IDBS, the company that provides biology and chemistry data management solutions for the life sciences industry, has invested in Hornbill's Supportworks as its IT service management solution. Using Supportworks, the Customer Support team supports customers of IDBS' flagship product, ActivityBase, at more than 200 leading discovery research companies globally, including the world's top twenty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Since the deployment of the solution, IDBS' Customer Support team has seen measurable efficiencies in both support costs and resource.

According to Adam Paton, Customer Support Manager at IDBS; "Since June 2008 we have had a 30% increase in support calls and self-service enquiries following product releases. Thanks to Supportworks we have managed to service these numbers with no increase in staff – previously we would have had to employ at least two extra full time support technicians to handle such a volume of calls."

"Since implementing Supportworks we have achieved many of our business goals," said Paton. "In addition, in just the first six months of use, the system has already paid for itself in the efficiencies that we have gained."

IDBS selected Supportworks for its functionality and the ability to create a customer SelfService portal. It credits the efficiencies gained not only down to the workflow processes within Supportworks, but also down to the self-service portal that is in place. Customers can access the site around the clock. The Customer Support team has populated the knowledgebase with frequently asked questions and information. It has over 1100 articles and documents since implementing the system, adding over 50 new items per month.

IDBS has also been able to provide support to customers of its 'off the shelf' standalone software product, as well as its enterprise solution. The Customer Support team has purchased a separate Supportworks license to create a self-service site that supports customers of the software.
"The additional software product that we offer is in a slightly different market space, and does not go through the usual sales cycle," explained Paton. "We have been looking at how we can support these customers for about three years, but not had the business case to support additional resource. Now we can draw upon the functionality within Supportworks to provide a solution."

Gerry Sweeney, CEO of Hornbill Systems commented, "With the rate of adoption of technology solutions today, IT departments are increasingly under pressure to support more customers with fixed headcount. We have designed Supportworks to assist external customer service desks to work efficiently, by automating and streamlining processes. It is a testament to the success of the solution when a service desk like that of IDBS is very quickly able to measure the efficiencies gained and reap the benefits of its investment."

-ends-

NOTES TO EDITORS

About IDBS Solutions
Founded in 1989, IDBS employs more than 150 people worldwide and is a leading drug discovery software solutions company.
IDBS' domain expertise in biology and chemistry data management delivers value to the life sciences industry. IDBS Software products provide low risk, high value management solutions for all aspects of research. It enables discovery organisations to capture, analyse, store, and share research data, making the right information available to the right person at the right time.
IDBS provides solutions for scientists at more than 200 leading discovery research companies globally including the world's top twenty large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. IDBS' flagship product, ActivityBase, is the industry-standard solution for managing high-throughput biological and chemical discovery data and is employed at research sites globally.
IDBS was the first vendor in the drug discovery data management sector to receive the International Standards Organisation's ISO 9001:2000 and TickIT certifications and is an award winner for innovation and international trade. Headquartered in Guildford, UK, IDBS has U.S. offices in California, New Jersey and Massachusetts. IDBS partners with CTC Laboratory Systems in Japan and a network of distributors to market IDBS products and services in Asia.
For more information, please contact: www.idbs.com