About Calvin University
Calvin University is a prestigious institution located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, serving over 3,400 students and around 8,000 end-users, including faculty and staff. Known for its strong academic programs, Calvin University is dedicated to integrating technology to improve efficiency and service delivery. The IT department plays a critical role in enhancing operations, focusing on innovative solutions that support the university’s mission and the needs of its diverse community.
The Challenge
Calvin University faced significant challenges with their previous system, Cherwell, and were accessing information across multiple platforms. The turning point came when they tried to implement a mobile app for technicians, only to realise that doing so would require sacrificing custom functionality. This would have meant returning to a default configuration, essentially restarting their system setup, which was a major time and resource burden. Additionally, the university was managing multiple asset management systems, including two separate tools and a loaner equipment system, leading to inefficiencies and a lack of flexibility. Cherwell’s built-in asset management also failed to meet their needs, prompting the need for a more integrated, modern solution that could streamline both ticketing and a comprehensive CMDB while offering better mobile capabilities, advanced reporting, and greater customisation.
“Having one managing platform for all of our assets, pulling information from different integrations, is just really powerful because we can have one source of truth in Halo.”
The Solution
With HaloITSM, Calvin University streamlined its asset management by integrating SCCM and Jamf, alongside the ability to manually create assets and asset types. Not only can they access all of their up-to-date asset information in one place, they are now empowered to monitor and resolve issues more efficiently at a higher level. Calvin University has created custom “classroom” assets with dependencies to assets imported from integrations. Moving away from spreadsheets completely, they have incorporated their inventory tracking into Halo through stock management, which track effectively using reporting.
Keen to consolidate, Calvin University moved their equipment request system from a separate platform into Halo. Now, users can easily request equipment through resource booking in the self-service portal. The university has also customised workflows and automated notifications, which send timely reminders to users when their equipment is due or overdue. This change has eliminated manual tracking and follow-ups, streamlining operations and saving significant time for the IT team.
The use of a mobile app, with no compromise to their system set-up, has been a game changer. Technicians can now log and update their tickets on the go, saving time and ensuring data is logged correctly.
HaloITSM has transformed the university’s approach to the way they work by creating a data-driven culture across departments. The entire IT team, including leadership, network, and service teams, now uses HaloITSM to access and analyse vital data. Managers can track ticket progress and assess team performance through actionable insights, going beyond ticket completion to include metrics like actions taken. Custom dashboards provide leadership with an at-a-glance view of team performance, SLA breaches, and user feedback. With HaloITSM’s easy-to-use report builder, generating these detailed reports has become a seamless process. The ability to drill down into specific data points through interactive charts and reports has empowered the team to make more informed decisions and improve overall efficiency.
“Now we’re working in a data-rich and data-driven environment. We’re trying to centralise everything we do around Halo.”
The Results
The transition to HaloITSM has significantly improved the university’s IT operations, leading to greater efficiency and transparency. The IT team has praised HaloITSM for its intuitive design and ease of use, contributing to smoother workflows and enhanced productivity. End-users have reported higher satisfaction, thanks to quicker and more transparent support processes. In fact, user feedback for all time has averaged 89.5%, reflecting overall high satisfaction. Internally, the IT department has become more data-driven, utilising HaloITSM’s robust reporting features to monitor performance, track SLAs, and gain actionable insights.
Additionally, the response rate has steadily improved, rising from 78% in the month of implementation to 96% in 2025. The university now enjoys a more streamlined IT environment with better asset management, faster ticket resolution, and improved overall service delivery.
Looking ahead, Calvin University plans to expand asset tracking to include cost components, automate additional workflows and reporting, develop tailored dashboards for individual departments, and explore AI-driven triaging and other advanced features to further enhance efficiency and service delivery.
“Halo has a robust feature set but also future set of features. We’ve been working on our next stage and there’s never been we can’t do that or it doesn’t do that.”
