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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

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

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks
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
rashmi.nag
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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!

Welcome, @zachary.king! I’m glad you’re liking it :D

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks
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. 
Isaac Thomas
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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?

Intriguing… Will wait for Keefe’s response… 

-- Isaac
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.

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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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? 👀

Thanks @rashmi.nag .. Would love hear more from Keefe (and also pose every question that’s been bothering me)  🍷

-- Isaac
keefe.andrews
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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!

@zachary.king I think the biggest challenge is getting buy in from the organization and those who will be supporting the ITSM tool. A platform is only good as the content that is on it. There should be plans and accountability for how incidents are handled, content is kept fresh and up to date, and how the ITSM tool is being advertised and referenced. Feedback in the pre-deployment and testing phase is critical so the tool is seen as an enhancement to the company, and not an IT mandated process that everyone dreads to use. 

rashmi.nag
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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. 

Ah, how wonderful to hear. We truly wish we can create that space right here for more of you to engage, learn, support and grow!

Few months back, @manns did A Fireside Chat with us where he did touch upon similar points as you just did. Plugging it here in case anyone wants to re-watch the session

 

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks
keefe.andrews
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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?

@zachary.king @Isaac Thomas I think it depends on how well the ML and AI engine can learn and adapt. The systems that have some sort of human feedback loop can probably “skill up” and provide value sooner, vs just relying on an algorithm that the developer used to try and catch all applicable situations. We have been experimenting with the Teams chatbot and find that it works well when certian keywords are used by the requester. If those keywords can be expanded then it would allow us to “train” the bot for what kind of solutions someone is looking for. Another option would be to allow branching questions from the bot like: “I am looking for a KB article, I am looking to buy something, I need to escallate a ticket, etc...”

keefe.andrews
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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? 👀

@rashmi.nag You are welcome 😄 I was glad to participate in this event and look forward to future interactions with all!

 I would certainly be open to a virtual fireside chat in the future as another way that we can engage in the community.

rashmi.nag
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Wohoo! So we already have Keefe interested in participating in a community virtual huddle/ chat.

Please add your name to this list and reply in case that’s something you’d like to be a part of [We’d love to reach out to you in planning this better] :) 
@keefe.andrews 
@rashmi.nag 

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks
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?

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

😂😂 for sure!! 

Ally, Freshworks Community Manager
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?

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. 

Thanks for sharing that @keefe.andrews - I love how the emphasis is on communication and collaboration and that is so key for delivering a good experience!

Ally, Freshworks Community Manager
manns
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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 :)

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
manns
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Wohoo! So we already have Keefe interested in participating in a community virtual huddle/ chat.

Please add your name to this list and reply in case that’s something you’d like to be a part of [We’d love to reach out to you in planning this better] :) 
@keefe.andrews 
@rashmi.nag

I’d like to join in please (time zones permitting)

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
manns
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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?

@zachary.king @Isaac Thomas I think it depends on how well the ML and AI engine can learn and adapt. The systems that have some sort of human feedback loop can probably “skill up” and provide value sooner, vs just relying on an algorithm that the developer used to try and catch all applicable situations. We have been experimenting with the Teams chatbot and find that it works well when certian keywords are used by the requester. If those keywords can be expanded then it would allow us to “train” the bot for what kind of solutions someone is looking for. Another option would be to allow branching questions from the bot like: “I am looking for a KB article, I am looking to buy something, I need to escallate a ticket, etc...”

I still think that the biggest issue we will see is what happened with self-service - that there’s insufficient organizational change management, with AI enablement seen as a technology thing rather than a people change (as we are changing traditional ways of working).

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
manns
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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? 👀

I think the audio and video capability makes it so much easier to keep involved in conversations. But appreciate that the text-based chat is great for capturing the shared nuggets (thanks to cut and paste).

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
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.

keefe.andrews
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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.

@raymondcanilao Right now we don’t use that functionality since many of our systems do not allow for the installation of software by end users. If I were to approach the problem, it would depend on the process you have defined. If no process is defined, do that first and then communicate it to the business and get buy in. (that way they understand that we are doing restricted software removal so that: performance is increased on our hardware, we are not exposed to license audits, less exposure to advertizing tracking, etc...)

We have email templates that are used to notify team members about maintenance windows, planned changes, etc. so I would probably design one for restricted software removal notice once your process is approved. If you use a software management tool like PDQ deploy or Intune you can call powershell scripts to perform installs or other tasks on your behalf. Hope that helps!

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