ICT Service Desk 1st Line Support Leads, Jeff Wiltshire and Paul Burkett, are not just the friendly voice at the end of the phone when you have an IT issue. They are leading the way in customer support and are always looking to make your experience better with efficiency savings and innovative solutions.
At a recent show and tell session to ICT colleagues, Paul and Jeff demonstrated a great solution for not only saving our staff time, but improving response rates and service satisfaction for staff and students using Audio Visual (AV) equipment in lecture theatres and campus computers.
Jeff said, “Our goals were to free up our analysts’ time, improve the overall efficiency of the Service Desk and staff satisfaction, and to ensure that campus computer rooms and lecture theatres were consistently ready for use”.
A cluster of activity
Part of an analyst’s role is to check the status of student (cluster) machines on campus and ensure the AV systems are always operational in lecture theatres.
The challenge with this work is that it can be very time-consuming, using an inefficient process of manually checking the big data platform, Splunk, on a daily basis for issues with cluster computers and then logging hundreds of identified faults in our ticketing system.
For the AV checks, our analysts had to manually review a daily checks Excel file and create tickets for the 120+ rooms each day.
Jeff explained, “This manual element of the process significantly impacted productivity, requiring one analyst to dedicate half a day just for checking Splunk and logging faults! The process also made accurate reporting difficult and delayed issue resolution, as many problems could not be fixed remotely.”
From tedious tasks to seamless solutions
To address the issue, Paul and Jeff spoke with stakeholders to understand the specific challenges and requirements. The team physically checked all cluster rooms to ensure that the information in Splunk matched what was found in the rooms.
They then went on to develop an internal application called the ‘Campus cluster checks analyser’, using Microsoft’s Visual Studio (VB.NET) and WMI queries to automate the remote checking of cluster computer machines and a questionnaire for the AV rooms. This tool was designed to verify the availability and functionality of computers without manual intervention.
Additionally, Jeff implemented a feature that automatically logs tickets in ASK for any identified issues, eliminating the need for analysts to manually create them.
The tool was tested successfully in the development environments of the room and timetabling system, CELCAT, before preparing it for live deployment.
To fully optimise the process, the team requested read-only API access to CELCAT’s live Production environment (PROD). This enabled Jeff real-time retrieval of room availability data, ensuring minimal impact on the live timetabling system.
A sense of achievement
Jeff said, “The best part of working on this solution was seeing the immediate impact of automation on analyst productivity and service efficiency. By eliminating repetitive administrative tasks, analysts could focus on resolving issues rather than logging them, improving overall service quality.
“I enjoyed the collaboration with stakeholders, and the opportunity to develop a custom tool tailored to the Service Desk’s needs was highly rewarding. Successfully testing the tool in the Celcat DEV environment and preparing it for live deployment provided a sense of achievement, knowing it would directly improve staff satisfaction and user experience.” Jeff Wiltshire
No time to Splunk!
One of the biggest challenges the team faced was the amount of time required to manually check Splunk and log tickets, which initially made it difficult to allocate time for developing the automation tool.
Ensuring that the tool could accurately detect issues remotely and log tickets correctly in ASK required extensive testing and debugging.
Another challenge was obtaining API access to the CELCAT production environment, as this required co-ordination with external teams, compliance with data access policies, and ensuring the integration had minimal impact on the production environment.
Zeroing in on success
Jeff and Paul are proud of impact they have had and the overall outcome has been a significant reduction in manual workload for their analysts, improving efficiency and response times.
Jeff suggests they have realised their goals as the automation tool now:
- saves analysts half a day checking Splunk and logging tickets.
- automatically logs issues in ASK, reducing ticket creation time to zero.
- improves reporting accuracy, as faults are logged consistently without human error.
- frees up analysts’ time to focus on higher-value tasks, rather than repetitive administrative work.
- enhances service efficiency and user experience by ensuring AV rooms and cluster machines are ready for use.
Ongoing improvements
Once Paul and Jeff get the read-only API access to the CELCAT production environment the tool will be able to retrieve real-time room availability data, further optimising the booking process for exam room cluster checks. This will ensure faster response times, more accurate bookings, and an overall more efficient Service Desk!
“I am incredibly proud of our team for balancing the demands of our daily operations while driving meaningful improvements for our customers. Their dedication to automating our mundane processes not only improves our customer service but also creates space for more engaging and impactful work. I cannot commend them enough for their commitment, innovation, and teamwork, which make a real difference!” Okan Kibaroglu, Director of Customer Success
I am driven to expand my role in mentoring and empowering young women within the tech industry. My experience as an alumni interviewer for Harvard has granted me a unique perspective, now finding myself on the opposite side of the table where I once sat. Moreover, being 
Creating a work-life balance is crucial for my well-being, and I prioritise it by taking life outside work as seriously as in work. I plan my week and weekends in advance, ensuring I have events and activities to look forward to. One activity that fulfills and energises me is networking. Being new to London, I thoroughly enjoy meeting new people and exploring the vibrant restaurant scene in the city.
If I have learnt valuable life lessons from the most experienced people in my life, I was reminded about the basics of life by my younger son, who once said to me at 3 years old, when he noticed I was getting anxious because of an issue – “Mummy, take a deep breath and relax, you will be fine!”
I came from a customer services background, having worked in and managed centres in various industries. I was seconded to an ICT project and saw the work of a business analyst and realised I was fascinated by how business teams and ICT have to adapt to work together to achieve the right outcomes, and how hard that is to get right!
I’m interested in lots of things and as part of my midlife crisis I have recently taken a drawing class, tried stand-up comedy, joined a choir, and started doing fitness classes in quite a serious way. When I’m on campus if I’m not in the office you’ll probably find me poking around in the Abdus Salam Library – it’s an amazing perk to have one within such easy reach. So the same scattergun approach applies in both my personal life and career!
I find it hard to be idle so I enjoy a number of hobbies – some would say too many! I originally trained as a chef, and although having to cook for my husband and three children means it can feel more like a chore, I still love baking and find the routine and process relaxing,delicious and not at all disrupted by listening to true crime podcasts!
Our brand-new ICT Service Desk opened to much applause from staff and students based at White City Campus and Hammersmith Hospital Campus.
