The moment executives of Pan Pacific Computer Center, Inc. (PPCC) made a decision to expand the firm’s helpdesk business, they knew a tough challenge was ahead of them. They faced an issue that many other companies around the world similarly had to contend with-– how could they ensure that their IT systems can support their growth plans.

Looking for a solution that would support their goals and sustain their growth, PPCC turned to Touchpaper Software for help.

Being part of the Yuchengco group, one of Southeast Asia’s largest conglomerates, PPCC knew where growth would come from. The company provides helpdesk support services to over 2,000 employees nationwide from Yuchengco subsidiaries, including Grepalife, Lifetime Plans, and the Philippine Integrated Advertising Agency and its external clients.

PPCC, which was founded in 1970, looked to expand it services to within the Yuchengco group, which had interests in finance, manufacturing, construction, real estate development, trading, mining, power generation, oil exploration, telecommunications, fast food and agribusiness. The booming outsourced contact service market in the country was another logical target for the company.

OUTDATED SOFTWARE

PPCC began an aggressive expansion push but it knew that its old helpdesk software would soon give out. The helpdesk’s call volume was growing from 600 calls a month to 750 calls monthly, even reaching up to 900 calls on certain occasions. The current software which had little management capabilities could no longer support the growing number of calls.

The company struggled to manage the helpdesk as there was no focal point for service requests or incident-reporting. Service support and delivery was fragmented and agents served as mere order-takers. There were no standard procedures for handling and coordination of technical support and service level management was almost non-existent.

Adding to the woes of the company was the lack of support from its original helpdesk software vendor, who did not have a presence in the Philippines. Without support, PPCC could not customize the software to its specific needs.

“Our old IT service management software simply did not provide the flexibility and business understanding to allow us to grow successfully,” said Nikki Polancos, PPCC’s Vice-President for operations.

THE SOLUTION

After an extensive search for a suitable solution, PPCC decided to go with Touchpaper’s service management software.  With over 20 years experience in Europe, USA and Asia Pacific, Touchpaper offered a solution that allowed PPCC to integrate IT service management to the company’s overall business objectives.

A little over a year after PPCC decided to junk its old helpdesk software, and 12 months after it began implementation of Touchpaper’s Helpdesk 6.7 software, the new system went live in August 2005.

PPCC had overhauled its entire helpdesk platform with Touchpaper, so to ensure that it could fully leverage on the new environment, it conducted organizational development and built a new Helpdesk division that elevated support services from mere order-taking to an advanced technical support center, fluidly integrating first and second levels of support services.

“Thanks to the support we received from Touchpaper’s local office, the implementation went extremely smooth,” Polancos said. “The new platform has delivered a quantum leap in effectiveness of our service desk, putting in place the policies, procedures and processes to deliver internal effectiveness and improved customer service.”

BENEFITS

Touchpaper gave PPCC management a holistic view of the helpdesk services, allowing them to set directions based on actual reports generated by the system. The company was able to improve both internal and external processes and offer improved customer services as well.

Designed to handle multiple organizations with their own tailored service levels, Touchpaper allowed PPCC to set and manage complicated and varying service level agreements (SLAs). The new helpdesk platform also improved PPCC’s service and incident management. Escalation, re-assignments and coordination between helpdesk and backroom technical support became very fluid unlike in the past.

With Touchpaper as the initial contact point, all queries were channeled and monitored through the service desk, whether received by phone or, increasingly, by e-mail. The ability to monitor, audit, action and report back on queries provides full visibility of the process both internally and externally. Reporting can be tailored to individual client needs, further increasing customer satisfaction with PPCC. Potential breaches can also be flagged before they happen, supported by a full audit trail of activities.

Touchpaper’s advanced knowledge management functions allowed PPCC to access, record, share, and prioritize useful and relevant information. By learning from previous experience, PPCC was able to reduce customer response and improve customer service, while leaving trained staff to concentrate on more complex issues.

LOOKING AHEAD

To sustain growth plans, PPCC has embarked on a major thrust in 2007 to deploy Touchpaper’s IT Business Management Suite, which will add advanced desktop integration, configuration and management information modules. The ITBM suite provides a modular and end-to-end solution for IT service management and customer service, as well as network and systems management.

The ITBM suite, which conforms to the information technology infrastructure library (ITIL) standards, allows PPCC to meet international business standards and to prepare for the company’s push towards ISO 9001:2000 certification.

“While we are extremely impressed with the improvements that Touchpaper has already delivered to our business, we believe this is just the start,” said Polancos. “By adopting the advanced functionality of the ITBM suite we aim to provide even higher levels of service to our customers and consequently grow our market share, both in the region and globally.”