working.

According to Laurence Cops, ICT Group Manager; "We wanted to be more service oriented in our approach to IT support, both to improve our overall performance and meet stringent targets as part of the new austerity programme that we are facing. We were impressed by Hornbill's solution and selected it over five competitive vendor offerings for its functionality and ease of use.

"Since going live with Hornbill's service management software we have already received excellent customer feedback that our service has improved. Through being more focused, we have been able to take a more proactive approach and work more efficiently, which has not only helped us to review our SLAs and meet our service excellence targets, we expect significant cost savings as a result."

Supportworks ITSM Foundations is used by the IT service desk for all change and incident requests. The team is looking to introduce asset register and problem management and plans to roll out a comprehensive support service to all 56 schools in the borough. Unique 'Human Touch' features within Supportworks enables the service desk to have a greater understanding of customers and in return provides improved perception of the quality of service delivered by the Service Desk.

Frank McIlroy, CEO of Hornbill Service Management said; "The latest Comprehensive Spending Review spelt out the top line changes that public sector organisations are going to have to make over the next few years. Southend-on-Sea Borough Council's IT team has already recognised through the delivering excellence programme how it might meet the challenges ahead. The Supportworks 'Human Touch' really helps service desks to provide a more informed, personal service to customers, while the ITIL framework automates processes and makes the IT team more efficient. It is a win-win-win situation - improved service, higher morale and cost efficiencies that are reflected on the bottom line."

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Southend-on-Sea Borough Council

Situated on the Thames estuary, Southend-on-Sea is just one hour's train ride from London. With seven miles of seafront and the longest pleasure pier in the world, it is a vibrant seaside resort which attracts over 6 million visitors per year.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council employs over 6000 staff working on behalf of over 160,000 residents and more than 4000 businesses.

For more information please visit: www.southend.gov.uk