Founded in 1905, The Juilliard School is a private, nonprofit, educational institution dedicated to providing the highest caliber of artistic education for gifted musicians, dancers, and actors from around the world. Their dedication to excellence has led Juilliard alumni to have collectively won more than 105 Grammy Awards, 62 Tony Awards, 47 Emmy Awards, 26 Bessie Awards, 24 Academy Awards, 16 Pulitzer Prices and 12 National Medals for the Arts.

Juilliard’s renowned Music Division is the largest and most diverse of the School’s three divisions, with some 600 students from more than 40 countries. Its distinguished faculty includes internationally renowned soloists, chamber and orchestral musicians, as well as leading pedagogues and scholars. Equally impressive are Juilliard’s Drama and Dance Divisions which have also received a reputation throughout the world for its superior quality of education and artistic training.

A rich history, award-winning alumni and prominent scholars make The Juilliard School one of the most prestigious learning institutions in the world.

The Challenge

Terence Kennedy, IT Office Manager at The Juilliard School, references pianos and violins playing down the hall, dancers in leotards, big-name guest speakers and Broadway-like productions. “Working here can seem a bit like the making of a movie,” he says. “With such an amazing and dynamic backdrop the challenges we face certainly are met with a lot of inspiration, but they exist nonetheless.”

Over the years, Mr. Kennedy has seen exponential growth in the demand for technology and with it, the need to handle operations with a stronger sense of collaboration. From student performances, master classes and speaking engagements to managing community outreach programs, tracking inventory and providing technical support, Juilliard’s IT department has to be more involved and engaged than ever before.

A main goal has long been to make technology accessible and usable. “Here at Juilliard, it’s essential for IT to deliver solutions in a way that will enhance and fortify the learning process,” says Mr. Kennedy.

“While many of our students have been mastering their art since the ages of 3 or 4, technology can sometimes be unfamiliar territory,” Mr. Kennedy explains. “Providing students with the tools to help study, learn, perform and showcase their talents can open doors they hadn’t expected.”

“Our staff and faculty members also heavily utilize technology in the classroom”, he adds. “This creates an increased demand for faster response times, more dynamic contact methods, quick access to self-assisting help and immediate resolution of issues.”

“It’s essential for us to have the proper tools in place to ensure our performance is in line with the high standards set here at Juilliard,” says Mr. Kennedy. “We’re always striving to add more value to our user which means we need IT management software that can deliver. For us, year after year, we continue to rely on Alloy Software’s solutions to help us meet those goals and expectations”.

For almost 10 years, The Juilliard School has depended on Alloy Software’s Alloy Navigator solution for handling all of their IT Asset Management and IT Service Management needs.

The Solution

Using Alloy Navigator, The Juilliard School has not only been able to manage the high demand for technology, communication and collaboration, but they have consistently improved their ability to provide service year after year.

“Increasing the reliability and robustness of the Help Desk environment has allowed us to increase the legitimacy of the Help Desk itself,” says Mr. Kennedy. “The improved response times, user community interaction and teamwork between technical groups has proven to be priceless.”

Providing end users the ability to contact the Help Desk using multiple methods has been an extremely important advantage for Juilliard, but in particular, the feature-rich Self Service Portal really stands out as their preference for user interaction. “Using the portal’s built in knowledge base and announcement features, we’ve empowered our users to find solutions on their own. This has reduced unnecessary tickets, lowered support costs and has led to speedier resolutions which makes everyone happy,” he explains.

“We’ve greatly reduced the time it takes our users to receive service,” explains Mr. Kennedy. “Automating a step or two here and there really pays off and the workflow tools make it easy to mold the product to our requirements.” Juilliard takes full advantage of the workflow features in Alloy Navigator by automating business processes, automatically assigning service tickets, escalating important events and more.

Mr. Kennedy also goes on to emphasize the importance of having all IT management areas aligned with the ITIL framework. “We’re always interested in using industry best standards, but honestly, sometimes it’s difficult to see the way forward. The fact that Alloy Navigator is built with ITIL principals in mind really helps remove the guess work and helps us maintain, integrate and streamline our processes efficiently.” When managing their inventory, the Library functionality ensures loaned equipment never goes missing. “We’re constantly loaning equipment to students and faculty and we need to know where our assets are at all times”, he explains. “The Library’s check in check out feature lets us quickly identify the status of loaner equipment and the automatic follows ups remind the borrower when items need to be returned.”

Mr. Kennedy explains that these are just a few reasons The Juilliard School has remained a loyal Alloy Software customer for so many years. “We’ve benefited greatly from using the Alloy Navigator product here at Juilliard,” he said. “The transparency it provides has become a valued part of the way we handle IT.”

The Results

The Information Technology department at The Juilliard School is responsible for providing and supporting business critical services for the user community in one of the most prestigious schools in the world. Whether resolving technical issues, providing end user training, procuring IT equipment and software, tracking inventory or loaning equipment, Alloy Navigator has played and continues to play a key role in their success.

Mr. Kennedy states one of the main benefits of using Alloy Navigator at Juilliard has been the increased speed to react and collaborate. “Our ability to work together and provide more reliable services has made such a massive impact to IT and the school,” he said.

On the topic of Alloy Software, The Juilliard School has been greatly impressed with the level of service it has received from both the sales and support teams. “Alloy Navigator is just one part of the package. The entire Alloy Software team has constantly outdone themselves. I have found their level of service to be an extremely rare find,” Mr. Kennedy said.

“We’re extremely happy with the results we’ve had using Alloy Navigator,” says Mr. Kennedy. “The flexibility and open architecture allows us to customize the product to fit our company and that has proven invaluable.”

“Alloy Navigator is robust and feature rich and each new version continues to get better and better,” he continues. “We are constantly amazed how they continue to improve on a product that has already provided so much value to us.”