by Mike Brown | Oct 15, 2018
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.
by Mike Brown | Oct 15, 2018
Background:
Located in Boca Raton, FL, Lynn University is a private university founded in 1962 providing bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. The University supports upwards of 2,000+ undergraduate students, and has a well defined and mature IT infrastructure and team.
The Challenge:
Lynn University is going through an agile, support desk, and DevOps transformation. After investigating multiple project management software tools, Lynn University decided to implement the Atlassian Tool Suite (Jira Software, Service Desk, Confluence, and Status Page) across their organization. This will allow faculty and students to easily interact with help and technical support services, and enable development teams to easily track and manage their software development projects.
The Solution:
Ascend Integrated was brought in by Lynn University to discuss processes, develop processes and procedures based on the agile initiatives, and finally to implement these processes through Jira Software, Service Desk and Confluence. Ascend worked with Lynn University in installing, configuring, and implementing the Atlassian Tool Suite. Ascend Integrated ensured all requirements were met and delivered to Lynn University, and held beta testing / User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with multiple departments before rolling it out to the student and faculty bodies.
Outcome:
Ascend Integrated continues to support Lynn University in the capacity of an Atlassian expert and Agile / DevOps consulting specialist. The system is used by the faculty and students for tracking and managing trouble tickets / issues. The system is also used by both the project management team and development team to track and manage software development initiatives, projects, and upgrades.
by Mike Brown | Apr 13, 2018
Background:
The Catholic Health (CHS) is a large non-profit comprehensive healthcare system formed in 1998. The organization provides health services through its network of hospitals and healthcare practitioners. The system brings together more than 9,000 associates and 1,300 physicians in Western New York healthcare market.
The Challenge:
CHS is undergoing major IT transformations and is in the process of shifting multiple tools and services to new IT systems. CHS contacted Ascend Integrated to help define their software development processes and project management processes, but also to implement Jira, Confluence, and Jira Portfolio throughout the healthcare network. Jira and Confluence would be used to support software and IT development, along with project management support and documentation.
The Solution:
Ascend Integrated, in a week was able to install and begin configuring Jira, Confluence, and Jira Portfolio for CHS. Ascend provided installation and configuration support, including process management support for agile, hybrid, and waterfall project management. Ascend Integrated provided architecture support and layout, and also worked closely with CHS to ensure all requirements were implemented correctly and in a timely fashion.
Outcome:
CHS is currently using Jira, Jira Portfolio, and Confluence for project management and tracking. It is now used across the healthcare system, and has been used for tracking the implementation of new tools and software being integrated / implemented into the system. Ascend continues to support the implementation at CHS Buffalo.
