ITS is preparing to move the University’s customer support tool from ServiceNow to TeamDynamix. The target is to switch platforms this summer.
Unless you’re in IT, the words “customer support tool,” ServiceNow or TeamDynamix may not mean much. But if you’ve ever used the UNC Help Portal to report an issue, chat, search for answers or browse IT services, you’ve used UNC’s customer support tool.
And behind the scenes, our customer support tool manages workflows and automations, helps track assets and connects you with information and services you need.
ITS deployed ServiceNow in 2019 as a full-service replacement for ticketing system Remedy, which ITS fully decommissioned in 2022. Over the years, teams in ITS have made improvements to ServiceNow, including adding a virtual agent chatbot in 2021.
Customer support tool search
Early last year, ITS stakeholders began a listening tour to gather feedback on ServiceNow. With the contract set to renew in September 2024, it was an ideal time to evaluate if it was working well.
In March 2023, Kate Hash, Associate Vice Chancellor for Customer Experience & Engagement, announced that ITS would begin investigating alternate options. “Based on the feedback we received, we decided to explore if another ticketing platform is better suited for our campus,” she said. “We will not move systems unless there is substantial benefit to both fulfillers and end users to make a change.”
Last summer, ITS opened the request for proposal (RFP) for a new customer support tool. The RFP committee reviewed and scored 10 qualified proposals and selected four finalists.
In October, ITS invited vendors to day-long sessions to demo their products, meet with stakeholders and answer questions. To evaluate the finalists on key areas, ITS created four vertical teams with expertise on topics like accessibility, platform administration, customer experience and IT security. The product demos were open to all IT staff on campus and the project team encouraged participants to share their feedback.
TeamDynamix earned top score
When the committee reviewed feedback from both the vertical teams and demo participants, the results were clear.
In December, Hash announced the findings. “TeamDynamix was the top scorer across every single one of our assessment groups,” she said. “This was a pleasant surprise and underscored our decision to conduct an RFP. The resounding sentiment from our scorers was the strength of TeamDynamix across the board and the ‘fit’ for UNC-Chapel Hill.”
The RFP committee determined that compared to ServiceNow, TeamDynamix provides better value to UNC and enhances the experience for campus customers and people using the tool to do their jobs.
The TeamDynamix demo is available online.
Targeting July launch
The project team, led by Calvin Groves, Director of Customer Support & Outreach, is now working to “implement TeamDynamix and decommission ServiceNow in parallel.”
Currently, ITS is targeting July 10 for the TeamDynamix launch. “Our priority for go-live is the current functionality in ServiceNow,” Groves said in an update to ServiceNow users last week. “We will do only minimal process improvement to move current ticketing, service catalog, knowledge base, chat/chatbot, etc. functionality to TeamDynamix,” he added.
ITS plans to decommission ServiceNow on September 6 when the contract expires.
For full details and timeline, visit the project website.