The Legal Aid Board has implemented HEAT, the service management and helpdesk solution from FrontRange Solutions, to ensure that the information technology (IT) systems in its four regional offices, 58 justice centres and 33 satellite offices are available and operational at all times.
Established by the Legal Aid Act of 1969, the Legal Aid Board provides tax-subsidised legal advice and representation in criminal and civil matters to previously disadvantaged and poor people who could not otherwise afford such services. The Board derives its mandate from the Constitution which guarantees a fair trial to every person who is arrested, detained or accused, including legal representation at the expense of the State if needs be. Many of its justice centres and all of its satellite offices are located in remote or rural areas in order to make access to justice a reality at grass roots level.
"A lack of access to justice during the past several decades has been one of the great deprivations suffered by indigent and previously disadvantage people," says the Legal Aid Board`s Information Services Executive, Tony Boshoff. "It`s vital, therefore, if both the spirit and the letter of our new constitution and bill of rights are to benefit those who are in greatest need of protection, that the technology systems that support our services are at peak functionality all the time.
"We therefore needed an automated, intuitive call logging system that would ensure that we resolved IT queries as quickly as possible and would also enable us to roll-out enhancement and upgrades in the most logical, efficient and cost-effective manner.
"We examined several competitive solutions and HEAT was the only one that met all our requirements. Also, as we are funded by tax payer`s money, price was an important factor for us. It`s important, too, that our funds are spent on our clients rather than on unnecessarily expensive technology. In that context, HEAT was well within our affordability range."
The Legal Aid Board`s IT systems are all hosted at National Office in Braamfontein, Gauteng, where the organisation`s IT division and helpdesk are based, and are accessible from every Justice Centre, Satellite Office or Regional Office via a country-wide Wide Area Network. The Board`s 1 700 employees can log calls either by phoning or emailing the helpdesk or by using the HEAT link on the organisation`s Intranet homepage. Ten technical specialists attend to the resolution of the calls according to the alerts and escalation processes inherent in HEAT.
"Even though ours is a straight forward utilisation of HEAT`s remarkably rich functionality, it`s a very effective tool for managing the communications between IT and our users and for managing IT changes," Boshoff says.
"It`s also a superb workflow tool because it provides a step-by-step framework for problem resolution and change management.
"In addition, I use it as a staff management tool, because very detailed reports generated from its database show me who`s doing what when and who`s coping with the workload and who`s not.
"And, of course, it gives me insight, through trend reporting, into where particular technical problems are manifesting in the system - so that I can be pro-active about providing remedies."
So useful has HEAT been in IT that the Legal Aid Board plans to extend its functionality to its human resources helpdesk.
FrontRange Solutions (SA) product manager for Africa, Paul Bornhutter, says that HEAT is adaptable to any situation in which a query needs to be logged and then acted upon.
"The principles of workflow are the same no matter what the project or process involved. Only the details differ between, in the Legal Aid Board`s case, IT and HR.
"And HEAT is exceptionally good at using the principles to define the steps in any given process and then assembling them in the most sensible way to enable an organisation to move to resolution very quickly. And that`s why so many different organisations use HEAT in so many different scenarios - from hotel and airline services management to advertising project management and facilitating access to justice for the disadvantaged."
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FrontRange Solutions develops award-winning software and solutions used by more than 130 000 companies and over 1,3 million seats worldwide to manage a wide variety of business relationships and provide exceptional service. Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, global offices include United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Poland, Russia, China, Australia and Singapore. FrontRange product families are designed to optimise customer investment by their interoperability, specifically for small-to-medium-enterprise (SME) and distributed enterprise organisations.
Solution families are defined by three customer centric market areas: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) including GoldMine(r); IT Service Management including the HEAT(r), ITSM and Infrastructure Management product lines; and Communication Interaction Management including IP Office, GoldMine IP Voice Suite and IP Contact Center. This comprehensive product set provides a unique customer service and support scenario, designed to be unrivalled in the market today.
Customers representing 44% of the Fortune 100 and 76 % of the FTSE 100 include Coca-Cola, Shell Oil, Prudential Securities, 'Electricit'e de France, Mack Trucks, Campbell Soup, Avaya, Bechtel Corp, Bank of America, and Turner News Network. South African customers include De Beers, Standard Bank, Volkswagen SA, UCS Solutions, Bytes Technology, Dawn Wing Couriers, Life Healthcare and ArabellaSheraton. For more information, contact (011) 325 5600 or visit www.frontrange.co.za.