Ryan Vogel, project manager for the Academic Technology Support (ATS) department of UT Austin is responsible for getting new assets like computers to over 3,000 faculty and staff. He manages deployment of resources to the Desktop Operation Centers (DOC), which are pods in campus buildings manned by two to three employees to answer walk-up tickets in their area.
Increasing efficiency of deployment and removing bottlenecks
Scheduling appointments with end users (faculty and staff) was a waste of time for ATS, prone to rework and frustration. Prior to using Calendly, there were no less than six steps to get a computer deployed. For every invitation Ryan sent to schedule, he would have to await a response and confirm before sending the next. This was creating a huge bottleneck in order to prevent overbooking. Every invitation took at least 7 minutes to issue and days or even weeks to get scheduled.
ATS needed a solution to more efficiently manage both ends of scheduling between end users and deployment centers. Because Calendly offers admin roles and a self-scheduling model to end users, Ryan can now distribute deployments across the DOCs without creating a bottleneck. Because Ryan can set scheduling parameters for when deployment is available, he doesn’t have to manually select time slots to offer to an end user, he just sets the days and hours for when the DOC is staffed. Once a time is booked in Calendly, that slot is no longer shown so other invitees are only given available times to choose from.
Saving time and money on resource management
UT Austin’s ATS department ran a pilot test of Calendly to test the impact on their deployment project. They verified that Calendly integrated with their Office365 calendars and worked alongside their ticketing system without any impediments. They created Calendly accounts for each DOC so everyone on that team could see the deployments scheduled and Ryan could manage all those events in his Calendly admin dashboard.
Calendly created an 89% increase in efficiency and cost savings of 87.5%.
How did University of Texas at Austin save money through administrative scheduling? To schedule deployment, Ryan creates a ticket to log the customer data and computer tag number, then sends a Calendly link through email or Slack to the customer to choose when they would like to pick up their new computer from their nearest DOC. End users don’t need to download any software, which is essential since not all faculty or staff have the permission to do so.By using Calendly, ATS has shortened the deployment process from six steps to three and saved 17 hours on their first test project. This translates to an 87.5% cost savings for similar projects. It took minimal training, was implemented almost instantly and reduced errors and rework by 20%. With the savings and value they’ve seen, ATS plans to use Calendly for any project or service requiring extensive scheduling with end users.
The challenge
Ryan Vogel, project manager for the technology support department of UT Austin is responsible for deploying computers and other hardware to over 3,000 faculty and staff. Scheduling appointments to deliver new resources to faculty and staff was impossible for the technology support department, full of rework, inefficiency and frustration. Prior to using Calendly, there were six steps to get a computer from Ryan’s support team into the hands of the appropriate faculty.
To prevent overbooking, Ryan would wait for a response to his appointment invitations and send a confirmation before reaching out to the next person. This created a major bottleneck. Every scheduling invitation took several minutes to issue and days or even weeks to get confirmed adding up to hours of wasted time spent trying to schedule. The support department needed a more efficient solution to manage both ends of scheduling between deployment centers and faculty.
The solution
The technology support department ran a pilot of Calendly to test the impact on their resource deployment project. Calendly integrates with their Office365 calendars and works seamlessly with their support ticket system.
To schedule resource deployment, Ryan sends a Calendly link through email or Slack to a faculty member. The recipient then chooses when they would like to pick up their new computer from their nearest support desk. Faculty don’t need to install any software, which makes scheduling through Calendly a cinch.
By creating a Calendly account for each support desk, staff managing the desks can see their scheduled events and Ryan can manage all the desks’ events in his Calendly admin dashboard. Ryan can choose which support desk’s scheduling link to send to specific faculty members and they can schedule to receive their hardware at their convenience.
Once a time is booked in Calendly, that slot is no longer shown, meaning faculty can schedule simultaneously without double-booking. So Ryan doesn’t have to schedule with staff members one by one. There’s no more bottleneck and the support team can distribute resources to the different support desks only when they are staffed.
Results / key benefits
Before Calendly, the support team’s deployment projects took an average of 19.25 hours. With Calendly it takes just 2.4 hours.
By using Calendly, UT Austin shortened the resource deployment process from six steps to three and saved 17 hours on their pilot project. It took minimal training, implementation was almost instant and it reduced errors and rework by 20%, saving both time and money. With the value they’ve seen, UT Austin’s technology support team plans to use Calendly for any project or service requiring extensive scheduling with their staff and faculty.
