Sunrise’s Sostenuto to centralise IT and facilities service desks

Chessington, 05 November 2009. The British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences, has chosen Service Management software Sostenuto from Sunrise to underpin the consolidation of its IT and facilities service desks into one centralised solution.

Following a restructure earlier this year, Head of IT Alan McMahon spearheaded the project with the aim of enhancing efficiency and transparency across the Academy. Having evaluated a number of solutions that were ITIL compatible, he explains why Sostenuto was selected:

“Sostenuto simply offered us the best solution in terms of value and functionality,” said Alan. “Other systems were too expensive, too simplified, or too complex! Sostenuto clearly met our immediate requirements, and we also felt that the application builder features within the software would enable us to develop its use in future, as we identify new areas that it can manage for us.”

Alan’s team is responsible for supporting staff at the British Academy and tenant organisations within the building, as well as close to a thousand academy fellows who have use of the building. They also provide audio-visual support for internal and external clients who book rooms at the Academy for meetings and events.

“It seemed obvious to us that what we do in IT is applicable to our facilities department as well,” said Alan. “Queries have to be recorded, fixed, closed and then you need a way of reporting on trends. A broken lock or a leaking roof is in this sense no different from a server outage or broken down printer.”

The project’s progress will be watched keenly by other departments within the Academy as the plan will be to eventually extend the platform to manage further functions.