Retail IT and communications specialist BT Expedite has selected House-on-the-Hill as its new service desk software supplier.

BT Expedite helps the retailing sector with point of sale (EPoS), store, enterprise and supply chain processes and installed House-on-the-Hill's SupportDesk. 'It has resulted in an all-round improved user experience,' said Steve Hearn, IT manager of BT Expedite.

Three service desks in Birmingham are using the product to handle calls from individual stores, head office and outsourced operations. Callers can log and track their issues over the Internet. The desks also manage some 325 service level agreements with customers.

Hearn said reasons for choosing House-on-the-Hill, which replaces a Siebel system, included functionality. 'The product had all the features we required and the people there were very straightforward,' he said. 'The price was also competitive. All the necessary functionality was provided at a reasonable cost.'

In the first full month of SupportDesk use, the proportion of calls logged via the Internet was up by almost one-quarter to more than 80% of the total. Other benefits have included a drop from three days to half-a-day in time taken to compile monthly reports

'We can now manage customers' incidents from start to finish. Since going live we have had a very positive experience. Turnaround of fixes has been far quicker. Any issues which have arisen have been resolved rapidly,' said Hearn.

‘We used to have one person on each of the three desks dedicated to logging calls - they’re now fixing problems, so we have freed up three full-time members of staff who are helping make the operation even more efficient.’
House-on-the-Hill Managing Director Iain Broadhead said: ‘We’re delighted to be helping keep the tills jingling in some of Europe’s top shops.’