Increasingly, organizations are embracing methodologies such as ITIL, realizing the efficiency in unifying their project and support processes. For ENWIN Utilities Limited, it was a necessity.

ENWIN wanted to improve the workflow of their projects, time reporting and help desk services, all of which were handled by separate systems. ENWIN must comply with service level agreements with their affiliate service companies, and has to report the time spent working on tickets. The disparate systems they utilized made reporting a cumbersome process, as data had to be pulled from different spreadsheets and then compiled into reports.

ENWIN's specific objectives were improved document management, simpler time reporting, and better tracking and measurement of their project and help desk efforts.To meet these objectives, ENWIN deployed Tracker Suite modules including Project Tracker (project management), Support Tracker (help desk), Time Tracker (time reporting) and Personnel Tracker (personnel management), as well as the Tracker Data Warehouse, a Web based reporting engine.

The Solution

Improved Document Management

ENWIN's project and change documents were spread across the organization. ENWIN wanted to centralize these documents in a secure, but accessible location. Project Tracker provides a central, searchable, Web accessible location for their documents. These documents are secured by read/write/delete privileges, and are protected with version control.

ENWIN leverages the document capabilities of Support Tracker as well. Emails, tasks, notes, discussions and action items are created within Support Tracker and attached to the relevant ticket, simplifying organization and work tracking.

Simpler Time Reporting

While ENWIN's existing time reporting application worked well, it did not have the flexibility they wanted for their work. Users were unable to edit their hours once they were entered, which led to ENWIN employees maintaining a personal spreadsheet throughout the week, then re-reporting the data to the time reporting application.

With Time Tracker, ENWIN employees now create, store, update and submit their timesheets in a Web accessible InBox. They can easily assign time to projects, tasks, support tickets or cost centers using picklists.

Better Project and Help Desk Tracking

Prior to the implementation of Tracker Suite, the separation of the time reporting application from the project and support ticket databases made tracking the time spent in projects and support services difficult.

The Tracker Data Warehouse receives data from the various Tracker Suite modules to generate reports which ENWIN can use to monitor their efforts and better communicate the value of their services to customers. The Data Warehouse generates reports including Ticket Pies, Closed Tickets, Time Pies and Project Earned Value.

Leveraging Lotus Notes for a Lower TCO

Another reason ENWIN chose Tracker Suite was its utilization of their existing Lotus Notes / Domino platform. This resulted in a lower total cost of ownership for ENWIN, and also simplified training for their employees.

According to Marvin Routliffe, ENWIN's Director of Information Services & Technology, ENWIN's experience with Tracker Suite and its deployment has been positive, and that training went very rapidly.

"We are very pleased with Tracker Suite's performance," he said.