Volchok Consulting, Inc.
Technology Expertise™
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Mac Help Desk - Case Study: WPP Group
WPP, the largest advertising holding company in the world, was struggling to support their Mac users. Their IT departments were not delivering quality IT support to the very heart of their business—their creative departments. Since creatives are almost entirely dependent on the health of their Macs, WPP agencies including Young & Rubicam, Wunderman, and J. Walter Thompson were looking for a solution.
Macs Left Out
Sometime in 1999, WPP decided to outsource all of their IT support to General Electric, a company that had been providing Windows support to many large corporations for years. GE took over IT support using its own support software, ClearVision. GE’s experience providing Windows support, however, did not translate into successful Mac IT support. The GE help desk was staffed by Windows technicians who were unfamiliar with Mac software and hardware. Mac users were left without the application support, “how-to” support, or the level 1 troubleshooting they needed. As a result, WPP sought to fill its Mac support void. In 2001 they approached Volchok Consulting to help them overhaul their Mac IT support departments.
Mac Expertise Steps In
The Mac Help Desk began as a pilot program with the Chicago office of J. Walter Thompson in July 2002. Volchok began by moving them from the GE help desk to its own specialized Mac Help Desk service, and replaced ClearVision with MAX™ IT Service Management Software. Mac IT information was centralized using the MAX Knowledge Base to help with incident resolution. Volchok developed escalation procedures and resolution feedback loops to improve first level resolution rates. Solve rates soared from under 10% to around 40%. Mac users were now able to ask detailed how-to questions about programs like Quark, Illustrator and Photoshop, and the Mac Help Desk went from a ticket dispatcher to a true first level support organization. User satisfaction improved dramatically.
Mac Help Desk Expands
The Mac Help Desk pilot program impressed WPP, and as a result their Landor Associates, Sudler & Hennessey and Burson Marsteller agencies switched to the Volchok Mac Help Desk. They also replaced their on-site support staff, previously provided by GE, with staff provided by Volchok Consulting. Each company experienced a dramatic improvement in Macintosh IT support delivery. Ad hoc solutions like Snap servers were removed and replaced with enterprise grade Windows 2000 servers. Users were migrated painlessly from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X. Master images were created to standardize all users’ Macs. User complaints virtually vanished overnight and IT ceased to be a major focus of management’s time.
In short order J. Walter Thompson New York, Y&R and Wunderman switched from GE to the Mac Help Desk. Working with each agency’s IT staff, Volchok Consulting was able to achieve similar solve rates across the different companies. The response from the Mac users was overwhelmingly positive.
Windows Comes On Board
As the Mac Help Desk expanded throughout WPP, use of MAX Help Desk Management Software expanded there as well. On-site technicians at J. Walter Thompson, Y&R, Wunderman and others began extolling the virtues of MAX. In 2003 WPP terminated its relationship with GE for Windows support and created an internal Windows help desk. They chose MAX as their software tool. MAX offered excellent speed, affordable cost, 99.99% up time and wide acceptance by their IT staff. MAX is now used to support over 3000 Windows users and 1000 Mac users at WPP.