GovCMS — an efficient, scalable service desk

GovCMS’ challenge

In 2018, the GovCMS platform was growing fast. As part of a new contract, the GovCMS/Finance team needed a dedicated and experienced team to offer full service desk support.

GovCMS’ transformation — a Service Desk that scaled as the platform grew

The GovCMS Service Desk was tailored specifically for the new platform. Once a ticket/issue is raised via the online system, the ticket is triaged by a Salsa Digital Service Desk agent and assigned to the best team/person. Some tickets need to be actioned by Dept of Finance/GovCMS, some by Salsa and some by our platform partner, amazee.io. GovCMS customers can easily monitor their ticket’s progress in the customer portal. They can also access self-serve help, with over 110 knowledge-base articles available.

As the platform has grown, efficiency and consistency have become even more important. 

When Salsa Digital and GovCMS launched GovCMS 2.0 in November 2018, there were approximately 250 active sites (of which just over 100 were production sites). Today the GovCMS Service Desk supports 450+ agency websites across 100 government agencies.

The chart below shows that as the number of sites on the platform grows, tickets received and resolved also increases. The rising trend lines meet in Q2 of 2021, and then the Service Desk is resolving as many tickets as it’s receiving, regardless of the increased number of sites.

The number of active sites (from when GovCMS 2.0 was launched in November 2018 to February 2023) has increased by 56%, however ticket trends show the number of new tickets on the service desk has only increased by 31%. The total resolved tickets over the same period has increased 36%.

These numbers indicate that despite the increase in total active sites on the platform, the number of new tickets has not increased at the same rate. This is because of efficiencies introduced to the GovCMS Service Desk, in particular the proportion of tickets closed by Level 1 agents increasing at a higher rate.

The chart below shows that while the number of tickets closed by the GovCMS Service Desk rises, the proportion of tickets closed by Level 1 agents increased at a greater rate. 

In February 2023, 37% of all service desk tickets were resolved by L1 GovCMS Service Desk.

Finally, the chart below shows that in most months, between 12% and 15% of customers respond to the service desk customer satisfaction survey. On average, 94% of customers said they were either 'extremely satisfied' or 'satisfied'.

Restraining cost to serve while increasing agency support

Critical in restraining the cost to serve while increasing volume has been:

• Better knowledge bases
• Investment in operational documentation, training and education
• Tuning tools, processes and communications
• Continuous improvement

The chart below shows that costs to resolve tickets increases more slowly than the growth in tickets, indicating an efficiency of scale. Costs included in this data are directly related to the functioning of the GovCMS Service Desk.

The outcomes — improved efficiencies and reduced costs per service desk ticket

• A dedicated, customised service desk to meet GovCMS customer needs
• More self-serve options, which has led to a decrease in the number of support tickets raised per site
• A more efficient service desk with faster ticket resolution, with more support tickets closed by Level 1 service desk agents
• GovCMS/Finance has retained the cost to serve for GovCMS clients during considerable platform growth

A service desk that coordinates support resources and responses across 5 distinct, cross-functional teams spanning Finance, Salsa Digital and amazee.io — now dealing with 102 different government agencies as customers