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Community Spotlight: AMA with Freshservice MVP, Keefe Andrews, Director of IT, SpawGlass

Community Spotlight: AMA with Freshservice MVP, Keefe Andrews, Director of IT, SpawGlass
rashmi.nag
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Hola!! :grinning:

March is on a roll, we know, but it’s not ending soon. Up next, we have an exciting AMA session with our very own @keefe.andrews!

The spotlight this time on this edition of the community take-over will be on Keefe Andrews, Director of IT at SpawGlass, a Freshservice customer and a Refresh Community Champion.

 

Keefe was kind enough to answer some initial questions for us already, and we’ve got them here for you.

Question 1: What has your journey using Freshservice been like?

 

Question 2: What features have you derived the most value from during your time with Freshservice?

 

Question 3: What does your time in the Refresh Community look like?

 

Question 4: Do you have another example to include in the Freshservice Ninja Playbook?

 

Question 5: What would you like to share with the Refresh Community?

But this does not end here. Here’s an opportunity for you to connect and ask questions to Keefe on anything regarding his journey so far and his experience using Freshservice and the Refresh community.

 

How does it work?

  • Post your questions for Keefe in the comments section below
  • Keefe will join us LIVE, right here on March 28, 2022 at 1 PM CST or 11 AM PST or 11:30 PM IST
  • Engage in a conversation, ask follow up questions or share your two cents

See you then on March 28 at 1 PM (CST)/ 11 AM (PT)/ 11:30 PM (IST)

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks

50 replies

keefe.andrews
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Hey @keefe.andrews. My question for you 
 

What’s something you enjoy about the work you do?

 

Curious to know 😀 

Thanks for taking time in doing this.

Two of the most enjoyable parts of my job are:

  1. Developing new IT team members. At SpawGlass, we don’t just build buildings, we also build people. Over half of my team started their IT career at SpawGlass, and we invest in them and provide plenty of training and support so they can be successful in their roles. It is very gratifying to see how the experience of my team grows each quarter.
  2. Watching the “aha IT moments”. Part of the joy of working in IT is delivering solutions that makes our team members work hours better. When we can introduce a process or technology that reduces waste or show someone how to take a 30 minute task and turn it into a 3 minute one, it is very gratifying to see the satisfaction on their face. 
rashmi.nag
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Ah, I see Keefe has already begun taking questions! We’re all set to engage, and collaborate! 😎

Since I had my introduction ready, I’ll still go ahead and give it! 🙃
In Edition 2 of our customer spotlight session, we are grateful to have SpawGlass’s Director of IT, Keefe Andrews join us!

A very warm welcome, Keefe! How are you doing? 😀

Let’s get started with today’s Community take-over!

 

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks
keefe.andrews
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Starting a minute before time ;) 

 

@keefe.andrews , thank you for initiating the Freshservice Ninja Playbook! It’s super nice to see so many people sharing their expertise with each other and learning from one another.

Question to you, What made you initiate the Freshservice Cookbook/ Ninja Playbook?

I frequently have seen how to articles from community groups for other software and hardware products. Also, I know I have benefited from the support articles provided by Freshworks. I wanted to share that benfit with others, and I get the double bonus of generating good documentation for my team, and helping the community out as well. 

keefe.andrews
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Hey @keefe.andrews. My question for you 
 

What’s something you enjoy about the work you do?

 

Curious to know 😀 

Thanks for taking time in doing this.

Two of the most enjoyable parts of my job are:

  1. Developing new IT team members. At SpawGlass, we don’t just build buildings, we also build people. Over half of my team started their IT career at SpawGlass, and we invest in them and provide plenty of training and support so they can be successful in their roles. It is very gratifying to see how the experience of my team grows each quarter.
  2. Watching the “aha IT moments”. Part of the joy of working in IT is delivering solutions that makes our team members work hours better. When we can introduce a process or technology that reduces waste or show someone how to take a 30 minute task and turn it into a 3 minute one, it is very gratifying to see the satisfaction on their face. 

