Writes Lynne Harrison, Executive Vice President
It was back in 2009 that we first started talking about having a shared Service Desk based out of our American Head Office. By 2012, we actually got as far as interviewing candidates for the position of Service Desk Team Lead. But somehow, for a variety of reasons, we just couldn’t make it viable.
When we first started discussions with Materna about operating a service desk for them it seemed likely it would be based in Denver and using ServiceNow – because everything was linked to the Great Hall project. But then, in mid-2019, the Great Hall project got put on hold as the airport authority sank into a legal – and financial – mess. Great Hall finally got going again at the end of 2019 – by this time running some 2 years behind schedule (and don’t even think about how much over budget) – but, within a few months, we were all faced with a Global pandemic bringing a whole new set of challenges.
On the basis that good things can come out of bad situations, the idea of having a remote shared Service Desk for Denver started to have some appeal because a) they wouldn’t have to find anywhere to put it (and, as we all know, space is at a premium in an airport) and b) it could be more cost effective for all parties.
Furthermore, the selection and deployment of Remedyforce, as ServiceTec’s ITSM tool, provided us with a globally-recognized platform, helping to alleviate any systems concerns.
All this gave Materna the confidence to tell us they plan to go ahead with a Service Desk provided by ServiceTec – so we have now ‘gone live’ with our own desk and hope to start seeing their business coming through in the next few months.
Joined by Arsalan Latif, who has largely been working for us on a part-time basis at LGA during the last year, our new team of Mark Bradley, Arsalan Raza, Kobe Amankwah and Daniel Ko started their training on June 2nd with the Service Desk now handling calls for JFK and LAX. Our SLC Service Desk Team Lead, Dawn Larson, has moved into a new role overseeing both the dedicated Service Desk in SLC and the Americas Service Desk.
Last, but by no means least, many thanks to all those (Carl, Pietro, Richard, Jack – to mention a few) who helped make this ambition a reality at last.
