TriMet’s Human-Centered ITSM Transformation

When TriMet — the public transit agency serving the Portland, Oregon metropolitan region — set out to modernize its IT service management, the goal was clear: build a system that works for people first. Oxalis partnered with TriMet to deliver an ITSM transformation that prioritized the needs of frontline staff, reduced friction in service delivery, and established a foundation for continuous improvement.

The Challenge: Legacy Systems, Growing Demands

TriMet operates one of the most complex public transit networks in the Pacific Northwest, serving over 300,000 riders daily across bus, light rail, and commuter rail lines. Behind the scenes, a growing IT infrastructure supports everything from fare collection systems to real-time vehicle tracking, dispatch communications, and internal business applications.

The existing ITSM platform had served TriMet adequately for years, but it was showing its age. Key pain points included:

  • Fragmented request workflows — Employees across multiple departments used different channels to submit IT requests, leading to inconsistent tracking and delayed responses.
  • Limited self-service options — Most issues required direct interaction with IT staff, creating bottlenecks during peak demand periods.
  • Minimal reporting visibility — Leadership lacked the data needed to identify systemic issues, allocate resources effectively, or measure service quality trends.

Oxalis Approach: Human-Centered Design Meets ITSM Best Practices

Rather than imposing a templated ITSM implementation, Oxalis began with extensive discovery. Our team spent weeks embedded with TriMet’s IT staff and their internal customers — maintenance crews, dispatch operators, administrative staff, and field supervisors — to understand how technology support actually flowed through the organization.

This human-centered approach revealed that the biggest barriers to effective service management were not technical — they were organizational. Workflows had grown organically over years, creating unofficial processes that operated alongside (and sometimes in conflict with) the formal ITSM tooling.

Armed with these insights, we designed a transformation roadmap built on three principles:

  • Simplify before automating — We streamlined 47 distinct request workflows into 12 standardized service categories, each with clear ownership, SLAs, and escalation paths.
  • Empower end users — A new self-service portal gave employees the ability to resolve common issues independently, submit requests with structured intake forms, and track progress in real time.
  • Build for visibility — Custom dashboards provided IT leadership with actionable metrics on ticket volume, resolution times, recurring issues, and team capacity.

Results That Speak for Themselves

Within six months of the new platform going live, TriMet reported measurable improvements across every key service metric. First-contact resolution rates increased by 28%. Average ticket resolution time dropped from 4.2 days to 1.8 days. And employee satisfaction scores for IT services rose from 62% to 89% — the highest in the agency’s history.

Perhaps more importantly, the transformation gave TriMet a platform for continuous evolution. New service categories, automation rules, and integration points can be added incrementally as the agency’s needs grow — without requiring another large-scale overhaul.

Lessons for Public Sector ITSM

TriMet’s experience underscores a truth that applies broadly across public sector IT organizations: the most successful transformations start with the people who use the systems, not the systems themselves. Technology is an enabler, but empathy and operational understanding are what turn a platform migration into a genuine service improvement.

Oxalis continues to partner with TriMet on the next phases of their ITSM journey, including expanded automation, knowledge management, and integration with enterprise asset management systems.