The Salvation Army Uses Crow Canyon Software to Run Efficient Support Desk

You often hear their bells ringing and see their iconic red kettles located outside stores during the holidays. You may see their trucks driving around picking up donations. Perhaps you have stopped in one of their stores to see what interesting used items are for sale.

In one way or another, many of us have encountered The Salvation Army. This organization has come a long way from its founding in 1865. It now is a large and thriving operation that continues its mission to help the poor, the homeless, the hungry and the destitute in 126 countries worldwide.

With this level of operations, the IT support needs are high. With the many systems, databases, networks, and computers needed to run the organization, robust and efficient support desk software is critical to The Salvation Army’s success.

In the Atlanta headquarters for The Salvation Army’s southern United States region, Chuck Gann manages a team of four that supports the MS Dynamics GP (Great Plains) accounting system. With 1,400 users of this system to support, a steady stream of trouble tickets keeps Chuck’s team busy. Issues range from software glitches to server support, and just about everything in between.

Chuck needed a software program that was powerful, yet easy-to-use. He found this in Crow Canyon Software’s Service Request for SharePoint system. For over two years, Crow Canyon’s SharePoint-based help desk software has proven to be a critical component in the team’s success at managing this stream of tickets.

“In the years before Crow Canyon, we basically shared an ‘in-box’. As you can imagine, it was problematic as it was difficult to tell which member of the staff was doing what part of the work”.

– Chuck Gann, Financial Systems Director, Salvation Army

With the Crow Canyon program, users are able to easily post tickets and view the progress using the SharePoint interface they’ve grown familiar with. Chuck’s staff, with a load of 700 to 800 tickets per month, can quickly sort, assign, respond, and resolve issues, also using the SharePoint interface.

“Using Crow Canyon, we are now able to categorize tickets and assign people to handle them. Previously we had to use folders to separate tickets and we lacked any method to track the status.”

– Chuck Gann, Financial Systems Director, Salvation Army

Initially, the team evaluated the basic SharePoint templates. But it was quickly determined that these lacked the horsepower to tackle the volume and diversity of tickets the team encounters.

Another imperative was that the software interface seamlessly to their existing email system. This proved another deal breaker with the other solutions. They found the answer to their needs in Crow Canyon Software, a veteran SharePoint developer with a reputation for its ability to tailor-fit the software to each organization and for its efficient and fast implementations.

Given the number and diversity of tickets filed, the team was surprised at the skill level and rapid deployment of the Crow Canyon solution.

“It took less than a couple hours to install. The technician was very well-versed. We did have a couple of security needs which were handled very quickly. Overall it went very smoothly.”

– Chuck Gann, Financial Systems Director, Salvation Army

The impact of the added efficiency was felt immediately. Prior to Crow Canyon, if there were issues with the server, it was difficult to track down which of the twenty servers was causing the issue. That detective work meant a lot of additional time and effort from the team.

The ability of the Crow Canyon software to enable fine-tuned customization of the program has proven invaluable to the administrators. It creates a platform that guides the user to provide highly specific information. This added detail allows Chuck and his team to more efficiently tackle each ticket and to improve resolution time.

The users notice the difference as well. The Crow Canyon system keeps the end user informed as to ticket status and is much easier to read than an embedded email message. Instead of having to type a full message each time, the team is able to simply log what actions they have taken. The rest is handled automatically.