Financial Services Firm Slashes IT Costs 50%, Speeds Resolutions 64% in 30 Days

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The situation

Support was spread too thin. Each region was running its own help desk using the follow-the-sun model, and technicians were handling a lot of shoulder-tap requests without logging tickets, which increased the backlog and kept users waiting. Meanwhile, Tier 3 engineering teams were being pulled into day-to-day support escalations, taking them away from strategic initiatives. 

The organization had recently implemented ServiceNow, but adoption was uneven. Queue management varied by site and leadership lacked clear data on how the operation was performing. 

All this frustrated users, distracted engineers, and eroded confidence in IT's ability to deliver.

The solution

Astreya consolidated support into a centralized, 24/7 global service desk from Manila that standardized how work entered the system, how it was routed, and how it was resolved.

• Tierless support: Instead of routing simple issues to Tier 1 and complex issues to Tier 2, Astreya positioned engineers to resolve both at first contact. Fewer hand-offs reduced friction, enabling faster resolution.
• Collaboration with Tier 3: The team ran daily standups with the client's subject matter experts, documenting processes, closing knowledge gaps, and developing support boundaries. As the service desk team gained experience, Tier 3 teams expanded system access, confident the desk could handle more complex work. 
• SME mirroring: Dedicated technicians became domain experts in areas like virtual infrastructure, key business applications, and complex device configurations, then shared that knowledge across the team and added it to the knowledge base.
• Analytics: Custom PowerBI dashboards broke down backlog aging and ticket resolution rates by region, team, and service type, giving the CIO, senior leadership, and operational managers business intelligence they hadn’t had before. Service desk leadership used those insights to fix ticket discipline and queue management, and to shift more user support work into the GSD. 

With these capabilities, support moved faster and engineering teams spent less time getting pulled into escalations. Dashboards anchored the operating cadence across weekly reviews, MOR, and QBR conversations.

The transition, originally planned for 3 months, finished in under 60 days.

The results

Over two years

• Remote resolution rate climbed from 55% to 86%. The service desk became the locus of expertise for field teams globally.
• VDI escalations to Tier 3 dropped 72%. Mean time to resolve VDI incidents fell by 10.1 days, giving engineers more time for strategic work.
• CSAT rose double digits and has stayed above 99%. Response rates increased, with users going out of their way to recognize individual technicians.
• Call volume rose 63% while wait times dropped. 

Support coverage has expanded to include Tier 3 Platform Administration and Engineering, handling escalations and ad-hoc project work as needed. The Global Service Desk has also taken ownership of problem management, creating a unified, cohesive support team that replaces the previous fragmented approach.

The multiplier effect

• Cost efficiency has approached 50% savings compared to the previous model. As the client recognized the financial and operational value, they expanded the program — first into deeper Tier 3 engineering and administration functions, then into broader user-facing support, which has since scaled from 1,000 to 12,000 globally.
• Off-hours coverage has freed up time for proactive maintenance, further reducing repeat ticks and Tier 3 escalations. 
• Operations leadership currently sits directly alongside the client's executive team as a strategic partner.

What made the difference

Astreya invests the time to build a strong relationship with its clients and understand how they work (culture, constraints, expectations). This allows us to develop the absolute best approach for the company, its staff, and its customers.

1. Hiring philosophy: Every technician embodies Asteya’s customer service ethic, engineering mindset, and technical acumen. Managed services require all three.
2. Knowledge capture from Day One: Deep-dive sessions with Tier 3 SMEs documented processes before launch, simultaneously closing gaps, standardizing operations, and building trust.
3. Data-driven visibility: Clear dashboards gave leadership the information necessary to make decisions, and gave the team the feedback to improve continuously.

Ready to transform your IT support?

Contact Astreya to discuss how a centralized Global Service Desk can restore user confidence and free engineering capacity for strategic work.