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“SP Marketplace’s portals have been invaluable in the automation and collaboration in critical areas for our organization." Robert Rosas, IT Director |
Southern Oregon Goodwill Industries uses SP Business Suite on Office 365 for Automation and Collaboration
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Southern Oregon Goodwill Industries is a nonprofit organization based in Medford, Oregon, and founded in 1967. With more than 300 employees, the organization works tirelessly to provide employment and training services to more than 3,000 clients in Oregon and California.
Robert Rosas has been with Goodwill as the IT Director for more than 15 years. He saw the opportunity to save costs and gain productivity by moving to the cloud on Microsoft Office 365. Initially the organization used Office 365 just for email and basic document sharing. After learning more about the power of the Office 365 platform, he saw that it could do much more for them. Rosas saw the opportunity to transform Goodwill's communication and collaboration by extending Office 365 to deliver an Intranet structure that would serve as a hub for internal services. To accelerate this vision he came to SP Marketplace for their out-of-the-box portals and applications on Office 365. |
“It was simple, clean; it gave them feedback and they could track to see who was actually working on their case and when it was expected to be done. From an end user it was a huge jump from the email system that we didn’t use.” |
In an effort to find a solution that would go beyond basic email and consolidate disparate systems of the organization like IT, projects, and facilities, Rosas began searching for SharePoint templates and processes. While keeping an overall solution in mind, he first focused on the IT Help Desk. After much comparative analysis of features from different companies, Rosas discovered SP Business Suite on Office 365 from SP Marketplace, which includes SharePoint IT Help Desk, a full-function IT support module.
Originally, help desk issues were handled by sending an email back and forth. This method was inefficient and didn’t allow employees to track a ticket, assign it to a user, or correspond with the user. Rosas wanted to implement a more efficient solution than just email to help employees be more productive and provide better, more responsive services.
The features that stood out most to Rosas about IT Help Desk were its process for tracking help desk tickets and the ability to customize it 100%. “If it didn’t address our processes and needs then we knew we could make changes so it did,” Rosas said.
By implementing IT Help Desk, Goodwill was able to transform how the organization provides internal services. The result is that employees are able to more efficiently organize and assign tickets, provide feedback, and track and record all IT Help Desk tickets. “SP Marketplace’s portals have been invaluable in the automation and collaboration in critical areas for our organization,” Rosas said.
Originally, help desk issues were handled by sending an email back and forth. This method was inefficient and didn’t allow employees to track a ticket, assign it to a user, or correspond with the user. Rosas wanted to implement a more efficient solution than just email to help employees be more productive and provide better, more responsive services.
The features that stood out most to Rosas about IT Help Desk were its process for tracking help desk tickets and the ability to customize it 100%. “If it didn’t address our processes and needs then we knew we could make changes so it did,” Rosas said.
By implementing IT Help Desk, Goodwill was able to transform how the organization provides internal services. The result is that employees are able to more efficiently organize and assign tickets, provide feedback, and track and record all IT Help Desk tickets. “SP Marketplace’s portals have been invaluable in the automation and collaboration in critical areas for our organization,” Rosas said.
Once IT Help Desk was deployed, its success paved the path for Goodwill to initiate a consistent internal services strategy with facilities and projects. Additionally, there was no centralized location allowing employees to communicate and collaborate. With SP Business Suite, Goodwill was able to address all of these areas, implementing an Intranet Portal, Project Tracker, and Facilities module, all of which Goodwill was able to customize.
“Really the success of SP Business Suite is measured on the adoption of the end user,” Rosas said. “It was simple, clean; it gave them feedback and they could track to see who was actually working on their case and when it was expected to be done. From an end user it was a huge jump from the email system that we didn’t use.”
By deploying SP Intranet, Goodwill employees had a hub to correspond with the entire organization, see all of the latest news, announcements, and updates, which allowed them to provide better services to clients. Additionally it provides a full structure on the Office 365 platform which goes beyond just a home page to incorporate employee self-service and department portals.
With Project Tracker, part of SP Business Suite, Goodwill is able to more effectively manage projects, which often have multiple stakeholders collaborating and assigned to a single project. Additionally, Goodwill is deploying a large scale POS system through which all collaboration will be completed. Project Tracker provides Goodwill with an organized, efficient, and central location to manage and collaborate on all company projects.
One of the most valuable attributes of SP Business Suite is MyIT, which enhances the organization’s ability to provide comprehensive services to employees by keeping them updated on cases and tickets. “MyIT features are valuable to communicate back to the end user so they know that their issues are being addressed,” Rosas said.
“Really the success of SP Business Suite is measured on the adoption of the end user,” Rosas said. “It was simple, clean; it gave them feedback and they could track to see who was actually working on their case and when it was expected to be done. From an end user it was a huge jump from the email system that we didn’t use.”
By deploying SP Intranet, Goodwill employees had a hub to correspond with the entire organization, see all of the latest news, announcements, and updates, which allowed them to provide better services to clients. Additionally it provides a full structure on the Office 365 platform which goes beyond just a home page to incorporate employee self-service and department portals.
With Project Tracker, part of SP Business Suite, Goodwill is able to more effectively manage projects, which often have multiple stakeholders collaborating and assigned to a single project. Additionally, Goodwill is deploying a large scale POS system through which all collaboration will be completed. Project Tracker provides Goodwill with an organized, efficient, and central location to manage and collaborate on all company projects.
One of the most valuable attributes of SP Business Suite is MyIT, which enhances the organization’s ability to provide comprehensive services to employees by keeping them updated on cases and tickets. “MyIT features are valuable to communicate back to the end user so they know that their issues are being addressed,” Rosas said.
MyIT was especially helpful for employees because it provided an organized and efficient location for them to look at and track the status of their cases.
From the employee level to the client level, SP Business Suite has transformed Goodwill on Office 365 from an organization with a nonexistent communication and collaboration strategy to a cohesive, consolidated organization. Clients experience more comprehensive services and employees have responded with overwhelming eagerness because of SP Business Suite’s functionality and ease of use. “The best example of this is the adoption of the system,” Rosas said. “We have gotten 100% adoption to the portals.”
To learn more about SP Business Suite or SP Nonprofit Suite, a new productivity platform on Office 365 that is designed specifically for nonprofit organization’s unique needs and financial restrictions, visit www.spmarketplace.com. Learn more about other application templates on Office 365 that can help your organization take operations to the cloud, or watch a free tutorial video.
From the employee level to the client level, SP Business Suite has transformed Goodwill on Office 365 from an organization with a nonexistent communication and collaboration strategy to a cohesive, consolidated organization. Clients experience more comprehensive services and employees have responded with overwhelming eagerness because of SP Business Suite’s functionality and ease of use. “The best example of this is the adoption of the system,” Rosas said. “We have gotten 100% adoption to the portals.”
To learn more about SP Business Suite or SP Nonprofit Suite, a new productivity platform on Office 365 that is designed specifically for nonprofit organization’s unique needs and financial restrictions, visit www.spmarketplace.com. Learn more about other application templates on Office 365 that can help your organization take operations to the cloud, or watch a free tutorial video.
