NI Blood Transfusion Service
Northgate\'s Service Desk assists the processing and delivery of blood products throughout Northern Ireland
The Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS), established in 1946 is an independent, Special Agency of the Health and Personal Social Services Department. It is responsible for the collection, testing and distribution of over 75, 000 blood donations each year. At NIBTS headquarters, located on the site of the Belfast City Hospital, a total of almost 1000 donation sessions are held each year.
Business Challenge
NIBTS need their systems to have high availability and run efficiently at all times in order to ensure the smooth processing and delivery of Blood Supply in Northern Ireland. In addition to its headquarters; NIBTS operates 3 mobile units at over 300 locations across the province. The IT department within NIBTS required additional support to minimise downtime and to ensure high availability for all users. It is crucial that the ICT infrastructure is reliable, efficient and supports the critical applications used by NIBTS to manage and dispatch blood 24/7.
The Solution
In order to support NIBTS Information Management & Technology (IM&T) department in delivering a high performing IT infrastructure, Northgate implemented their Service Desk solution from the Manage service range, enabling the IM&T Department to more effectively support the business systems used in the collection, testing and distribution of blood donations throughout Northern Ireland on a 24/7 basis.
The dedicated Service Desk supports all staff plus 200 devices proactively managing and escalating all incidents to resolution. It provides staff with a single point of contact and dedicated telephone line for all IT user problems and requests.
The solution includes tiered support of back office servers, desktop PCs, printers and laptops. Additionally Northgate provides on site, remote and telephone support to the remote blood collection sessions and provides support at the head office. This remote support from the Service Desk staff includes resetting passwords, resolving network mapping issues, adding printers, resolving local printer issues and file and print issues.
Northgate also provides on-site engineering staff when required who in liaison with internal IM&T technical staff proactively provide system monitoring of server backups and server hardware issues etc. Northgate has invested in the ITIL best practice framework which enables the Service Desk to provide full life cycle ownership of all incidents recorded in the Service Management database and to influence work flow design to ensure compatibility and process efficiency.
Key Results
The critical service of managing and dispatching blood products demands an efficient and reliable IT infrastructure. Any delays in this process or errors could be potentially life threatening. Northgate's Service Desk provides the convenience and efficiency of a single point of contact for NIBTS IM&T Department with a dedicated team of people in place to resolve any issues as quickly as possible to support their objective of a highly available and reliable infrastructure. The remote management solution also provides further security in resolving any possible issues before they impact on service delivery.
There has been a noticeable improvement in performance levels by the end users in areas such as availability and direct access to support which is now on a 24/7 basis compared to 9am - 5pm previously. The IT Manager in NIBTS can now concentrate on future strategy and management of the IM&T function, as the Service Desk function has been handed over to Northgate.
Key Benefits
- Improved customer service
- Increased efficiencies
- Improved security
- Increased staff productivity
- Added value and support to the IT department
Stephen Brimstone, IM&T Manager, NITBS commented:
"The new Service Desk has had instant impact - our IT department has now the added value of the service desk support from Northgate which has increased performance levels and efficiency of the critical IT applications. With NIBTS being a 24/7 organisation, a highly available and efficient system is critical. With Northgate's solution in place any disruption to service is minimised - ultimately helping to save lives. Northgate's expertise has been invaluable in implementing the new support systems. They really took the time to get to know how we worked, our issues and the sensitivities that exist when it comes to the blood product supply chain. As a result Northgate has put in place a specialist team capable of adding real value to our operation."