Optimizing processes and workflows is key! At SpawGlass, how often do you carry out such activities and make enhancements? 

At a minimum we are working on enhancements on a quarterly basis. The process is something like this:

We take an approach of People > Process > then Technology. Get buy in from your people first, then define how the process should be carried out, then apply the technology solution.

If you have the right people doing the task, then the next step is to see if there is a documented or known process or is it just that person’s way of carrying out a task. We want the solution to be applicable and repeatable for the organization as much as possible, and we also want to review if an existing process has waste. 

Then you get to the fun part. Depending on the enhancement it may be a simple fix that you make and then validate with your team that it meets the need. For something that is more of a quarterly project, I like the Lean IT approach of delivering the most valuable items first, gathering feedback, and then iterating on the solution. In our Infrastructure team, we are using the workflow automator to do a lot of this value creation for us and others by reducing repetitive tasks. 

zachary.king
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Have always appreciated @keefe.andrews contributions in the community. Great to see him getting the recognition he deserves!! Keep it up my friend 👍

Take care!

- Zach / ITSM Solutions Engineer
rashmi.nag
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Hi Everyone! How’s the week beginning going for all of you? My day was pretty nice and I’ve been waiting to host this session today for all of you. 😃

 

We’ve got 1 hour to go to be joined by @keefe.andrews, who’s our Freshservice and Refresh Community MVP. He is the Director of IT at SpawGlass which is a leading Texas-based commercial and civil contractor providing clients with the absolute best construction experience.

Keep your questions ready, and your experiences handy. This 30-min chat session is going to be filled with lots of learning and networking.

Here are a few things to know before we get started -

  1. This will be a text-based chat happening right here in the comments section. So, drop in your questions!

  2. Feel free to answer questions coming in from your peers. It definitely helps to get everyone’s perspective!

  3. If you cannot make it at 1 pm CST or even if you’re past time, you can still post your questions for Keefe.

  4. Be mindful of your comments to others and remember to abide by the community guidelines.

Tagging a few folks to participate and share their thoughts to today’s conversation!
@zachary.king @lavjoson @raymondcanilao @Stratto @patricksawyer @vijay_2am @rubi.odell @Arvind Ramamurti @aarvav.akash @Isaac Thomas @alyssia.correa @rhea.desouza @vishnu.selvaraj @OmkarP @Alefre 🤝🏼

 

See you all soon! 🌷

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks
keefe.andrews
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So glad to have you on today @keefe.andrews!! I’d love if you could share with us how a typical day looks like as an IT professional?

For each role in our team our typical day varies a little bit but here are the constants we like to abide by:

  • Short daily standups to help teams know what each is doing (we use FreshService Analyics and Kanbanize so show WIP) Standups are not to exceed 30 minutes.
  • One on one check ins at least every two weeks with direct reports. This allows for frequent feedback, sharing of concerns, and ideas for projects or improvements
  • Taking care of team members incidents and requests. The core of IT should be about delivering a good experience, and a lot of this is done through efficient communication and delivering fixes and features in a timely manner.
  • Collaboration. We text/call/chat about issues, outages, and other daily business events to make sure we are all in the know and leveraging each others knowledge and strengths. 
keefe.andrews
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While our members join in, here’s my question to Keefe: What, according to you, do organizations hope to achieve by introducing ITSM?

I believe organizations are looking to break down silos and simplify access to support and resources when adopting an ITSM. Employee or customer experience should be top of mind, as far too many of us have experience of having to get support from multiple channels or locations. 

R
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Woooho! Looking forward to this :)

Thanks, @keefe.andrews for your bite-sized insights on your videos.

Isaac Thomas
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Starting a minute before time ;) 

 

@keefe.andrews , thank you for initiating the Freshservice Ninja Playbook! It’s super nice to see so many people sharing their expertise with each other and learning from one another.

