Supportworks will be used by up to 180 staff in Customer Service Operations, Business Systems Operations and Engineering Service Operations to support 30,000 local authority staff across Suffolk.

Initially Supportworks will be used in the Information Communications and Technology environment, and will support Libraries and Heritage, Environment and Transport, Social Care, Public Protection, Education and Councillors. The system will be used by teams based primarily in Ipswich with smaller satellite teams located at the offices of Mid Suffolk District Council in Needham Market. Incidents to be managed are expected to range from simple password resets to the more complex events associated with network and server infrastructure.

Hornbill’s Supportworks was selected by CSD from a shortlist of four systems for its ITIL framework compliance, its speed of implementation and for its end-user look and feel, which is similar to MS Outlook and XP.

Malcolm Wood, BT Project Manager at CSD commented, “The fundamental drivers of the CSD partnership are the commitment to deliver high quality services by effecting a substantial transformational change through investment and business process re-engineering, whilst delivering significant service benefits. We were impressed with the offering from Hornbill and the fact that it was PinkVERIFY™ certificated meant that it complies with the ITIL framework. Price was a factor in our decision making but it wasn’t the deciding factor, Supportworks represents good value for money.”

Mr Wood continued, “We intend to run a two stage launch of the new service. The first will be internally, which will allow the operations staff to familiarise themselves with the new system. Then we will make a more public introduction. Being a local government body it is essential to launch the new service successfully. The help and support we have received from the staff at Hornbill and the feature-rich Supportworks platform will enable us to do just that.”

Gerry Sweeney, Managing Director of Hornbill Systems commented, “Hornbill has put considerable resource into developing a platform that meets the ITIL framework. Again and again we see that this is what the industry is demanding and we are delighted to be able to meet that demand. Our commitment to ITIL best practice is paying dividends, particularly in the public sector where Hornbill is beginning to gain significant market share.”