A single, shared tool across all departments, processing a large number of requests
The iTop ITSM tool was first introduced, in 2015, in the Council’s Water and Sanitation Department (DEA), where Stéphane Mathieu was working at the time, to simplify the administration of 130 business tools – weather, dams, 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.
Having proved its effectiveness, the tool was then rolled out to the Council’s other departments: “We subscribed to a Professional Edition, transitioning from 230 to over 8,000 staff spread over 380 sites within the authority.”
The new application was rolled out in two phases to onboard the staff more easily: “With help from the Combodo staff, we first replaced the original ticketing tool used by the staff, by iTop. Then, 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: IT request and incident management with ticketing functionality, testing and acceptance testing management for large IT projects, Infrastructure Management containing the entire DINIS equipment inventory via CMDB, middle school management and finally, facilities management, with requests for equipment and new offices, which is however due to be phased 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 with it. Depending on the type of expenditure, the authorization is assigned to a head of department or to the person in charge. And if he or she does 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 can also be used to manage 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.”
A project that continues to expand to address business needs
The project is ongoing, with the deployment of 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.