Question to you, What made you initiate the Freshservice Cookbook/ Ninja Playbook?

-- Isaac
Isaac Thomas
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So glad to have you on today @keefe.andrews!! I’d love if you could share with us how a typical day looks like as an IT professional?

I can guess how the a day would look like if the organization doesn’t have a tool to manage IT  🤣 😜

-- Isaac
zachary.king
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A little late to the party but my question for @keefe.andrews would be “What would you consider to be the biggest challenge companies are facing when implementing an ITSM tool like Freshservice?”

Have enjoyed what I have read already. Really appreciate your insights!

- Zach / ITSM Solutions Engineer
keefe.andrews
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How do you see community or any kind of peer-to-peer support helping IT professionals grow in their careers?

One way community support can help is it makes it possible for us to resolve problems faster. I remember a college professor telling me the best thing you can do in IT is be really good at searching for answers online. When we share our IT problems and answers it can benefit someone else down the line when the same issue happens in their business.

I think community involvement is also a great resume builder. It is one thing to claim you have expertise in a platform or software, but it is hard to demonstrate that in a one hour interview. Community support and involvement in a platform is something you can provide as reference material before or after an interview that can help you stand out from the crowd.

Also I have heard stories that some IT professionals have been recruited to work for other companies because of their community involvement. 

Isaac Thomas
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@keefe.andrews , loved your crisp responses! Way to go!

Keep it coming and we’d love to meet you soon in your city over a glass of wine! 

-- Isaac
zachary.king
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Also, there is a big push to find ways to implement Machine Learning and AI into Self-Service, @keefe.andrews How would you suggest implementing these tools in a way that improves the Customer and Employee Experience? Is it possible to do so in a seamless manner?

- Zach / ITSM Solutions Engineer
keefe.andrews
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Great to see you here @keefe.andrews - It has always been an intriguing conversation whenever we had a chance to speak. I wanted to know from you, what are the top 3 benefits that Spawglass reaped by implementing ITSM?

I would say the top 3 are:

  1. Centralized service. Our team members have a one stop shop for getting help, supplies, and access to KB articles.
  2. Automation. The workflow automator is saving us large chunks of time on repetitive tasks.
  3. Reports, Dashboards, and Feedback. The platform helps us to review trends and see how well we are performing as a team and taking care of our team members. 
rashmi.nag
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While this was supposed to be just a 30-min chat, seeing the amazing questions coming in, we’d love to leave this thread open for more questions, thoughts and conversations.

So for those who were unable to participate, feel free to still access the conversation, post questions for Keefe, engage and share your thoughts on the existing questions!

I’d really love to thank @keefe.andrews for agreeing to stay available and do this wonderful chat with us!

@manns @patricksawyer @Denise.S.P @raymondcanilao - Would to hear it from you folks as well!

Just curious to know - Would any of you like to virtually join us for such chat sessions where we can interact over audio and video? 👀

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks
keefe.andrews
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While our members join in, here’s my question to Keefe: What, according to you, do organizations hope to achieve by introducing ITSM?

I believe organizations are looking to break down silos and simplify access to support and resources when adopting an ITSM. Employee or customer experience should be top of mind, as far too many of us have experience of having to get support from multiple channels or locations. 

On the same line…

While implementing an ITSM tool, have you considered the impact it’ll have on your team?

Yes, the impact of any new tool must be beneficial for both IT and the company that it serves. An ITSM solution should make it easier for team members to get support and answers, and help the IT team get context around the issues being reported.

manns
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How do you see community or any kind of peer-to-peer support helping IT professionals grow in their careers?

One way community support can help is it makes it possible for us to resolve problems faster. I remember a college professor telling me the best thing you can do in IT is be really good at searching for answers online. When we share our IT problems and answers it can benefit someone else down the line when the same issue happens in their business.

