Inside Help Desk Software

Ever since FrontRange announced their shift from CRM software to IT service management software, we’ve been interested in what they’re releasing. Luckily for us, 2010 has started off well for the company, as FrontRange won a customer service award and launched the ninth version of FrontRange Discovery, a solution for finding and tracking all physical and virtual assets across a corporate network.

Seems refocusing on ITSM software is boding well for FrontRange, as FrontRange Customer Service Management received a 2009 Product of the Year Award this January. The award was given by Customer Interaction Solutions magazine, which is published by the Technology Market Corporation (TMC). Considering FrontRange’s mission to optimize customer interactions, they were highly pleased with the award.

Whether the ninth iteration of FrontRange Discovery is as pleasing remains to be seen, but surely it’s a deftly crafted update and a product of their reconcentrated efforts. Discovery 9 allows users a multi-faceted approach to network management, and they now also have the ability to automatically detect and then audit virtual assets, from servers to desktops to thin client applications. The underlying objective during development was to help users efficiently maintain their virtual assets—something many companies want to do, but fail.

One interesting tidbit to come out of the Discovery 9 press release: FrontRange is repositioning as the “Swiss Army knife” software company—with the ability to offer varied solutions for myriad issues. With that in mind, we’re curious to see what other multi-function tools they add.

Technorati Tags: Awards, FrontRange, FrontRange Customer Service Management, FrontRange Discovery

Israeli help desk vendor SysAid drew attention earlier this month when they announced a live chat integration for help desk software, and today they announced that their customer growth in 2009 was 43% compared to that of 2008. The deployments referenced include not just the company’s help desk solutions, but also their customer service support (CSS) software. The total number of new organizations to deploy is a whopping 16,400, and the company itself has grown 40% over the year.

It’s really no wonder SysAid has experienced such a high growth rate: they’ve launched four new releases this year, and as their platform is web-based, it is more affordable than some of the clunkier, on-premise versions on the market.

Two of the company’s newest releases were internal help desk solutions: SysAid IT 6.0 and SysAid IT 6.5 The latter is the one we noted has the live chat integration, which allows technicians to handle more tickets at one time; it also included an IT benchmark module designed to measure and evaluate IT performance and compare it with other SysAid users globally. The other two major releases were of SysAid’s CSS solution.

Some of their customers are big names, like Xerox, Adobe, and Dunkin’ Donuts. It’ll be exciting to see what they roll out in 2010, for sure.

Technorati Tags: Company Growth, Live Chat Integration, SysAid

With government budgets continue to spiral out of control with excessive spending and poorly designed budgets, it has become necessary for local government to adopt cost saving measures. While governments are notoriously known for wasteful spending and inefficient allocation of resources, NYC hopes to change the public’s perception.

NYC traditionally let each city department manage its own IT services. This led to overspending as well as inefficient services. A lack of centralization made oversight extremely poor and government operations were largely hindered by this poor design. NYC had trouble keeping up with the massive amount of inquires and support requests its received, with many of these same requests being lost in the shuffle. NYC finally decided to take a stand and changes its IT infrastructure. Rather than being reactive, NYC decided to become proactive when dealing with its IT issues.

NYC decided upon BMC Software’s Remedy Solution to help manage all of its help desk needs. With a centralized database, the IT Department now can readily access much needed critical information quickly and easily. In addition, its new centralized ticketing feature should allow for rapid resolution of incoming tickets. Improved tracking will also help ensure that all support requests are handled in a timely manner. Lost tickets will no longer be a viable excuse.

With the introduction of BMC Software’s Remedy Software Suite, NYC has seen a dramatic improvement in the effectiveness of its IT Department. It has also simultaneously reduced the costs necessary to run it. With this new system, the help desk can handle multiple modes of communication in a relatively easy manner. BMC Software has provided the tools necessary to help NYC successfully run and manage its own IT operations. With continued improvement in its operations thanks to Remedy, NYC hopes to continue to provide higher level of service and an increasingly lower cost!

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Help Desk, IT Support

As employees become more mobile, there is a need for software to help facilitate this mobility. Employees need to be in the loop at all the times of the day. Readily accessible company databases are necessary in order for companies to stay on top and in touch with what’s going on at the company. Although mobile solutions may seem like luxuries for many companies, there is a change trend towards mobility becoming more of a necessity.

