Case Studies
Global Systems Integration (GSI)
Customer Profile by TeamSupport Staff
Global Systems Integration (GSI), (www.gsi-solutions.com) is a Georgia-based technology consulting firm specializing in the implementation, upgrade and day-to-day maintenance challenges associated with complex ERP [enterprise resource planning] packages. Their specific focus is on Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and World Software suites. With more than 100 years of cumulative expertise, GSI’s consultants provide single-point ownership for the mission-critical financial software. "Our clients are small to medium sized businesses, as well as some Fortune 500 corporations," said vice president David Telford, who manages day-to-day operations and the Support Services organization, "we operate in a niche area with very unique JD Edwards skill sets; we've earned a reputation as the 'go to guys' for that particular software."
GSI needed a Help Desk solution to centralize and distribute requests to the Support Services team and escalate them in accordance with client Service Level Agreements (SLAs). For years, they'd done everything by email, whoever received an incoming request responded to it, copying everyone on everything for every customer, regardless of their project focus. Telford's team explored various solutions, even trying one product for a year with little success.
It wasn't bad software, but overly complex for their needs. "I've been in IT too long to need an inch and a half thick manual just to get the basics out of a system," said Telford. GSI had looked at TeamSupport early on; some needed features – email integration and workflows for issue escalation and SLA compliance, for example – were missing, but had been added by the time GSI looked again. Getting TeamSupport up and running was easy, "just point to the [TeamSupport] site, customize a few things and we were done ... everyone was using it within a week!"
GSI Support Services consists of a focused group of people handling a large number of customers. TeamSupport helps them prioritize and categorize calls and requests to make sure published [SLA] response and time-to-resolution criteria are met. The Support specialists are responsible for day-to-day care and feeding of the company'sclients, who can integrate with GSI via their own internal Help Desk software or by simply submitting support tickets. TeamSupport has "absolutely improved our efficiency ... we have dynamic notification to everyone involved with a given client; anyone with availability can respond to tasks as they appear." And TeamSupport lets Telford track turnaround time and other key response parameters, "I collect data from it weekly to see if we have enough people in Support Services or need to step-it-up a bit; we watch workflow trending on issues and as new clients come on-line, so we know when it's time to 'pull the trigger' and ramp-up the group." That's really important because GSI could be penalized for not meeting an SLA. "TeamSupport lets us proactively address staffing issues that could financially impact our company."
Telford also extracts support tickets for the company's clients weekly, "everything we're doing – the status of anything that has been open, closed or modified in the last week" is displayed in his report. That success has led to GSI looking at ways to use TeamSupport for their implementation business, "those projects can run four to 10 months and we're often asked for things that weren't part of the original job. It's a natural response for team members to see an issue or be asked for something and simply do it – there's no tracking, it just gets done." Telford hopes to better manage client expectations and capture revenue from that extra effort in the future by using TeamSupport as a tracking tool. "Although it would take a bit of change in discipline on the part of our implementation teams," he noted.
Asked about TeamSupport's own customer support, Telford said they've been very responsive. "I've suggested some things I'd like changed, and in several instances they saw the value of those features and turned them around quickly. In other cases, they may say 'it's not part of our core, so we're not going to address that,' and that's OK ... at least they've let me know and not just put it on the chalkboard. TeamSupport personnel have been very informative, always keeping him posted on the status of changes or fixes. "A lot of that has to do with the fact 'they eat their own dog food' so far as using the software to manage their own development efforts."
Would he recommend TeamSupport to others? "Absolutely! I've been very happy with them, but the better news is our clients and Support analysts are happy with it. They're the ones hitting it every day."
David Telford is a 25 year information technology veteran. He developed QA/QC software for the plastics industry, OSHA compliance systems for the chemical engineering industry, and IT management for banking and accounting. He spent 10 years with JD Edwards, through the PeopleSoft and Oracle acquisitions, and led consulting for the Midwest area, helping to develop the implementation methodology for OneWorld and EnterpriseOne. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Technology from the University of Massachusetts – Lowell.
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