Background:
Appalachian State University is located in Boone, NC. With 18,811 students and an endowment of approximately $94.6M, it is one of the largest colleges in the state of North Carolina. They use a combination of multiple tools and processes to provide IT services and support to students and faculty/staff.
The Challenge:
Appalachian State University was using multiple disparate systems for help desk ticketing, CMDB, and development task tracking and management. Appalachian State wanted to consolidate these systems into one Atlassian Tool Suite (Jira Software, Service Desk, Core, Confluence, and Bitbucket) and also receive enterprise-wide training services.
The Solution:
Appalachian State contracted with Ascend Integrated to provide process and tool guidance and support, process support, and training services. Using their expertise in implementing tools and processes across large organizations, Ascend Integrated provided coaching and guidance for ITIL v3 services and best practices, Agile (Scrum + Kanban) guidance, and Atlassian Tool Suite Data Center support for Jira Software, Service Desk, Confluence, and Bitbucket.
Ascend Integrated also worked to develop and implement Shibboleth SSO integration using the Atlassian Data Center. Ascend provided training to large audiences (over 20 attendees) for advanced JIRA and Confluence functions as Atlassian Training Partners.
Outcome:
With Ascend Integrated’s expertise, Appalachian State is successfully utilizing Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket Data Center to support thousands of students and faculty members. The new implementation has made it easy for students to log tickets/issues and requests through a simple, refined portal. All faculty members were successfully trained on the use and functionalities of the Atlassian Tool Suite. Ascend continues to support the Appalachian State team following the implementation.