Case Study: HopeLab Foundation

HopeLab Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on the research and development of new social technologies to promote human resilience and improve psychological and biological health and well-being. HopeLab is part of the Omidyar Group.

The Problem

HopeLab’s IT Department consisted of one person, David K., IT Manager. David was being bombarded with support requests daily and was unable to perform his managerial roles as well as management of his network.

• No Ticketing System: Support requests were all being sent to David’s direct inbox. There was no organized way to approach the request and there were no reports or metrics that could be pulled.
• Tedious Update Process: Application patches such as Adobe, Chrome, Firefox, and MS Office were only updated when users reported that such patches were available after receiving pop-up alerts.
• Reactive, not Proactive: Because of the limited manpower, problems would be addressed when they occurred. There was no way to proactively monitor the network to reveal any potential problems before they occurred.

The Solution

David engaged LevelUp MSP as an extension of his IT department. We put systems in place that worked and automated many of these manual processes.

• New Ticketing System: Freshdesk, an IT ticketing system, was deployed. David instructed staff to email Freshdesk whenever they encountered problems. Tickets would then be generated and notifications sent out to the appropriate owner. This helped offload many daily inquiries or problem requests to LevelUp MSP, so David could focus more on developing his network. Reports and metrics could now also be pulled to track any ongoing issues.
• Remote Management and Monitoring: A remote management and monitoring solution was put in place to assist with the management of Windows and third party software updates via process automation. Users no longer got pop-up notifications to update their software. LevelUp MSP also leveraged this system by automating other repetitive tasks such as remotely managing workstations and running scripts when needed, among other functions. In addition, LevelUp MSP tracked trends within the network to pinpoint potential problems before they arose.
• On-Site Support: Once a week, a staff member from LevelUp MSP goes onsite to assist with anything that needs physical interaction. This personalized support has proven extremely effective in putting faces to names, so staff members know who they’re working with. LevelUp MSP acts as an extension of the IT department rather than as an outside contractor.
• Consulting Services: As a one person IT Department, it was very difficult for David to collaborate and brainstorm on ideas. But by working with LevelUp MSP, he was able to collaborate with our specialists and derive joint solutions that he likely would have never found on his own.