InfoComp

Challenge

Improve issue and process management to meet rapid growth, increasing complexity and evolving workflow needs

Solution

Serena PVCS Professional

Results

• Increased team productivity and communication
• Improved efficiency and accuracy of issue tracking
• Reduced issue resolution time
• Enhanced planning for anticipated workloads
• Improved overall software quality and service

“Tracker makes the management of the whole lifecycle process easier…You save yourself minutes every time you investigate an issue because you can see all the information that relates to that issue.”
— David Sheaffe, Business Systems Manager, InfoComp

Fast-Growing Software Company Streamlines and Centralizes Issue Management

Some of the largest and most respected financial institutions, including JPMorgan Investor Services, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, and Credit Suisse Asset Management, rely on InfoComp software to help administer funds and trusts, manage portfolios, and expedite transactions. Based in Sydney, Australia, the company has grown rapidly in recent years as the financial market has increasingly adopted its software.

InfoComp’s clients consider the software mission-critical to their daily operations. As part of the financial industry, these organizations contend with a number of changing and complex regulatory requirements, meaning InfoComp must stay on top of clients’ needs and adapt its software functionality accordingly.

As InfoComp began to grow rapidly in the late ‘90s, it hit limitations with its issue and change management software vendor at the time. With just a set number of fields, the software it was using was inflexible in meeting evolving workflow needs. On top of that, InfoComp saw that it would be left hanging when the software vendor discontinued its product and support.

“We could see that our current system wasn’t going to cope with the growth of the organization and the complexity we wanted to add,” said David Sheaffe, Business Systems Manager, InfoComp. “There was very little we could do if we wanted to change our processes and record additional information regarding the issue lifecycle. We couldn’t really report out of it or export information either. As the company matured, we wanted something that would keep up with us.”

A Complete Solution for Software Change and Configuration Management

After evaluating available solutions, InfoComp chose to move to Serena PVCS Professional, the world’s most popular issue, version, and build management suite. InfoComp’s end-to-end solution set includes Serena PVCS Version Manager, Serena Tracker, and Serena Builder. PVCS Professional enables the company’s development teams to achieve more control over application development, while boosting team productivity and schedule reliability.

According to Sheaffe, InfoComp was most attracted to PVCS Professional’s industry-leading reputation, degree of customizability and web interface, which would enable the company to open it to external client access. Plus, the change and configuration management tools would integrate together, making them both accessible via one convenient interface.

Centralized Issue Management – from Submission to Final Release

InfoComp now manages its three main software products using Tracker. The implementation and software development teams turn to Tracker to manage the complete lifecycle of software enhancements, from the time a client submits a request through requirements gathering, development, testing and final release. Whereas the company’s previous system only had one workflow, InfoComp configured Tracker with four different issue types – defect, enhancement, support, or query – that each has its own workflow.

InfoComp clients access Tracker directly online to submit issues. Because issues go right into Tracker, InfoComp eliminates the time spent logging requests. That also prevents loss and results in more accurate information in Tracker. All communication and dates related to an enhancement are tied to that issue, enabling the team to locate information immediately. “Tracker makes the management of the whole lifecycle process easier,” Sheaffe said. “There’s a single source of information. You know the information is correct and there’s no confusion. You save yourself minutes every time you investigate an issue because you can see all the information that relates to that issue.”

With Tracker as the central location for all information, project teams stay in close communication about enhancements and can anticipate workloads. Developers and testers can see enhancements in the pipeline and anticipate upcoming work.

Having a central system for managing issues has been essential as InfoComp has grown to over 90 people in the past few years. As needed, InfoComp can add a virtually unlimited number of fields in Tracker.

“Business over the past five years has grown enormously,” Sheaffe said. “Tracker has been there along the way to manage implementations with clients. It plays a part in ensuring that we have a lot of control over projects and their likely success.”

Improving Help Desk Resolution Times

Leveraging Tracker’s versatility, InfoComp’s IT department also uses the software as its Help Desk, a call logging application for issues ranging from simple login problems to major internal deployments. Before, the lack of a system hindered IT in monitoring issues and resolving them in a timely manner. Now, all employees have access to Tracker, through which they can submit, update and check on issues at any time. With one central system, the help desk resolves issues more quickly and effectively. “Turnaround time has improved and issues are less likely to be lost,” Sheaffe said.

Enhancing Service, Team Efficiency with Powerful Reporting

Project managers tap into reporting in Tracker to provide metrics to clients and inform internal processes. Daily, through automation in Tracker, the company publishes online statistics for clients on issues submitted, and those open and closed. Additionally, they provide monthly reports summarizing issue activity, easily exporting metrics from Tracker into Excel files. Internally, InfoComp uses weekly reports to monitor the progress on issue types and priority levels. Plus, IT delivers weekly reports to employees on help desk issues so they know the current status.

Greater Control over Source Code

InfoComp manages source code for two of its software products with PVCS Version Manager. A central configuration management team at InfoComp relies on PVCS Version Manager to ensure that changes to source code are reflected in all projects. “PVCS Version Manager enhances code quality and gives us better control over the changes that are made,” Sheaffe said.

Additionally, the company turns to PVCS Version Manager for version control of its user guides, which are updated with every major release, or about every six months. Since InfoComp adopted PVCS Professional five years ago, new releases have kept pace with the company’s ongoing needs for greater configurability and functionality. Serena’s responsive, reliable customer support has further added to the company’s experience during its period of growth.

Move to Serena TeamTrack Offers Many Enhancements

On the heels of success with Tracker, InfoComp plans to upgrade to the Serena® TeamTrack® solution. TeamTrack replaces Tracker in PVCS Professional to deliver the functionality of Tracker and more: superior process management and enforcement, enhanced configurability and reporting, graphical workflow editor, nested projects, sophisticated triggering/scripting, and a full-featured and customizable web-based interface. These additional capabilities will improve customer service and productivity in each department. InfoComp is also considering rolling out TeamTrack to manage non-software-related needs, such as Human Resources requests. While the company has been certified to ISO 9001, an international standard for quality, for a number of years, it is confident that it will be able to leverage TeamTrack to further improve its overall process management.