OTC Industrial Technologies transformed internal and external service by trading shared mailboxes for Jira Service Management

Challenge: Teams across OTC Industrial Technologies were using shared mailboxes and wanted a better way to manage internal and external requests, respond quickly, and track performance. 

Solution: OTC expanded their Atlassian ecosystem to include Jira Service Management Premium. Today, 20+ technical and business teams, as well as customers, use this solution for service.  

Impact: Since implementing Jira Service Management, OTC has accelerated resolution times, gained visibility for better decision-making, and improved employee and customer satisfaction.

Out with shared mailboxes, in with a more modern ITSM solution

Before the 1950s, businesses like OTC Industrial Technologies used to have materials delivered to one place. Manual sorting and delivery often led to tracking difficulties, delays, items getting lost, and other inefficiencies. Technology revolutionized the process, enabling workers to track shipments, automatically route them to the right person or place, and gain visibility into crucial data for more proactive planning and informed improvements.

As one of the largest industrial distributors and service providers in the United States, with 40+ brands, 70+ locations, and 2,000+ associates, OTC has experienced many transformations over the years – including when switching from managing service requests via email to using Jira Service Management. Teams from IT to Accounting wanted a better way to keep track of requests, respond in a timely manner, track status, and report on performance. By expanding their Atlassian ecosystem and rolling out Jira Service Management Premium across the organization, OTC has lived their mission of Driving Efficiency Forward® and has modernized their service management practices for greater productivity, visibility, and satisfaction.

Transforming “a tremendous waste of time” with 20+ service desks that “made their life a lot easier”

For years, OTC’s IT Department has used Jira Service Management for IT service management, Confluence to document standard operating procedures, and Jira to collaborate with other technical teams (e.g., Security, Infrastructure, etc.) to resolve requests. When Chief Technology Officer Roger Abrahams joined the company in 2021, he saw the opportunity to help other teams optimize their service management too.

“We were looking to improve workflow management and make it easier to do business with us internally and externally,” Roger recalls. “I went around to teams that had large shared mailboxes, like Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and HR, and said, ‘Our team uses Jira Service Management. Here’s how it works. You might want to try it too.’ Everyone I talked to said, ‘Wow, that would be really useful! Can we try it?’"

After previously working with Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner Empyra to revamp their IT service desk, Roger’s team engaged them again for guidance and support. Together, they used Jira Service Management to create service desks for Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable. “The AP and AR Teams absolutely loved Jira Service Management. It made their life a lot easier,” Roger says.

OTC's sales and operations teams saw the impact of these new solutions and asked for service desks too. One group loved how much simpler it became to place orders, create quotes, and request service through Jira Service Management, especially when employees were on site with customers. Those on-site visits uncovered an opportunity to improve service for customers as well, so IT created two portals where customers can request parts, service, warranty information, and more.

“I am highly impressed with the speed at which our business teams have embraced Jira Service Management,” Roger says. “Within about 18 months, we’ve rolled out the solution to manage workflows across more than 20 internal and external projects, plus dedicated customer portals to enhance service delivery. Each implementation has brought positive benefits to the organization: freeing up team members to focus on the more important aspects of their job rather than chasing emails, improving communication across teams, and providing a better experience for the user.”

Travis Alexander, a senior Atlassian consultant with Empyra, adds, “Empyra's collaboration with OTC has unified teams onto a single platform through Atlassian tools like Jira and Jira Service Management. This shift has replaced disjointed email-based collaboration with a structured, organized system, where all tasks and communications are documented in one place. Now, teams can easily track progress, ensure accountability, and resolve issues more quickly, allowing for smoother project execution and greater transparency across departments."

A lean team resolves more requests in less time with Jira Service Management

Adopting more modern ITSM and ITIL practices along with Jira Service Management has helped OTC increase productivity even as the volume of requests has grown. Teams also gained visibility into status, volume, and performance data, which helps them pinpoint bottlenecks and make more informed decisions.

“Before, all a team knew was that they had a ton of emails to answer every month. Now, they have data they can use to manage their teams and make improvements,” Roger explains.

For example, IT manages an average of 1,500 monthly requests with a variety of categories, impacts, and levels of urgency. Roger says, “Managing requests with Jira Service Management has helped our support team of fewer than 10 people work more efficiently and decrease resolution times across the board, even as volume has doubled. More than 60% of all tickets are now resolved in less than 48 hours.”

He adds, “I think of progress on a ‘crawl, walk, run’ scale. When I joined OTC, we were in the ‘walk’ stage with ITSM. Now, we’re getting into the ‘run’ stage and using the data to decide where we need resources. We can look in Jira Service Management and say, ‘Volume has consistently been growing for months, and we need to hire someone. Based on the number and type of requests, let’s hire someone for the Tier 2 Support Team.’”

“Outstanding results” now, with even bigger dreams ahead

From new products and services to new technologies, OTC has seen significant transformation over the years. Now, the company’s collaboration tools are as modern as the products and services they deliver every day.

“Part of my goal was to simplify and standardize our tech stack,” Roger explains. “Having everyone on the same platform and being able to use it for multiple purposes provides one place where users can go for collaboration and support, consolidates our licenses, and helps us understand how people are using our tools.”

OTC is already exploring more ways to use Atlassian tools to further improve workflows and service. For instance, Roger says IT is planning to integrate Confluence with Jira Service Management and enable self-service with virtual service agents for IT, HR, and customer requests. “Self-service will cut down the volume of requests so our teams can focus on more business-critical requests,” he explains. “It will also help with documenting standard operating procedures and FAQs, which will provide better education with less manual remediation.”

Roger is thrilled with the teams’ warm reception of Jira Service Management and is looking forward to building on the encouraging results they’ve already seen. “Jira Service Management has helped OTC demonstrably drive productivity gains, improve the user experience, and gain insight into the various request types and resolutions. We now have a backlog of teams wanting to adopt it to help manage their workflows, including approvals, reporting, and customer engagement,” Roger says. “Our success has been the result of a strong collaboration between Atlassian and Empyra, yielding outstanding results.”