Sheffield NHS Trust unites IT helpdesk effort

New system brought in to bring together disparate teams

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has installed contact centre software across its IT helpdesk to better manage technology problems.

The organisation has installed HP OpenView software to overhaul and consolidate fragmented IT support, says Carol Clarkson, Sheffield’s IT services manager.

‘Three years ago a number of Trusts came together within Sheffield as one single unit,’ said Clarkson.

‘The legacy of that was three separate IT departments serving one user base. The new system has given us a single point of entry for all user issues.’

The Trust started using OpenView in its contact centre in July, and Clarkson says it has already made the helpdesk much more efficient.

‘Now, when a call comes into the helpdesk, they can deal with the initial registration of the call into the system, including details such as the hospital they are in, and a brief description of the fault,’ she said.

‘They will try to fix it then at the first level, but if they can’t solve it the HP system allows them to escalate it very quickly to the functional groups that we have, or a third-party supplier which is also part of the system.’