A single, shared tool across all departments, processing a large number of requests
The Council first introduced the iTop ITSM tool in 2015 in its Water and Sanitation Department (DEA), where Stéphane Mathieu was working. The goal was to simplify the administration of 130 business tools, including weather, dams and construction. “We needed a tool to process tickets, and that was underpinned by ITIL practices. We chose iTop because of its very simple and intuitive user portal: it requires no training. The solution is also very competitively priced, which is a significant criterion in the public sector,” Stéphane Mathieu explains.
After proving its effectiveness, the Council expanded the tool’s use to other departments.“We subscribed to a Professional Edition, transitioning from 230 to over 8,000 staff spread over 380 sites within the authority.”
We deployed the new application in two phases to facilitate staff onboarding. “With help from the Combodo staff, we first replaced the original ticketing tool used by the staff with iTop. A year later, we opened up the user portal to them, for creating and monitoring requests,” the manager recalls.
Five needs, a single iTop interface
Today iTop addresses five critical needs for the DINSI. These include IT request and incident management with ticketing functionality, testing and acceptance testing management for large IT projects and Infrastructure Management containing the entire DINIS equipment inventory via CMDB. It also includes middle school management and facilities management, with requests for equipment and new offices, which we plan to phase out”.
The Combodo team made several key customizations to satisfy the DINSI’s requirements. The first was in relation to expenditure requests. “We have a complex authorization system, and iTop had to comply. Depending on the type of expenditure, the authorization is assigned to a head of department or to the person . And if they do not respond, the request is automatically forwarded to the designated alternate. Some requests also require a second sign-off, usually from the procurement department,” the expert says.
iTop also manages appointments. “We have set up an IT help desk, which helps with and troubleshoots our staff’s computer problems. iTop allows staff to make appointments with the desk, but also with HR career managers.”
The project continues to expand to address business needs
The project continues as we deploy a new instance for Enterprise Service Management.. “We are developing a new instance to handle business-specific requests. The first pilot is intended for two departments: for HRD, to generate requests for anomalies to do with badges or counters, for example,” Stéphane Mathieu explains. “Then it will be extended to other departments, for reporting fallen trees, potholes in the road, etc.”
Stéphane Mathieu and the DINSI team are also working on introducing artificial intelligence, to automate ticket analysis, with conversational agents to handle minor incidents.
