OFII optimizes its internal help desk
with Zendesk

A public administrative agency, the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII) is responsible for organizing the reception of asylum seekers and refugees in France. As the only state operator in charge of this mission, OFII has several operational departments across France and seven offices abroad. Around 1,600 employees handle the requests and procedures of 220,000 service users every day. Such a complex operation requires rigorous organization, especially internally.

OFII wanted to use Zendesk to modernize the way requests reach its support functions. The goal is not only to improve the quality of service provided to employees and service users, but also to improve working conditions for the support teams.

The tool was rolled out over one year, department by department: first the Information Systems Department, then the Real Estate and Logistics Department, and the Human Resources and Labor Relations Department. It all started in November 2020 with an IT portal.

From access creation to application incidents, from workstation setup to hardware, requests are extremely varied and cover everything that can come up in employees’ day-to-day work.

Zendesk Support: optimizing requests

First, Zendesk lets users submit their requests through dynamic forms. Previously, requests came in by email or phone, which was particularly time-consuming.

“We chose to centralize everything in a single communication channel: the Zendesk portal”, explains Ando Rakotonirina, OFII’s CIO.

When a request is submitted in the tool, a ticket is created and automatically routed to the right skills group based on its topic and category. Requests are therefore accurately qualified without any effort from agents.

“Before, they weren’t properly categorized and analysts spent a considerable amount of time handling them. This way, we’re far more productive”, notes Ando Rakotonirina.

The forms are also easy to access and intuitive, which keeps users satisfied! Since Zendesk was implemented, the IT department has handled about 2,500 requests per month.

Zendesk Guide: encouraging self-service

OFII also uses Zendesk Guide. The aim is to give end users a complete self-service support option in the form of tutorials, a knowledge base or a community. At OFII, the idea was to provide users with relevant, high-impact resources they can consult on their own. A drive for independence that boosts agent productivity and employee satisfaction!

Zendesk Guide lets users get relevant answers to their questions, which are often recurring, without contacting agents. This reduces the number of tickets created and lets agents focus on higher-value tasks. The same approach will be adopted for all the departments that will use Zendesk in the medium and long term.

Zendesk Explore: optimizing with statistics

For statistics, OFII uses Zendesk Explore, the tool’s reporting and analytics module, which makes it possible to explore, understand and share activity data. The agency uses it in particular to track and quantify requests from its various regional offices, such as the number of tickets submitted.

“Zendesk Explore is a powerful analytics tool for ticket management. A huge number of features are available, provided you invest time up front in mastering the tool. But once you get the hang of it, it becomes very simple, and the Zendesk help center is very comprehensive. Zendesk Explore offers easy-to-use prebuilt dashboards, as well as many types of visualizations that give a clear view of the metrics you want to highlight. Finally, the ability to schedule reports is very handy for reporting”, explains Nicolas Zafimahova, IS Quality Manager at OFII.

Why Zendesk?

What OFII particularly liked about Zendesk was, first of all, how easy it is to use, which allows the agency to be fully autonomous and adopt the tool quickly. Its rich feature set was also a major argument in convincing the public agency. Thanks to these features, OFII has not only been able to set up a platform that fully meets its current needs but can also look to the future with confidence. In addition, the tool’s versatility means it can be adapted to several business areas and serve several audiences.

A community of ambassadors

To ensure the project’s success, OFII made a point of involving its teams from the start. A network of IT, real estate, logistics and human resources champions tested the tool for three weeks before its official go-live.

“These champions are also excellent ambassadors who promote their dedicated portal to other employees”, explains Tahina Ralison.

An excellent way to encourage adoption of the solution and spread knowledge quickly across the organization.

Synolia’s support

To carry out this project, OFII called on Synolia. After helping the teams define their needs and goals in dedicated workshops, and as a certified Zendesk Master partner, we supported them in implementing the tool. Skills were progressively transferred on configuring, using and administering the solution. Functional and technical support meetings were then held as needed to help OFII develop and optimize its use of the solution.

“Together, we came up with scenarios and potential requests to make sure we could handle them effectively in Zendesk. Synolia’s support with training on the tool was invaluable”, explains Tahina Ralison.

Throughout the project, OFII also called on Synolia to integrate additional apps and to think through the best practices to adopt, especially in terms of business processes.

“Thanks to Synolia, we were able to set up a solution that suits us perfectly and meets our needs, on both business and technical issues”, says Anass Ould-Lafnicha, Deputy IT Support Manager at OFII.

One distinctive feature of this project is that OFII insisted on carrying out the Zendesk integration itself.

“We wanted to fully master the tool and how to use it so we could make changes whenever we needed to, without having to call on a third-party partner. Synolia mainly supported us in defining our needs and technical answers, in training and Zendesk adoption, and on custom developments”, explains Tahina Ralison.

Results that exceed expectations

This first phase of the Zendesk rollout at OFII has proven a real success. The organization has posted a 95% satisfaction rate since the tool was implemented. In addition, 80% of tickets are resolved with the technician’s first reply. And only 4% of tickets are reopened! These figures confirm that OFII made the right choice. Now it’s time to go further.

What’s next?

Today, the Information Systems Department, the Real Estate and Logistics Department and the HR Department use Zendesk. In July 2022, a new portal dedicated to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went live for data protection officers and internal users. And a public-facing widget will be rolled out for the 200,000 service users by September 2022.

“In addition, a virtual assistant (chatbot) has gone live in the IT portal with Botmind, as well as machine learning with Lemon Learning”, explains Tahina Ralison.

OFII intends to keep improving its tool over time, based on its needs and goals.

“We can constantly optimize the solution so that it fully fits our needs and we get the most out of it. Especially since skills were transferred to us! So we’re self-sufficient”, adds Ando Rakotonirina, the CIO.

Thanks to the breadth and variety of the Zendesk Marketplace, which it browses regularly, the Zendesk project team also wants to take the initiative and suggest improvements to the various departments that already use Zendesk or soon will. With Zendesk, the IT department is bringing new momentum to OFII, driving greater performance and relevance for its employees and users.