Cirrus’ IT Overhaul: The Power of a Centralized Documentation System

Meet Cirrus IT Services (UK) Limited

Cirrus IT Services, named after the high-flying, non-rain-bearing cloud, provides IT, Telephony and Cloud services with exceptional support, ensuring that there is no rain on your parade. Through providing SME Connectivity, Telephony, Support, Maintenance and Managed Services, maintaining well-structured documentation was critical. Cirrus needed a centralized, more efficient solution. Ryan Tempest, an IT Support Engineer, talks about how his team uses Hudu.

• Location: Nelson, UK
• Business Type: MSP
• Customer Since: 2023

What challenges were you facing before Hudu?

Tools not built for the job

• Before migrating to Hudu we utilized various Microsoft 365 offerings to document our IT estate.
• Mainly, we relied on OneNote & SharePoint to collaborate on and share information.
• There were a lot of instances where connected / related information was stored in separate systems & locations.

Onboarding was difficult

• We also discovered that, for new hires, the system of documentation that was in place could be challenging to learn and maintain due to its less organized approach, with less clear rules defined on what information goes where.

What solutions does Hudu provide?

Increases efficiency

• Using the Processes feature has increased the efficiency and consistency of our onboarding.
• Hudu allows our engineers to work in a more effective and efficient manner, by introducing a single, streamlined workflow, platform & approach to our documentation.

Saves Time

• We can now more quickly & easily resolve tickets thanks to increased access to documentation for engineers & customers.
• By making critical information readily and easily accessible, as well as being clear to understand and follow, our engineers are able to resolve tickets and answer queries, as well as maintain our customer's infrastructure, much more easily and in a quicker time frame.

Allows us to provide better service to our customers

• More accurate information is now being captured across our IT estate
• We have also found that by utilizing Asset Layouts and other 'template' styles of documentation within Hudu, we have increased engineer engagement not only in the use / viewing of documentation but also its creation, with clear prompts on information to include for an entry within Hudu.

How are you using Hudu?

We primarily use the Asset Layouts & Password Management features, alongside the Knowledge Base, to get the most out of Hudu for our needs.

Asset Layouts

• Allow us to keep track of various pieces of customer equipment, systems, licenses and contracts while making sure that all relevant information is gathered. For example, for switches and routers, we can make sure we capture make, model & throughput. In addition, Asset Layout fields & relationships allow us to link relevant information, which has made following a trail of documentation much easier than our previous workflows. We have grown our use of Asset Layouts as our usage of Hudu has gotten more ambitious over time; capturing new types of Assets & new types of information for existing assets.

Password Management

• Store & share passwords with customers in a secure, controllable manner.

Knowledge Base

• Both for internal documentation for engineers, which can be flagged as 'Internal Use Only' and user guides for customers, flagged 'Safe to Share' - the use of article flagging has allowed us to improve our information management practices.

What is your favorite part about Hudu?

• The relationships between different assets, passwords & articles allows for a documentation ecosystem that is a genuine help, rather than hindrance, to day-to-day engineering work.
• To be able to retrieve key information from an Asset Layout, then retrieve relevant passwords & read detailed notes linked to the asset itself, is by far the most attractive feature of Hudu for us.