About Aneurin Bevan ICT Service
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board is a large Health Board covering the former county of Gwent in South Wales. The Service Desk is the single point of contact for all IT related issues and is a small team of dedicated Engineers and Analysts that strive to resolve most issues at first point of contact.
The Aneurin Bevan ICT Service Desk joined SDI’s Service Desk Certification (SDC) programme in May 2021. SDC is the only ITSM industry standard- based accreditation programme designed specifically to measure service quality.
Investing in Digital Transformation
As an organisation Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) has invested in Digital Transformation in order to deliver a better standard of patient care in the most appropriate settings.
“ICT is a major enabler for this transformation and we wanted to ensure that we had a Service Desk that fully encompassed this transformation. We wanted to improve our overall service provision, ensure that it was focussed around our customers, and flexible and agile enough to keep pace with the rapid change to ways of working being adopted within the organisation. These were the main goals behind starting the Service Desk Certification journey.”
“Working with SDI has been incredibly valuable right from starting our membership. Prior to embarking on our Certification journey we were already attending SDI events and webinars and making use of on line papers and industry insights.”
Stephen Crandon, Head of Informatics Service Management, ABUHB.
Implementation During a Pandemic
Stephen explains “As a team, a department and even as an organisation, we have completely transformed. I think the pandemic – as awful as it was to live through – generated a lot of positive opportunities. The team implemented Microsoft Office 365 across the Health Board in 3 months where usually it would have taken them 3 years. Throughout the pandemic, the Service Desk was running at 180% above their normal capacity. They were dealing with thousands of users wanting VPN access or multi-factor authentication. Additionally, they were also working in a completely different way – like many other departments in the Health Board – and had to make some of the teams work remotely.”
“This fostered a real sense of team commitment, and everybody involved put their all into it. I sometimes wonder whether we’d have done so well with our Certification if the last 2 years hadn’t have happened because it really made us think about the kind of service we provide and how we can make that better.”
A Drastic Improvement
When the ICT Service Desk Team joined the SDC programme in May 2021, their initial audit rating was 1.36, which is uncertifiable under the SDC programme’s rating system. In the team’s most recent audit in February 2022, they achieved a fantastic rating of 3.25, globally verifying them as a customer-led, three star service desk, which is exceptional in such a short space of time.
Proud Achievement
Stephen Crandon said “I am immensely proud of the Service Desk team here, they have been completely on board with the programme and the improvements we wanted to introduce, and have worked tirelessly to make this achievable. “
“When this is put into context with the huge demand placed on the team over the last 2 years this is no mean feat. I am also very proud that the Health Board recognises our achievement, and what the Service Desk can contribute to the overall provision of care for our patients.”
Tangible benefits from the SDC programme
“In terms of tangible benefits we have seen our call abandonment rate drop by over 20%, our call wait times dramatically reduce and we have a much better understanding of our customers. Initial feedback from customers is that their experience of Service Desk is much improved and senior stakeholders have also commented on the overall improvement in communication. We now also have a detailed service catalogue, linked with an extensive knowledge base and centralised repository for support documents.”
Service Desk Superstars
Nicola Prygodzicz, Executive Director of Planning, Digital & IT, ABUHB said: “We cannot underestimate the success of the Informatics Team in terms of getting our organisation to work mobile during the pandemic.” Stephen Crandon added: “I just can’t thank you all enough for your level of commitment. I think it’s fantastic that we’ve now got this external verification and external recognition of the hard work that this team does.”
The Next Chapter
“Our main challenge continues to be the Covid-19 Pandemic and recovering from the unbelievable pressure it puts every part of our organisation under. During the pandemic rapid deployment of solutions to facilitate remote working, virtual consultations, and enhanced collaboration was carried out at pace. We now have to consolidate all of the good stuff achieved to ensure that long term robust solutions are the order of the day.” Stephen Crandon.
“The SDC programme has made us evaluate every aspect of our service provision and given us an independent benchmark against which to measure our effectiveness. The collaborative approach taken by the SDI has allowed us to greatly enhance the good work that we were already doing. The real bonus is to receive external verification and recognition that we are achieving the improvements that we set out to achieve. The whole process concentrates on delivering real value from Day 1 and is certainly no “tick in a box” audit.”
Stephen Crandon, Head of Informatics Service Management, ABUHB.
“Overall the experience has been demanding in terms of what the SDI Best Practice Standards cover, but it has generated many benefits from the very start of receiving recommendations from our initial audit. “
Start your own Service Desk Certification journey
Want to discover what you and your team could achieve with Service Desk Certification?
Find out more about the SDC programme and the steps involved in becoming certified by checking out our “Steps To Certification” page.
You’ll also find some handy FAQs, an enquiry form and an online assessment tool to give you taster of the kinds of questions you’d encounter in a Service Desk Assessment.
We’re running Assessments virtually at the moment, so there’s no reason to delay – start your SDC journey today and you could soon be celebrating your success, just like ABUHB!
