How HelpSpot saved a school district from chaos.
An eight-school district with two IT staff managed an 80% ticket surge during COVID, cut response times, and saved hours every day.
The district
Union School District is an eight-school public school district in San Jose, California. With over 5,000 students and hundreds of staff across multiple campuses, their small IT team of two people manages everything from network infrastructure to device support for teachers and administrators.
Lisa DeLapo, Director of Instructional and Information Technology, and Eric Fonseca, Information Support Specialist, needed a help desk that was affordable, customizable, and capable of handling unpredictable workloads.
The challenge
When Eric first joined the district, the existing system was barely functional. There was no real workflow, no categorization, and no way to track what had been resolved versus what was still open.
"When I first came in, it was a little less 'structured'... just like a repository."
Eric Fonseca
The district needed a way to differentiate between tickets that were truly resolved and those that were simply closed. They needed automation to handle the volume, especially with just two people covering eight schools. And then COVID hit, and ticket volume surged by 80% almost overnight.
"It was overwhelming. But I'm glad we had HelpSpot."
Before and after
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Unstructured system
Tickets dumped into a repository with no workflow, no categorization, and no status tracking.
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Two-person team, eight schools
Massive workload with no way to triage or automate repetitive tasks.
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No resolved vs. closed distinction
Impossible to tell which issues were genuinely fixed versus which were simply marked done.
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Manual everything
Every ticket required personal attention for routing, categorization, and follow-up.
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Structured workflows
Clear ticket lifecycle with categorization, assignment, and proper status tracking.
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Automation at scale
Triggers and auto-responses handle triage, freeing the team to focus on real problems.
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Granular status tracking
Distinct resolved and closed states give accurate picture of what needs follow-up.
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Self-service triage
Request forms pre-screen and categorize issues before they reach IT staff.
The solution
HelpSpot's triggers and automation became the backbone of Union School District's IT operations. Request forms pre-screened incoming tickets, automatically categorizing and routing them before a human ever touched them.
"The triggers and the responses is what I love about HelpSpot."
Eric Fonseca
For Lisa, the automation felt like adding staff without the budget. The system handled the sorting and routing so she and Eric could focus on solving actual problems instead of managing a queue.
"It's prescreened everybody... like having a non-paid employee."
Lisa DeLapo
The time savings compounded with every ticket. Small efficiencies on individual tickets added up to hours saved each day, especially at the volume a school district generates.
"I think for every ticket, it saved me a little time. But multiply that by ticket volume..."
Eric Fonseca
The big picture
Beyond day-to-day efficiency, HelpSpot gave Lisa the reporting she needed to make strategic decisions. She could see trends, identify recurring issues, and justify resource requests with real data instead of guesswork.
"I love having the ability to see the big picture."
Lisa DeLapo
The results
80% surge handled
When COVID hit, ticket volume spiked 80%. The two-person IT team managed the entire surge without adding staff.
~1 hour avg response
Automated routing and pre-screening meant most tickets got a response within an hour of submission.
4+ hours saved daily
Lisa estimated she went from 6 hours on tickets to about 2. Automation handled what used to be manual work.
Data-driven decisions
Reporting gave leadership visibility into trends, recurring issues, and workload distribution across schools.
"I was probably spending about 6 hours on tickets... HelpSpot probably saved me 4 hours."
Saving 100 hours a month with HelpSpot
A virtual support services company gained full visibility and cut response times to under 30 minutes.
Real results from real teams
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