16 Customer in foCus

Photography: Aad Hoogendoorn

Text: Timme Hos

Customer in foCus 17

The NeTherlaNds CaNCer INsTITuTe

Putting patients first with TOPdesk and IsM
The Netherlands Cancer Institute Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital (NKI-AVL) in Amsterdam comprises a scientific research institute and a specialized clinic. The NKI-AVL supports internal services with TOPdesk, using the ISM framework. Hugo M. Nijhof, Application Management team leader and change manager, and Meta Tope, Service Centre team leader and incident manager, reveal how the IT department is getting to grips with their processes.

ISM: a well-defined process template

The NKI-AVL has been using TOPdesk for six years. Three years ago, they decided to tailor TOPdesk to ISM, a practical ITIL methodology. ISM is basically a template comprising clear process descriptions. Its very easy to use, says Nijhof. He and his colleagues currently use four principal ISM processes: Incident Management, Change Management, Configuration Management and Operations Management. We do our best to ensure processes are ISM-compliant, and to have our TOPdesk set-up reflect this. Change Management was particularly challenging at first, but its getting easier. TOPdesk is becoming more and more suited to ISM. We are going to use requests for change, for example. This will improve our change acceptance management, as described in ISM.

practical, compact and scalable. Much of it has been condensed, allowing you to get to work very quickly. Its a well-formulated methodology, and above all very scalable, making it suitable for organizations of all sizes. And thats whats so appealing.

Working towards a single Service Centre

The NKI-AVL is on the right track with TOPdesk and ISM. But what does the IT department actually deal with? We process around 3,000 calls per quarter of which 1,700 are incidents covering a wide range of topics, says Tope. Calls are usually about application or workspace management, but we also deal with servers, networks, telephony and printers. The Service Centre launched Visitor Registration on the day of our visit. Visitors who report to the Service Centre are issued a pass that grants them access to the organization. We are also introducing CAFM. This will enable us to collaborate with all Facilities departments, for which the Service Centre will soon play a central role.

ITIL made compact and scalable

Nijhof had experience with implementing ITIL in all its complexity from a previous job. You are forced to make all the detailed decisions surrounding the implementation yourself, despite not always being able to predict the results. ISM, on the other hand, makes ITIL easy to implement. Many decisions are made for you, he explains. ISM is easier because it is

Test results in TOPdesk

When NKI-AVL tests its updated hospital information systems, the results are processed in TOPdesk. We update this system several times a year, and each update requires extensive testing, explains Nijhof.

Hugo M. Nijhof (l) and Meta Tope - IT department

18 Customer in foCus

ISM IS PRACTICAL AND SCALABLE, MAKING ITIL EASY TO IMPLEMENT

Hugo M. Nijhof - NKI-AVL

Around 40 analysts repeatedly register their findings. Previously, each analyst submitted their results by email. Now they use the Self Service Desk to process everything directly in TOPdesk. This offers numerous benefits, explains Nijhof. We can process the results with greater efficiency. Its also much easier to forward test results to the correct back offices. Working in TOPdesk saves us a lot of time.

Customized service portal interface

NKI-AVL launched their Self Service Desk in March. Were very proud, says Tope. We want to offer our internal customers several ways to contact us. Previously, if we wanted more information from the caller, we had to track them down first. The Self Service Desk lets us ask for all the relevant information in one go. Email traffic has reduced and the Self Service Desk is becoming more popular. We are going to introduce an English version after the summer: eighty-five per cent of the research we do at NKI-AVL is in English. The SSD has been adjusted to match our corporate identity, Nijhof elaborates. This is partly thanks to the adjustable forms that we created using the XML form generator. Users see the NKI colours and logo, so they dont notice theyre using a tool. When registering a call or change, the customer is almost enticed into providing the right information. Were very proud of this. The NKI-AVL is successfully using TOPdesk and ISM.

Putting patients first

Prioritizing calls and changes at a hospital can be a matter of life and death, albeit indirectly. The introduction of the electronic patient file means that soon everyone will be using an IT solution. Should a malfunction occur, we need to determine where to allocate resources as quickly as possible. The IT department currently uses a priority matrix for incidents and an impact matrix for changes. These decisions affect the patient and its important to keep that in mind, says Tope. This is why IT is introducing a patient matrix. How can you tell that a call will directly affect a patient? How do you adjust the priority accordingly? These are important questions, and we are currently processing them in TOPdesk. For more information, please contact your TOPdesk account manager.

Interested in working with ISM?

The TOPdesk ISM module is a solution provided by BHVB, Mavim and TOPdesk. The ISM process model is available in Rules, Mavims process management software. These process descriptions are directly linked to the corresponding TOPdesk modules. This enables you to click through from TOPdesk modules to the relevant process descriptions, and vice versa. This makes it easy to attune your departments working methods to ISM processes.