Information and Technology Services will soon be releasing several improvements and updates to our web presence. When you visit the ITS website after May 12, you’ll notice improvements designed to more quickly serve up the information and resources needed by the university community.
The upcoming website updates are a public-facing part of a larger Service Excellence Initiative in ITS, which also includes ITS’s switch from ServiceNow to TeamDynamix as the IT service management (ITSM) tool. The ITSM tool equips ITS to provide proactive, laser-focused customer service. Several changes to the website integrate TeamDynamix to better manage how our community learns, requests, and seeks assistance with ITS services.
“The website is our front door to welcome students, faculty, and staff to find the technology resources and assistance necessary to conduct their work at the university,” said Will Burns, ITS Digital User Experience manager. “Switching to TeamDynamix was an opportunity for us to assess how we can make our websites tap into the service management tool to make it easier for people to interact and communicate with us.”
Changes for a more cohesive digital experience
- The most noticeable changes are to the top-level navigation on its.umich.edu. The first, new navigation item will be a browse services menu. Our former navigation categories will be available on this page, along with new ways to sort services by popularity and alphabetically. The new browse services section will replace the IT Services Portal (services.it.umich.edu) as the place for a comprehensive list of service offerings. The portal will be retired and redirected to this section in the future.
- Specially curated sections for students, faculty, researchers, staff and IT staff will be available on the top navigation as well as highlighted on the homepage. The content for each audience group was selected based on website analytics, frequently asked questions to the ITS Service Center, and user testing. While not directly related to the TeamDynamix change, this new section uses a user-centric approach to displaying popular services.
- Updates to the ITS Service Center page will strongly integrate TeamDynamix’s customer service features. The help page will make self-service information a top priority by prominently displaying information in the public knowledge base in two ways: by search and a curated list of popular topics. The public knowledge base contains the same information used by the Service Center representatives to answer questions. Additionally, members of the university community can log in to manage their requests and some services.
Facilitating communication using TeamDynamix
Service-related forms on the ITS website will be updated with TeamDynamix forms, including the ITS Service Center’s form to submit a help request. Similar to how the prior tool was used, the form responses will be automatically routed to the ITS team responsible for responding and fulfilling the request. The team will then use TeamDynamix to respond.
Two noticeable changes will be a result of the change:
- Forms will have a new URL. You may need to update bookmarks if you have older forms saved.
- The email you receive in reply from ITS teams will have a new format and a different address. Emails, including those from the ITS Service Center, will be sent from: U-M TeamDynamix <teamdynamix@umich.edu>. (However, the email to contact the ITS Service Center remains the same, 4HELP@umich.edu.)
Laser-focused on customer experience
The changes are a product of research and user testing with more than 50 students, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders. These first changes will be the first in a series to make the ITS website and other online tools work better together.
If you are interested in providing feedback on these or future changes, contact the ITS Digital User Experience team at itsdigitaluxteam@umich.edu for ways to get involved.
