A Cireson Customer Success Story
Company Overview
Harwoods Group is a family-owned automotive retailer with a long-standing heritage in the UK. With a reputation for exceptional service and deep community ties—including a historic connection to horse racing—Harwoods has built its brand on trust, quality, and customer care. To extend that same spirit to their internal IT support, the company sought to reimagine how employees interact with technology services.
HQ
Pulborough, West Sussex, UK
Founded
1931
Employees/ Agents
1,000+
Industry
Automotive Retail & Services
Website
harwoods.co.uk
Reimagining the Service Desk Experience
For Harwoods Group, IT support was more than a function—it was an opportunity to reflect the company’s character and values. While many organizations settle for generic portals and faceless ticketing systems, Harwoods wanted a service experience that employees would actually connect with. By combining creativity, heritage, and modern technology, the team set out to make IT interactions not just efficient, but also engaging, memorable, and true to the Harwoods brand.
A Modern Foundation for IT Support
Before discovering Tikit, Harwoods Group relied on a traditional IT ticketing system originally designed for managed service providers supporting multiple clients. It was powerful but overly complex for their in-house environment, requiring specialized expertise and costly maintenance.
“When we brought IT in-house, the system we had made sense at the time because our team knew it,” said Paul Smith, Business Support Director. “But when a few of those people left, the expertise went with them—and it just wasn’t sustainable anymore.”
That prompted a search for a modern, user-friendly platform that could fit seamlessly into Harwoods’ Microsoft environment. After some research and conversations with partners, Tikit stood out—particularly because of its Microsoft Teams integration.
Since implementation, Harwoods’ IT team has embraced the ability to create and manage tickets directly from Teams—especially when employees message them for help outside normal channels. “The fact that you can click a button and create a ticket straight from a Teams message makes life so much easier,” Paul said. “It keeps everything connected and consistent.”
Beyond convenience, Harwoods is hoping that that integration will support accessibility and inclusion within the team. One of their technicians, who is profoundly deaf, will be trialing the use of Teams transcription to engage with colleagues and end users. “We want to see if we can utilize this to replace taking phone calls on the desk more broadly,” Paul added. “That’s really powerful.”
Challenge
Harwoods Group’s previous IT ticketing system was built for managed service providers—complex, costly, and dependent on specialist expertise that became difficult to maintain in-house. The team needed a modern solution that fit naturally within their Microsoft environment, simplified support for users, and better reflected Harwoods’ distinctive brand and values. Beyond efficiency, they wanted IT to feel approachable, recognizable, and true to the company’s culture.
Outcome
By adopting Tikit and its deep Microsoft Teams integration, Harwoods transformed IT support into a connected, inclusive, and uniquely branded experience. The team’s creative centerpiece—“Sir Helps A Lot,” a knight in shining armour—brought humor and heritage to the service desk while reinforcing reliability and responsiveness. Now embedded across Tikit, the Cireson Service Manager Portal, and the Tikit Virtual Agent, Sir Helps A Lot unites Harwoods’ support channels and turns everyday service interactions into moments of engagement, trust, and
brand pride.
“We’re a Microsoft house, so that integration with Teams and the wider Microsoft ecosystem was really interesting. We looked at a few options, but Tikit ticked all the boxes for what we needed.”
A Bold New Take on IT Support
With Tikit providing the flexibility they needed, Harwoods decided to go beyond function—to design a service experience that reflected their identity. Instead of settling for a generic portal, the team leaned into the company’s heritage and values to craft a branded ITSM experience.
Sir Helps A Lot—a knight in shining armour astride a noble steed, shield emblazoned with the Harwoods “H”—serves as both a visual guide and cultural touchstone for IT services.
The design choices reflect Harwoods’ broader brand:
- Black and white palette: Consistent with corporate identity
- Medieval-inspired styling: A creative nod to heraldry and tradition
- Modern readability: Optimized for digital experiences without sacrificing flair
Every interaction with IT—from logging a ticket to chatting with Sir Helps A Lot—reinforces the feeling that support is reliable, responsive, and always ready to come to the rescue.
Standing Out in a Sea of Generic Portals
What sets Harwoods apart is not just the look, but the story. By blending humor, heritage, and user-centric design, they’ve created a service desk that employees actually enjoy using. This unique approach has:
As Paul shared, “Creating Sir Helps A Lot has been a fun and rewarding journey, and it’s great to see that creativity recognized. Geoff and Cireson have been brilliant partners in helping us bring this idea to life—and the product is pretty good too.”
- Increased engagement with IT support tools
- Strengthened internal brand culture by connecting support to company values
- Delivered a memorable and consistent user experience across platforms
- Humanized IT support in a way that feels approachable rather than intimidating
Recognition and Results
The success of Sir Helps A Lot goes beyond aesthetics. By embedding the character across all ITSM touchpoints, Harwoods has improved user adoption, reinforced positive perceptions of IT, and created a support environment that employees trust and remember.
Paul continues to champion Tikit for organizations operating in the Microsoft ecosystem:
“If you’re using Microsoft and Teams, Tikit ticks the boxes—I’d say go for it.”
He also appreciates Cireson’s transparent development approach and commitment to user feedback:
“I really like the way you can interact with the roadmap and even push ideas that other people can vote on. That kind of collaboration is unheard of with most third-party tools.”
Riding Ahead
Winning the 2025 Cireson ITSM Award for Best Custom Branding validates Harwoods Group’s bold vision to make IT support both functional and fun. With Sir Helps A Lot leading the way, IT is no longer just a back-office function—it’s an experience that reflects Harwoods’ values and commitment to excellence.
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