The recent upgrade, part of a move to service 36 outlets in Habitat's retail network will enable the group to continue the current clear visibility of its service calls to meet the requirements of Habitat's business. A key driver for Habitat's IT team is that it expects to exceed its Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for a service desk that receives over 5,000 calls a year.

In choosing to upgrade Numara FootPrints, Habitat considered alternative solutions, but concluded that they were no match for Numara FootPrints cost effectiveness and ease of use, as Habitat Technical Operations Manager Edward Josh explains:

"We had a limited budget, and although we looked at solutions like BMC Remedy, it was too complicated and we'd have needed a specialist team to run it. With our previous version of Numara FootPrints, we were able to set up the network system and configure it ourselves. And it was important to us that we were able to maintain that flexibility and ease of use."

For four years, Habitat has been using Numara FootPrints as its service management solution to monitor the operations of 36 stores employing 1,000 staff throughout the country. Since its first adoption, Numara FootPrints has handled over 20,000 calls.

So for Josh, the choice of upgrading its service desk solution to the latest version of Numara FootPrints was an easy one for a small IT team of 26 that supports everyone within Habitat in the UK.

"We originally chose Numara Software four years ago because it was a flexible, powerful solution, and we selected it to manage the faults and requests for support we receive from staff in our UK stores. On upgrading recently, we were able to set up the software from scratch with no problems at all. We were astonished at how easy it was to get the system exactly how we wanted it," adds Josh.

What excites Habitat about the latest version of Numara FootPrints is the ability to configure the reporting module to give the IT team exactly the information they require, whenever they want it.

"Getting that information to meet your requirements is all about configuring it correctly in the first place. We have configured Numara FootPrints to tell us exactly what calls are open, at a glance from the front page. And the whole team can see that. This leads to a lot of banter among the team about who's at the top with the most calls open and who has the heaviest workload," continues Josh.

A key area of interest for Habitat is Numara FootPrints ease of integration with Active Directory. If Habitat needs to create a user account for a new starter, the Numara FootPrints Quick Call facility means everything is pre-configured for a new starter process: creating an account, building their PC, and creating their SAP and Windows accounts. The ease of call-logging by the Help Desk also means the team is more likely to continue to log the calls efficiently and effectively.

Another benefit for Habitat is the ability to use Numara FootPrints to create a survey giving the IT team feedback on their performance from customers within the business. As a result it has enhanced the IT Service Team's reputation for prompt support, exceeding its Service Level Agreements. Josh and his team have even been able to respond swiftly to a request from one of Habitat's directors for more information on the group's SAP implementation by creating a category for SAP calls.

"Habitat could eventually do these things with other service solutions," says Josh. "The problem is it would take two guys three weeks to come up with a solution that worked for us and probably cost us the earth in doing so. That's what makes Numara FootPrints so beneficial for us. We recognise its ease of use, flexibility and manageability."

For more information on Numara Track-It!, please visit www.numarasoftware.co.uk.

Numara Track-It! 9 is the world's most widely installed help desk and asset management solution and Fowlers chose to replace its existing subscription-based help desk tool with this market leading product. Numara Track-It! has recently been installed and Fowlers is now actively using it, having just gone live with the solution at the beginning of June. Implementation was quick, easy and painless. In fact, even at this early stage, the IT team members are confident about the capabilities of Numara Track-It!

Headquartered in Bristol, Fowlers' IT department supports around 100 end users based in three different locations. The help desk receives around 350 queries per month from users who may be either in the retail division or part of the wholesale division, who rely heavily on a number of different IT systems to distribute spare parts and accessories. Additionally, Fowlers has a call centre, which is manned by over 30 operators. Colin Lack, IT Manager for Fowlers comments:

"We were previously using a competing service desk solution and decided to change. The main driver for this decision was focused around total cost of ownership. Up until a few years ago, I was delivering the support to the business with one part-time assistant and the cost for a two-user package was reasonable and the product worked okay. But as the IT department expanded to 3 full-time people and our requirements started to get more complex, we suddenly had to jump to a 5-person license (there was no incremental user option) and the price doubled. When we wanted to implement change management, the price would have doubled again because we needed to move to an enterprise licence and so this went on. Although it started out as a reasonably priced solution, as our demands grew, so the costs escalated, but the performance did not improve at the same rate. The more features we wanted, the more expensive it was getting and we therefore decided that it was time to look for a new solution."

Fowlers researched the market for a new help desk solution and had a long list of companies. Colin Lack then attended the Service Desk & IT Support Show in April 2009 and visited various vendor stands. This quickly whittled the choice down to a short-list of two - Numara Track-It! and one other. Colin Lack continues:

"We choose Numara Track-It! over and above another competing product, because one of our original drivers was change management. Numara Software provided a full demonstration of the change management capabilities in Numara Track-It! during the show and we immediately felt that the product ticked all our boxes. The other product didn't have change management, but they were hoping to release this feature later in the year. The other thing that really swung the decision for us was that Numara Track-It! is a very solid, out-of-the-box solution and we felt that there was less chance of things going wrong. With a small IT team of 3, the last thing we needed was to end up spending all our time supporting the help desk when it is supposed to be supporting us."

Following the Service Desk & IT Support Show, Fowlers had a full demonstration of both products and preferred the robustness of the back-end support with Numara Track-It!, as well as all the customisable grids and templates. In addition to the help desk module, other add-ons that Fowlers has purchased include: Remote Control, MAC Audit, Deploy, Network Monitor and Recurring Word Orders. Colin Lack concludes:

"Price wise, Numara Track-It! was cheaper. For example, the other vendor insisted on one day of onsite consultancy and 4 days' training and this really pushed the price up and we felt it simply wasn't necessary.

We're extremely happy with Numara Track-It! and even though we have only had the product working for a month, we can already see that this product has extensive capabilities and will suit our requirements for many years to come."

Numara Track-It! has helped thousands of IT professionals around the world optimise Help Desk efficiency, systematically measure their service performance and maximise use of their technicians' time. With over 48,000 customer sites, it is the world's most widely installed Help Desk and Asset Management solution. For more information on Numara Track-It! please visit www.numarasoftware.co.uk.