The Southern Co-operative selects Sunrise Software for cloud-based IT service desk solution

May 22, 2012 - PRLog -- Chessington, 22 May 2012 - UK-headquartered service management company Sunrise Software has today announced that The Southern Co-operative, has selected its flagship product Sostenuto to deliver a cloud-based IT service desk solution.  The IT service desk is hosted by Sunrise’s world-class datacentre partner Navisite, and is scheduled to go live in September 2012.  This will coincide with The Southern Co-operative’s plans to introduce a new point of sale (POS) system that is linked to head office and 180 food stores across southern England.

Initially, the Sostenuto-based IT service desk will support The Southern Co-operative’s POS system, to capture all store-related IT incidents including back office PCs and printers as  well as the new Retalix POS terminals.  Incidents will then be routed automatically and intelligently to designated colleagues or groups for resolution within pre-defined timescales.  Over time, Sunrise Software expects to expand the capabilities of the IT service desk to manage all aspects of The Southern Co-operative’s contact management activities and support the company’s overall retail operations.  

Peter Lucas, of The Southern Co-operative, commented, “Our priority is ensuring our customers receive the same high level of service they have come to expect as we transition to a new POS platform.  We are confident that Sunrise can offer a smooth and seamless service to our IT users that does not detract from the overall customer experience.  What is more, their first-rate technology guarantees the sophisticated functionality we need to grow with the changing demands of our business in the future.”

Store managers and colleagues from The Southern Co-operative will benefit from fast and easy access to the IT service desk through a single contact point to communicate their IT issues and keep up-to-date with their progress either by telephone or by email.   Based on version 3 of the ITIL® best practice framework, Sostenuto will track the performance of the IT service desk against specific Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) agreed with The Southern Co-operative. Furthermore, the real-time availability of meaningful management information will facilitate faster, more accurate decision-making that tangibly improves the usage of IT support resources and increases the productivity of business personnel.

Geoff Rees, Sales Director of Sunrise Software, concluded: “We see a definite demand for customers looking to cloud-based solutions to help them juggle today’s pressures of running an efficient IT service desk and serving customers at the same time without the luxury of an increased workforce.  Solutions like Sostenuto are perfect for organisations such as The Southern Co-operative whose sole focus is, quite rightly, dedicated to boosting business productivity and enhancing customer satisfaction.  We look forward to working with them to achieve continual improvements to operational efficiency and customer service in the future.”

For more information on Sunrise Software, its products, services and customers, please visit www.sunrisesoftware.co.uk

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NOTES TO EDITORS

About The Southern Co-operative Group of Businesses
With over 180 stores in the south of England, food retail is the Co-operative’s primary business.  The company’s success is built upon conducting its business in an ethical and socially responsible manner.  As well as selling ethical products, the Co-operative is focused on making a difference to the communities in which it operates.

The Southern Co-operative also operates Funeral Care (or End of Life Services) business and, in 2008, was awarded full accreditation from Interflora which led to the introduction of an online floristry service.  In June 2009, The Southern Co-operative launched a campaign to promote a new range of independent living products under the brand Xest that are sold on the company’s specially designed home shopping website called Life to the Full.

For more information, please visit www.thesouthernco-operative.co.uk  

About Sunrise Software

Established in 1994, Sunrise provides applications which underpin business processes across its customers’ organisations.   A privately held, UK based company, Sunrise has a highly successful track record in IT service management, customer service management and business process management with fully configured applications designed around best practice guidelines.

Available as either on-premise or Software As A Service (SAAS) Sostenuto, Sunrise’s flagship product is totally web-based which harnesses modern technology with inbuilt resilience. Sostenuto is a comprehensive software tool which offers a high degree of flexibility, allowing organisations to change or introduce new processes through simple configuration.

There are three different variants to address different business requirements:
•   Sostenuto ITSM available as ITSM2 and ITSM3 (ITIL2 or ITIL3 versions)
•   Sostenuto CSM, a non-ITIL tool for customer service departments.
•   Sostenuto BPM, which allows organisations to create their own applications

Over 1000 organisations use Sostenuto across the UK, with high profile users including Anglian Water, the NHS, Rugby Football Union, University of Greenwich, Muller Dairy and many more.  

For more information please visit: www.sunrisesoftware.co.uk

Editors Contacts
Carly Nessmann
Marketing Manager
020 8391 9000
cnessmann@sunrisesoftware.co.uk

Andreina West
PR Artistry
01491 639500