RICK BAKER THROUGH
INTERPRETER: Hello. My name is Rick Baker,
IT Projects Director with Gallaudet
Technology Services here at Gallaudet University. CARY BARBIN THROUGH
INTERPRETER: Hello. My name is Cary Barbin. I'm the Director of IT
Service Desk and User Services here at Gallaudet University. [GENTLE MUSIC] RICK BAKER THROUGH INTERPRETER:
One of my first projects was looking for a replacement
for our help desk system. We went to a conference,
EDUCAUSE Conference, and we saw ServiceNow
and their platform we were able to acquire more. And with our academic
year and limited time that we had during the summer-- I think we had
roughly eight weeks-- we had a conversation
with ServiceNow and they recommended Crossfuze,
with their Smart Launch capability to be able to
accomplish that in six weeks. So we looked at references
locally around the city. And we got a lot of
positive comments about Crossfuze
and their services. CARY BARBIN THROUGH
INTERPRETER: We looked at really our timeline. And we were constrained
by time because we wanted to implement with between
semesters during our summer time. So with the fall semester ended,
getting ready for the spring semester, also looking
at the roadmap, it really wasn't clear
as to where we were going and what options. And our third reason was
looking at IT best practices and finding what
we should follow. Are we doing the right things? Or are we just changing
for the sake of change? Also trying to keep
our customizations to a minimum as possible
without a lot of changes to the software. Really, that gave us
a sense of urgency to really expedite this
and get it completed. They gave us an opportunity
to come together and focus-- really, kind of laser focus--
to work together and get everything done to completion. One of the biggest
things about ServiceNow are there are so many features. There's so many options. And it's hard to navigate and
really not sure where to go and which one to
start with first. Smart Launch helps us
really as a tour guide, as you could call it. So when you're out on
vacation, often you've got a tour guide showing
you the spots, showing the different important
places around town, and the story that
goes with it, and, you know, the fastest points
to get from point A to point B to point C to
maximize your experience on that journey. That's the same thing
with Smart Launch. I look at it as our
itinerary to say where we need to go, what we
need to complete to finish our journey to make sure we get
the best experience on our roadmap and knowing
where we should go, which places we
need to touch first before we go looking at new
features, new opportunities. Also, in retrospect, really it
helps us expedite the problem and get it done
within six weeks. We couldn't do it
without Smart Launch. also we had conversations
with other individuals who work at different
universities and different companies. And they said it really
took them almost two years to implement on their own. And we did it in six weeks. So Smart Launch
was really helpful. Really, to the point, the
six weeks implementation, that was one of the
biggest benefits we got from Smart Launch
was getting it done and completing it. Also revising our Home
page, we transformed to a more user friendly, easy to
navigate, to find information, getting help, et cetera. So Smart Launch helped us with
the new design of a new web page rather quickly. I feel like just
in time support. Sometimes we're moving forward
and a problem comes up, we can ask Crossfuze and
we get immediate responses. That experience-- the user
experience-- that we got of the immediate
response was great. Also, there's so many features. They can tell us what's
best to focus on next. And they can inquire
to see our needs and be able to move on that. One is focusing on CMDB
and the discovery process. Now we're partnering with
Crossfuze and getting that, and we're almost finished
with the discovery process. And they also gave us
support when we needed it. We could be able to
reach out and get that immediate support that was
really beneficial for us. I'm looking forward to one
platform for the university. That's the goal. ServiceNow is expansive. And there's so many
features that we can use. And we only need one small,
maybe two small, pieces of it. So we're looking at what
ServiceNow can offer. And there's so many
better benefits to it. It's a one stop shop for
the entire university, from both the customer
and support group view. We've got different departments
that really can get involved. And that's what we're
working towards. We're just taking it
step-by-step, one at a time. But we hopefully can get there. [UPBEAT MUSIC]