Automating HR Helpdesk Administration

Background

Kinetic Request Plays Hero in Automating HR Helpdesk Administration

A major entertainment production company meets a developer of innovative enterprise request management and business process workflow software. It may not be the glamorous stuff movies are made of, but the original consulting engagement blossomed into a long-term relationship that has helped the production company’s four-star Human Resources Group gain its independence from IT.

Initially, Kinetic Data’s Professional Services experts worked with the entertainment organization to help support and upgrade its BMC Remedy server to accommodate an intuitive user interface to their HR helpdesk ticketing system’s database. This project gave the company the ability to run queries about employees’ paycheck and salary information, tax filing status, and benefits. The benefits included faster workflow and time savings for 130 HR employees—all without IT involvement. “That first engagement proved to us that Kinetic Data would be a reliable partner,” says the director of HR information systems. “They continue to live up to our expectations. They always seem to have an answer for every challenge we throw at them, and their support and consulting has been invaluable.”

Kinetic Request Conquers All

It came to pass that the company outgrew its manual method of managing employee account administration—updating, terminating and granting approximately 6,000 employees access to 50 different systems. The director explains, “You can imagine what a headache that was. We needed a system that would automate the process for requesting, approving, granting, and changing system access. An approval process could include anywhere from one to four approvers depending on the task, application and other factors. We knew what we wanted. We just didn’t have the IT resources to support a huge project developing the forms and processes it would take to create such a system. The application also needed to be easy to implement and easy to use, and it needed to automate approvals and automatically assign responsibilities.” And when the entertainment icon turned to Kinetic Data, the results were epic. Kinetic Request not only met immediate needs, but also enabled the company to self-manage a large portion of the process. Initially, Kinetic Data worked with the company to formulate requirements for the wide variety of access request processes that would eventually be needed. Some requests required several levels of approvals, while others were simple and quick. For ease of use, all request forms needed to share a similar look and feel, and record core information about the request.

Kinetic Data Professional Services assisted in narrowing these various application requests down to five core processes and implemented them using Kinetic Request. After familiarizing staff with the tools, the customer took over the process. Because Kinetic Request is so easy to use, their internal non-technical HR staff used these five application request forms to build out the remaining 50-plus forms and request processes. The forms were rolled out in small sets as each business unit was prepared to handle these requests, rather than having to build them all at one time, providing quicker wins and easier project management.

Based on the success of this engagement, Kinetic Data formalized and incorporated this process into its Delivery Model, which is available on the company’s website.

Kinetic Request Process:

1. Anyone can use the HR ticketing system built on Kinetic Request to apply for, modify or remove access to the 50-plus different applications that the customer’s HR group manages via a web browser.
2. The requester populates the form with some basic information, including name, email address, telephone number, and other demographic information.
3. Once this information is verified, the requester is routed to select the application(s) (one or more) to which they want to request access.
4. The requester is then automatically routed to fill out specific information on each application, including roles to assign.
5. The request is completed and emails are sent to the approvers and original requester.
6. Different approvers manage each application request, and each application is a unique request to the approvers. Each approver handles only his or her own part of the request.
7. Once each application is approved by the required parties, it is automatically routed via Kinetic Request to their BMC Remedy-based HR ticketing system for fulfillment.

And Keeps on Giving

As a result of automating employee account administration, the customer reaped substantial gains, including:

• Visibility into status/changes to access requests for applications.
• Faster population in case management system of approved requests.
• Fewer request errors due to form validation and customization.
• Web-based approvals that accelerate processing.
• A self-managed system.

Since the original implementation, this company has expanded its use of Kinetic Request beyond account administration. The entire 6,000-person company tracks paid-time-off (PTO) information such as bereavement and vacation. The director says this has been a huge time saver. “The system automates managerial approval. Employees fill out a calendar equipped with a drop down menu for each day, and the system takes over. It sends the supervisor a ticket for approval. After approval, Kinetic Request automatically populates the HR ticketing system with a closed or open ticket, depending on the situation.”

Kinetic Request is also being used to create Promotion and Position Adjustment forms for HR. Automated features that provide enhanced security, tracking and efficiency include:

• Multiple, conditional approval levels.
• Restricted permission to view sensitive information.
• Auto-population of end-user information by selecting name (salary, manager, and HR information).
• Custom Web portal created for allowing approvers to see the status of their approvals (“open” and “completed”).

And the plot continues to thicken. The lack of a dedicated BMC Remedy staff is of no concern to the entertainment production firm. They’re busy focusing on their entertainment business. Plus, they’re downright comfortable knowing that they can rely on Kinetic Data whenever they need help creating systems that automate processes and speed up workflow. Kinetic Data is always there to provide continued support—not only for Kinetic Request and Kinetic Survey, but also for this customer’s entire BMC Remedy infrastructure. And that lets everyone at the company live happily ever after.