The Challenge
Supporting 64 schools across the London Borough of Camden is a significant responsibility, especially when teachers are already stretched thin and classroom time is at a premium.
Before implementing HaloITSM, the central IT team relied on a mix of informal processes to manage service requests. Many schools submitted issues via email or phone, with no consistent logging route, no structured triage, and limited visibility across sites.
As demand grew, so did the strain on the service team. Without standardised workflows or automation, it became difficult to prioritise work, track performance, or scale efficiently, and frontline users were left navigating inconsistent support channels.
What Camden needed was a single, intuitive system that could simplify the experience for staff while introducing structure, automation, and visibility behind the scenes.
The Solution
In 2017, the team rolled out HaloITSM as a central service platform for all school-related IT support, focused on creating a seamless experience for users and a more efficient model for the IT team.
At the heart of this was a simplified self-service portal, designed specifically for Camden Schools. Staff are presented with a single, straightforward form to submit their issue quickly and easily.
"Our aim was to reduce the number of ways for users to log incidents to just one. We wanted to simplify the process so that educators didn’t face any unnecessary challenges with the system."
— Pamela Colbert, Service Desk Management Specialist
Behind that simple interface lies a powerful automation engine, which Camden configured to assign categories, apply SLAs, prioritise requests, and route tickets to the correct technician, eliminating the need for manual triage.
The team also built custom dashboards and reporting views per school, providing insight into incident volumes and emerging patterns. Previously hidden trends, like certain schools logging twice as many tickets as others, are now clearly visible, helping the team allocate resources more effectively.
"We can now see what's coming in and respond accordingly. It's made a massive difference to how we work.”
— Pamela Colbert, Service Desk Management Specialist
The Results
With HaloITSM embedded, Camden’s IT team now delivers faster, more consistent support to all 64 schools, without adding friction for staff.
- Around 870 incidents are logged each month, a high volume through the user-friendly entry point
- Automation manages every request. With 1,235 logical conditions in place, Camden eliminates the need for manual sorting or reassignment.
- P3 resolution times have improved by 39%, falling from 41.1 hours in the first year to just 25.0 hours over the most recent 12 months
This shift has had a meaningful impact in the classroom. Teachers can report issues in seconds, then return to what matters: teaching. Meanwhile, the IT team can stay focused on solving problems.
“We’re not here to make things more difficult for schools. We want it to be simple; one place to go, and we’ll take care of the rest.”
— Pamela Colbert, Service Desk Management Specialist
Greater visibility across all sites has also strengthened decision-making. The team can now identify schools with higher demand, surface recurring issues, and direct support where it’s needed most.
“I’m passionate about Halo. I think it’s brilliant. Every time someone asks, ‘Can Halo do that?’ I feel sure that it can and on that basis, I am delighted to have the opportunity to make it happen.”
— Pamela Colbert, Service Desk Management Specialist
What’s Next
Following the success of the initial rollout, Camden is expanding HaloITSM to support internal procurement workflows, allowing school staff to submit and track purchasing requests through the same streamlined system.
A school-specific knowledge base is also in development. Designed to be clear and easy to navigate, it will offer instant answers to common questions, reducing pressure on the service desk and giving staff more autonomy.
Looking ahead, the team is exploring trend-based automation, enabling the platform to flag repeat issues automatically and trigger early intervention.
“We want Halo to alert us when something’s been reported five times. That’s the direction we’re going in. More proactive, more preventative.”
— Pamela Colbert, Service Desk Management Specialist
With HaloITSM, Camden has built a support model that’s intuitive for staff, scalable for IT, and ready for what’s next, ensuring smoother days in the classroom and fewer distractions along the way.
