Penn took support to the next level with Deskpro

Introduction

The School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania recently underwent migration to Deskpro Horizon, our upgraded platform.

We caught up with Kimberley Byrd, the Senior IT Project Leader, to see how the process had gone for her team and how they were adjusting to their upgraded helpdesk.

You can check out the last time we spoke to Kimberley about the School of Nursing's helpdesk solution:

The Migration

The School of Nursing found the migration to Deskpro Horizon was remarkably smooth, requiring minimal effort from their IT team.

Kimberley explained how they had prepared for the upgrade by making changes on their previous helpdesk. "We didn't find it challenging at all. We made a few changes ahead of time to ensure a smoother transition." These updates enabled the upgrade to run smoothly and get Kimberley and her team onto the updated platform in no time.

Overall, Kimberley found the upgrade to Horizon easier than anticipated. "Honestly, the migration was incredibly smooth." As a long-time Deskpro user on the previous version, she envisioned her team needing additional help getting used to the new Horizon interface, "I thought that I would have to have training sessions with different individuals. I set up the training environment, but nobody wanted to take a test drive." And since the upgrade, her team has quickly adjusted to their new helpdesk: "We are very pleased with it. I haven't heard complaints."

Kimberley values that the Deskpro team is available for assistance if she encounters any issues, "The support is amazing, and I appreciate it." The in-house support team prides itself on efficiently helping customers solve any queries. Kimberley acknowledged their efforts while configuring the helpdesk are "so incredibly helpful. Chynah and Eloise have been amazing and very responsive."

The Horizon Experience

Now on their upgraded helpdesk, they are getting to grips with the new platform and its features.

The team finds several positives with the new Agent and Admin interfaces. Kimberley explained, "I like a lot of the features. It's more streamlined and more visually and aesthetically pleasing."

One of the updates on Horizon that the team most appreciates is the color change for Agent Notes. As a team primarily using Deskpro for the ticketing functionality, internal communication tools like Agent Notes help them collaborate more effectively.

Kimberley previously had to remind support agents to double-check they were adding a Note to a ticket as the color differences were quite subtle. "We love the fact the Agent Notes in a ticket have a different color." Updates to the UI like this help the team to work more efficiently as it's now easier and faster for them to differentiate between the different ticket reply tabs and switch between them.

Looking Ahead

The successful implementation of Deskpro within the School of Nursing prompted the University of Pennsylvania to expand its use to other departments.

“Deskpro has worked for several departments within the school; people like its ease of use. It's a great facility.”

Kimberley expressed her excitement about becoming familiar with the new Admin interface while establishing a new instance for a sixth department at Penn: “I'm looking forward to the experience on the new platform of creating a new instance.”

The school's Business Office will soon adopt Deskpro for managing internal requests, as they previously faced issues with email loss due to the overwhelming number of daily requests. “Oversights were easy, and they hope that Deskpro will help them to streamline their workflow.”

Although the new Deskpro platform will test her knowledge, Kimberley appreciates the availability of the Deskpro support team, who are ready to assist with any inquiries. "Even in different time zones, once I have correspondence, I feel the support is phenomenal."

Aside from this, Kimberley also looks forward to improvements in the Reporting Interface to make the process of creating reports and dashboards more intuitive and less time-consuming.