Queensland University of Technology: Managing campus health and safety with Ivanti

As required by law, QUT’s Department of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) must log, manage and report on all incidents (including accidents, issues and potential problems) encountered on the campus.

For many years, the university managed this process using paper forms which were submitted to the HSE team who would manually copy the information into an Access database. In 2012 HSE started using the ticketing module of their cloud HR application. However, the online form offered by the solution could only be used by staff. Students couldn’t access it at all, meaning many incidents went unreported. Staff were generally unenthusiastic about using the system and they often failed to fully complete the clunky reporting form, which meant there was never enough complete or relevant data for the HSE team to work with.

Despite every endeavour to configure and stretch its capabilities, the ticketing module was never truly fit for purpose. And because the system lacked flexible reporting capabilities, it was difficult for the HSE team to analyse data to the desired degree. With only a couple of fields to collect supplementary data, issues couldn’t be filtered at a granular level.

QUT wanted to streamline and automate their HSE process, and to do this they needed a much better solution. Faced with having to find an affordable off-the-shelf solution or re-purposing an existing QUT business application, the HSE team decided to look more closely at the Ivanti solution behind the university’s highly successful Service Desk.

Amanda Marnock, Senior HSE Technology and Innovations Advisor for QUT, and Executive Director Health, Safety & Environment, Adam Williams, sounded out the idea of re-architecting the Ivanti solution with Fusion5 in early 2015.

While the solution hadn’t been used for HSE before, Fusion5 was confident it would be perfect for the job. After several workshops designed to gauge the viability of deploying the platform to meet the university’s HSE needs, the concept got the thumbs up.

Fusion5 demonstrated the protype to the HSE team in mid-2015. Impressed that the Ivanti platform would go well beyond their needs, QUT gave the project the green light.

“One of the biggest benefits of the new system is that it’s really user friendly. It’s been so much easier and faster to use that people are more likely to report an incident because they can get through the process quickly.”

Amanda Marnock, Senior HSE Technology and Innovations Advisor for QUT

On 1 January 2016 Fusion5 launched the new HSE online branded portal. It lets students and staff report issues using their smart phones, laptops or desktop devices. Users access the portal directly through QUT’s main 24/7 platform, without the need for a specific login, making interacting with HSE instant and easy. When staff use the system, the forms are dynamically populated with their information, saving even more time. Data submitted through the multifield eforms is registered in the HSE application in real time, and a reference number immediately sent to the user by return email.

The success of the new platform is readily apparent to Marnock and the HSE team.

“We went from an average of 500 logged issues in the year prior to the new portal, to an unprecedented 800 in the year following. It isn’t an indication that we had more HSE issues to be concerned about, but that the clunky old system discouraged staff and students from using it. The high rate of adoption of the new Ivanti solution more than justified the investment.”

A major benefit of integrating the portal into QUT’s main platform is that it eliminates the need for the HSE department to manage the administrative load posed by manual password resets. With such a large body of students and staff, this was a relief.

The range of new data fields available means QUT’s HSE department now captures more information and produces high value, in-depth reports. HSE can report on incidents and issues by campus, down to the exact building number.

“We’ve had nothing but good feedback about the usability of our new system,” says Marnock. “One of the major outcomes for QUT is how the improved reporting has helped us identify what’s really happening here. We can identify key trends and see where there are issues which need to be addressed with better training programmes, for example. It also improved our ability to meet our compliance requirements. One of the biggest benefits is the level of transparency we now have of what’s happening out and about across the campuses, which has been very, very helpful.”

“The new system does everything we need and has the capacity to extend further to support our plans to streamline our online processes. We’re keen to adopt a paperless approach, provide digital checklists and inspection templates – and we know that the Ivanti solution will make that possible.”​

Amanda Marnock, Senior HSE Technology and Innovations Advisor for QUT

A forward-facing solution

A couple of months after go-live, Fusion5 added in access for QUT supervisors. They can now review incidents reported by the staff they are responsible for, which improves the level of due diligence. Ivanti’s inbuilt workflow capability means issues are automatically directed to an appropriate QUT staff member for attention.

“Fusion5 and Ivanti met HSE’s needs, and they’ve worked successfully within the constraints of our budget,” says Marnock. “And the relationship we have with Fusion5 is a really good one.