A Cireson Customer Success Story
Company Overview
Residential Resources provides individualized support services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across Maine, New Hampshire, and New York. Their mission centers on helping people live fulfilling, community-centered lives through residential programs, community support, and employment services. With a dedicated team and a strong values-based culture, they empower both staff and the people they serve to thrive.
Searching for Stability in a Shifting Help Desk Landscape
When Residential Resources’ Director of Cybersecurity & IT Andrew Loranger began exploring new help desk options for Residential Resources, he had one goal in mind: finding a solution that would be reliable, easy to use, and built to grow with the organization. Over time, once-helpful solutions had changed and were no longer a good fit.
What Loranger wanted was a platform that felt like a natural extension of the way Residential Resources already worked—something that could integrate seamlessly into their Microsoft 365 environment and provide modern capabilities like automation, workflows, and self-service.
That search quickly led him to Tikit, a solution that checked all the boxes and offered one more critical advantage: it lived right inside Microsoft Teams, where the organization already spent its day-to-day.
Why Tikit Was Different
As a Microsoft 365–centric organization, Residential Resources lives inside Teams every day. Staff rely on it for communication, collaboration, and business operations. Loranger knew that any solution they brought in had to complement—not complicate—that environment.
Tikit stood out for several reasons:
- Native Teams integration:
No more switching to a separate portal. Users could start a chat with IT and have that conversation turned into a ticket with a single click.
- Automation and workflows:
Tikit’s integration with Power Automate unlocked opportunities to streamline routine processes like onboarding or hardware requests.
- AI-driven triage:
Self-service and automation empowered staff to solve smaller issues themselves, freeing IT to focus on bigger projects.
- Rapid deployment:
Unlike legacy platforms that required weeks or months of planning, Tikit was up and running in a single afternoon.
Challenge
Residential Resources had cycled through multiple help desk tools, including Spiceworks and a paid Kaseya platform, only to face instability and discontinued support. As an organization deeply embedded in Microsoft 365 and Teams, they needed a reliable, future-proof solution that integrated seamlessly into their existing environment. Beyond reliability, IT leadership sought automation, workflows, and AI-driven triage to reduce repetitive tasks and empower users to solve issues independently.
Outcome
With Tikit, Residential Resources not only replaced their legacy help desk but elevated their entire support experience. The ease of implementation, native Teams integration, and customizable workflows quickly won over staff and HR alike. Adoption soared, repetitive bottlenecks disappeared, and IT gained time back for more strategic projects. Combined with Cireson’s rapid development and customer-driven innovation, Tikit continues to grow alongside Residential Resources, positioning IT as a trusted partner across the organization.
"The ability to chat with somebody and convert that into an active ticket without redirecting the user was really what sealed the deal for me."
Adoption Through Ease—and a Little Fun
One of the biggest challenges in rolling out any new IT system is adoption. If staff don’t use the platform, even the best features don’t matter. With Tikit, however, adoption came quickly and naturally.
The IT team gamified the launch by giving Tikit’s chat agent a rebranded, friendly name, encouraging interaction in a way that felt approachable rather than intimidating. Staff didn’t need to learn a new system or remember a password for a separate portal. They could simply interact in Teams, as they always had.
That ease of use quickly won over staff, including departments beyond IT. HR, for example, immediately saw the value in workflows for onboarding new employees.
Instead of sending incomplete or unclear requests, HR could now walk through a guided process that asked:
- What role is this new hire filling?
- Will they need a laptop, headset, or other equipment?
- Which location will they be working from?
The workflow automatically captured every detail IT needed, eliminating the back-and-forth that used to slow down onboarding.
“That was a winner,” Loranger said. “We won over HR with that one.”
Building on Early Success
Once staff experienced the benefits of workflows, demand for more use cases grew quickly. What started with onboarding expanded into everyday IT needs:
- Device replacement:
Instead of vague requests like “my charger doesn’t work,” staff were prompted to specify whether they used a Dell or Lenovo. The workflow then automatically generated the right replacement order.
- Knowledge base integration:
Self-service guides helped staff resolve minor issues without IT involvement.
- Automated routing:
Behind the scenes, Power Automate directed tickets and tasks to the right place, reducing bottlenecks.
A Partnership That Listens
Residential Resources didn’t just gain a tool with Tikit—they gained a partner. Loranger was especially impressed with the pace of development and the transparency of communication.
“The constant communication from development to customers, the rapid implementation of new features, and the way you actually listen to feedback—it’s refreshing. Other vendors might take feedback and you never hear about it again. With Tikit, you see it in the product.”
Frequent webinars not only showcased new features but also gave customers a voice in shaping the roadmap. For Residential Resources, that level of engagement built trust and reinforced their confidence that Tikit wouldn’t fall into the same trap as previous vendors.
Flexibility for Every User
While most staff preferred to use Teams for support, a small subset of employees weren’t as comfortable in that environment. For them, Tikit’s evolving web portal provided a familiar, alternative entry point. Importantly, IT didn’t need to rebuild workflows to support it—the same processes carried over seamlessly.
The transition was supported by Cireson’s documentation and guidance, making it smooth and low effort for IT to expand access.
“It was the easiest product I’ve deployed to get a mass adoption for.”
Delivering Lasting Impact
For Residential Resources, Tikit has become more than just a help desk—it’s a foundation for smarter, more efficient support across the organization.
The results speak for themselves:
- Reliability:
A platform backed by ongoing support and development.
- Efficiency:
Less time wasted on documentation and repetitive tickets.
- Empowered staff:
Self-service workflows and knowledge resources put solutions in employees’ hands.
- Strategic IT:
Freed capacity for IT to focus on meaningful, long-term projects.
“Tikit didn’t just replace our old system—it elevated our entire support experience. It streamlined workflows, empowered our users to help themselves, and gave us reliability we didn’t have before.”
For organizations that rely on Microsoft Teams, he sees Tikit as a must-have:
“If you’re using Teams, this is a no-brainer. It improves workflow, improves adoption, and lets IT spend more time on projects instead of tickets. Not all of us want to do tickets all day—we want to move on to meaningful work. Tikit allows us to do that.”
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