I think community involvement is also a great resume builder. It is one thing to claim you have expertise in a platform or software, but it is hard to demonstrate that in a one hour interview. Community support and involvement in a platform is something you can provide as reference material before or after an interview that can help you stand out from the crowd.

Also I have heard stories that some IT professionals have been recruited to work for other companies because of their community involvement. 

Definitely. Being seen online is a great way to get “the next job” (if the current internal opportunities are lacking). Happened to me three jobs in a row (until I started working for myself).

But we shouldn’t forget that sharing/helping online is usually more about others (even though one hopefully gets personal satisfaction from aiding others). And I’d argue that trying to “game” an online presence with personal motivations is likely not going to get you seen in a positive way :)

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
keefe.andrews
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So glad to have you on today @keefe.andrews!! I’d love if you could share with us how a typical day looks like as an IT professional?

For each role in our team our typical day varies a little bit but here are the constants we like to abide by:

  • Short daily standups to help teams know what each is doing (we use FreshService Analyics and Kanbanize so show WIP) Standups are not to exceed 30 minutes.
  • One on one check ins at least every two weeks with direct reports. This allows for frequent feedback, sharing of concerns, and ideas for projects or improvements
  • Taking care of team members incidents and requests. The core of IT should be about delivering a good experience, and a lot of this is done through efficient communication and delivering fixes and features in a timely manner.
  • Collaboration. We text/call/chat about issues, outages, and other daily business events to make sure we are all in the know and leveraging each others knowledge and strengths. 

@keefe.andrews nice points. How about when things aren’t going well? For example, there’s a backlog despite the collaboration? Or a customer is particularly unhappy? Thanks :)

@manns Thanks for asking about the other side of the coin. One of our biggest challenges are making sure our WIP (work in progress) is visible to the rest of the company, so we can do proper capacity planning. We are working to develop consistency on how we show our current project allocation. When issues do arise we like to “swarm” on the issue where all the right IT team members discuss how we can all understand the problem and work to solve it together. (Steven Covey habit: Seek to Understand, then to be understood) We tend to use IDS (Identify, Discuss, Solve) to work on issues as a team. Identify what the real issue is (not the symptom), Discuss context, and possible solutions, and then Solve the issue by accepting it, outsourcing the solution, or fixing it.
 

raymondcanilao
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Curious to know if how do you handle detected software marked as “restricted”. Do you inform the Employee or department heads to notice? if yes, how? or do you just uninstall the app directly and not escalating it.

manns
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Looking forward to this and the shared insights :)

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
Isaac Thomas
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Catch you’ll soon! Do block your calendar… I’m sure this AMA is going to be super exciting! 

@Alefre @ErikAlmSynerity @GlennA @Sebastian_S @liamjordanmartin @OmerPaz @BrynCYDEF @Nezeki @Jerome.Haynes @Stratto @ggallaway @patricksawyer @ekrasner @michael.fong @m.rieder @IJR @MartinDG @raymondcanilao @Julie @fredddd @JCC @ShawnaJ 

 

-- Isaac
alyssia.correa
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So glad to have you on today @keefe.andrews!! I’d love if you could share with us how a typical day looks like as an IT professional?

Ally, Freshworks Community Manager
rashmi.nag
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Two of the most enjoyable parts of my job are:

  1. Developing new IT team members. At SpawGlass, we don’t just build buildings, we also build people. Over half of my team started their IT career at SpawGlass, and we invest in them and provide plenty of training and support so they can be successful in their roles. It is very gratifying to see how the experience of my team grows each quarter.
  2. Watching the “aha IT moments”. Part of the joy of working in IT is delivering solutions that makes our team members work hours better. When we can introduce a process or technology that reduces waste or show someone how to take a 30 minute task and turn it into a 3 minute one, it is very gratifying to see the satisfaction on their face. 

How well said! The statement ‘we don’t just build buildings, we also build people’ is so powerful!

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks

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