The Arts Council in England has been able to avoid IT budget cuts thanks to a new service desk system.

IT director Owen Powell said that switching from a disparate regional service using various software packages to a single IT hub built around Sunrise Software’s Sostenuto platform has not only enabled subsequent savings to be reinvested in improving service quality but also provided evidence of effectiveness that has been crucial in protecting the department’s budget.

“What you will hear very often, not only in our organisation but in many others, is value for money, and there’s no better way of proving that than with evidence and reports,” he said. “Everyone using Sostenuto consistently means we can get reports and evidence in terms of closing calls.”

Before the switchover began last year, there were separate IT officers serving nine different regions, using Remedy software in different ways.

“It was chaotic,” said Powell. “It didn’t work at all.”

But the creation of a centralised service desk at the Arts Council service centre in Manchester, alongside the implementation of Sostenuto, means some 26 staff are now working on the same platform. The resulting savings have enabled Powell to expand the range of services provided by IT, including the appointment of business analysts, an activity that had previously been outsourced.

The initial focus was sharpening problem management processes, followed by the introduction of a more formal service catalogue.

“It’s made a big difference,” said Powell. “In the first couple of months people were anxious because they had lost their local person but they got used to calling the central desk and I’ve heard nothing but praise for it.

“Maybe we implemented Remedy badly but we’re certainly comfortable using Sostenuto, which is a nice tool to use, and is very flexible, so we can very easily make minor changes ourselves.”

One of the motives for the overhaul was to make the organisation ITIL compatible. Powell said that although frontline desk staff now had foundation status, the Arts Council was only about 80 per cent compliant with ITIL and would continue working towards it.

Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts and distributes funds from government and the National Lottery.