Case Study
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
- 3,500
- physicians and clinicians using the system
- 80%
- reduction in aged tickets
- 5
- months to implement their first service desk
Leading cancer center implements lean service desk to provide vital support to medical staff
The Challenge
One of the top five cancer centers in the United States, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) is the clinical arm of the University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle Children’s, and Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center. The SCCA service desk works alongside resident and visiting physicians, medical clinicians, and other staff to transform cancer patients into cancer survivors. But prior to 2012, their ability to provide quick and effective IT support to those who relied on technology to perform their jobs was limited by their outsourced help desk function. They needed to build an in-house service desk in five months, starting from square one, and be able to manage it with a relatively small team.
"As a non-profit, any savings we achieve goes directly to patient care. Hands down, Cherwell provided the best value, and the all-inclusive pricing model was straightforward. With other solutions, we had to add on, put it on our wish list, and budget for it next year." - Diane Burton, IT Service and Support, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
The Solution
SCCA chose Cherwell primarily because of its ease of administration and configuration. Built-in ITIL processes facilitated the implementation of incident request, problem management, a knowledge base, and more. Cherwell’s “One-Steps” make easy work of automating repeatable and typically time-consuming processes like password resets and account unlocks. And a service catalog allows medical staff to easily request services, using custom-built forms.
Implementing Lean and ITIL best practices resulted in the development of meaningful metrics. SCCA’s IT team is able to analyze ticket volume, as well as view what was resolved, what was escalated, and what’s been aging. Every closed ticket includes details of how the resolution was achieved, as well as a link to an end-user survey. This regular employee feedback, combined with Cherwell’s highly flexible platform, helps SCCA’s service desk continually improve service delivery, enabling those who are responsible for patient care to remain focused on their jobs.
"We looked at three different vendors, but at the end of the day Cherwell won because not only was it codeless, but I can make drag- and-drop changes on the fly. It’s very easy to use—that’s the primary reason we went with Cherwell." - Diane Burton, IT Service and Support, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Business Impact
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Quick and easy workflow automation capabilities create significant time savings for a lean team
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Real-time visibility enables quicker issue resolution and response times
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Frequent employee feedback provides invaluable insights and learning opportunities
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Lean methodologies and ITSM best practices support a culture of continuous improvement
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A single, centralized platform drives efficiency and productivity
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