Amarin Book Center reveals NetkaQuartz Service Desk is working beyond their expectations
With the slogan “Knowing readers’ minds, providing impressive services,” Naiin is one of Thailand’s largest domestic bookstore chains. Operated by Amarin Book Center Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of Amarin Printing and Publishing PCL, the bookstore chain is embarking on its 20th year this year, celebrating the opening of its first branch at Tha Phra Chan near Thammasat University in Bangkok in 1994.
Graciously bestowed by H.M. King Bhumibol, the name Naiin was derived from the title of the book Nai Intra Phu Pid Thong Lang Phra (Mr. Intra Who Does a Thankless Job), which was translated by the king from the book A Man Called Intrepid by Canadian writer Sir William Stevenson. The name was given based on the intention of setting up the bookstore as a center of knowledge, and encouraging Thais to acquire the habit of reading, which is an important foundation for moving the country forward. This bestowal showed the king’s great benevolence.
Naiin and a challenging next step
Over the past seven years, Naiin has expanded from 25 branches to about 200. In addition to the branch expansion, the company grew its operation to include book importing, health products, e-commerce and e-book distribution. Such a massive development over a short period of time meant that every business unit and department of the Amarin Book Center was required to work extra hard.
Nisa Noi-um, IT manager of Amarin Book Center, said the past seven years was a challenging period, as the bookstore was expanding its operations and store count. The growth and introduction of new offerings meant that the number of working processes would increase. One of the company’s strategies for how to handle the operational growth was to improve its IT infrastructure. The company’s IT department was tasked with both designing and implementing new IT processes and systems. Of particular concern was for IT to help improve its human resource management, due to the fact that the number of employees was increasing at a rapid pace, and they would need a system in place to handle their needs.
Amarin set up a back-office management system to enhance its business operations. It also implemented the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) method of best practices, in order to systematize its IT processes to be in line with international standards.
From ITIL to Netka
Implementing ITIL resulted in a smoother workflow. Better processes, system alerts and troubleshooting helped to decrease the overall downtime of its IT systems and improve business operations.
However, by adopting the ITIL framework, the company found that it needed a support system, such as helpdesk for troubleshooting, to improve its service management and work processes. At the time, all technical issues were notified via phone calls to the IT department. This method resulted in multiple problems. For example, some technicians would simply forget to fix an issue, and it proved difficult to solve problems in an orderly fashion because the consultants would oftentimes be interrupted by other users with more serious complaints. So, Amarin decided to implement a software solution to address these concerns
In making the software selection, the company considered several factors. Finally, it chose NetkaQuartz Service Desk (NSD). The decision was made because NSD is completely compatible with the ITIL framework, the software distributor’s services are reliable, and the price was affordable.
Meeting all demands
Thanks to NSD’s features and capabilities, the company’s IT team is more efficient and can identify problems more quickly, especially reoccurring problems. Even more important was the higher rate of satisfaction of the IT support services from the Amarin employees.
“We are no longer worried about the company’s policy of not increasing IT staff,” Nisa said. “Now that we have NSD, our support staff can work more efficiently.”
Nisa continued: “As for human resource management, we know how each staff member works so we can tell them how to fix their problems. When the problems are solved, that’s our benefit – we get better performance.”
Moreover, the IT Department was able to use the reporting features from the NSD system to formulate a plan for exchanging computers for the users. This helped to decrease problems that were occurring from the older models.
NetkaQuartz can handle more than just IT requests
Because NetkaQuartz has adaptive functions, Amarin elected to use the software solution for other departments outside of IT service, including purchasing, maintenance and inventory. Amarin teamed up with Netka, the software developer, to adapt the solution to meet all of the demands of the different departments.
Applying NSD to other departments did not require purchasing any additional licenses, however, as Netka does not charge per user. This is another strong point of the NSD solution.
Following the e-Book Trend
Amarin recently expanded into the digital realm by offering e-Books and e-Magazines through mobile apps for the iOS, Android and Windows smartphone operating systems. Customers can now buy e-books conveniently via their tablets or smart phones, with a range of titles as large and diverse as any of Naiin Pann’s brick-and-mortar stores. The company plans to promote e-books without reducing the importance it places on actual branches. Amarin will launch a number of promotional campaigns, especially towards the end of the year, to stimulate book sales via the online stores during the holiday season.
With the help of NetkaQuartz Service Desk solution, Naiin Pann is expected to soon become a leader in online digital media delivery, and continue as one of the country’s most popular book stores well into the future
Credit by E-Enterprice No.297 ,November 2013