In this struggling economy, the need to stay constantly in touch may be an issue of survival for many companies. As companies struggle to generate revenue to stay in business, holding on to existing customers becomes a high priority. To satisfy the needs of customers, companies may choose to switch to a 24/7 level of support in order to minimize the frustrations of their loyal customers. Failing to keep customers satisfied could lead to customers jumping ship to their rivals.

With new mobile help desk solutions for the Iphone, employees can easily handle many of the simple requests submitted from customers. Support tickets can be handled rather quickly with pre-defined responses and many more features. With the continued advances in technology of these mobile devices, more software solutions should become readily available for these “mini-computers”.

The future of mobile software solutions will definitely be a rapidly growing industry in the future. As companies look for employees to stay in touch with customer at all times of the day, mobile software solutions will help facilitate that. As a result, stronger customer support and improved customer service should help companies keep loyal customers happy

Technorati Tags: Iphone Software, Mobile Help Desk, Mobile Software

The many advances in technology have led to an increased use of business software platforms as companies look to capitalize on the many benefits associated with the use of business software. However, smaller businesses continue to have trouble finding solutions that are appropriate for them. With many of the help desk providers developing solutions geared towards larger enterprises, many smaller businesses are often left to come up with their own alternatives as these solutions don’t scale down well to smaller companies.

Costs also play a large role for smaller businesses who may not have the larger budgets that larger companies have. The availability of a cost-effective solution geared towards smaller business becomes extremely difficult to find. However, there are alternatives out there for smaller companies.

The introduction of free help desk software allows smaller companies to enjoy all the benefits of help desk software with little cost. Illient’s SysAid is one example of a free help desk platform that provides many of the same features larger platforms offer. Web Help Desk is also another popular free help desk provider. Although many free help desk providers also provide more comprehensive paid versions of their software, the free version is often more than sufficient for many smaller companies.

Free Help Desk software provides smaller companies with an alternative to the expensive packages which are often out of company budgets. Try a free help desk solution for your company to see whether it fits for you! With no cost to you, it could be the answer to many of your existing help desk issues!

Technorati Tags: Free Help Desk, Help Desk Software, Web Help Desk

Web Help Desk has continued to be a leading provider of help desk software for a number of industries in the past few years. Prior to all the new technological innovations such as Cloud Computing or SaaS, Web Help Desk was providing companies with its award winning help desk software platform. Web Help Desk has continued to innovate to maintain its position on top of the help desk software industry as it has recently announced new versions of its existing help desk platform.

As customer service gains in importance in today’s business world, help desk software is becoming a more popular choice for many companies. With tools that can still provide effective monitoring of its agents, Web Help Desk Lite is similar to the full fledged version of its popular help desk software. The main difference is associated with the cost and convenience as Web Help Desk Lite is aimed towards companies who cannot afford a more advanced solution and don’t have the resources to dedicate towards deploying a more complex help desk platform.

Web Help Desk Lite will be offered as a SaaS product as well as an on-premise “lighter” version of its existing help desk software product. This should provide companies the ability to afford a solution that can meet their company needs. For more information on what Web Help Desk Lite has to offer, you can find a list of features here.

Technorati Tags: Help Desk Software, On Premise Help Desk, SaaS Help Desk, Web Based Help Desk

GWI Software announced the release of its newest product, c.Support Version 8.0, which is a powerful web-based help desk solution geared for help desks of all types and sizes.

c. Support 8.0 has a number of improvements and enhancements which should improve performance and allow support centers to be much more effective in what they do. GWI Software’s committment to improve the help desk community is evident in its devotion to developing the best and most advanced help desk solution possible. Its investment in developing its product shows its committment to the help desk industry.

c.Support 8.0’s improvements includes a new interface as well as a more responsive solution. GWI Software made its support able to handle much larger loads at a much faster speed. This should help help desk organizations that are swamped with requests and enable growing help desk organizations to grow within the same solution.

GWI Software’s many new features should provide help desk departments the tools necessary to accomplish their jobs efficiently and much more easily. For more information on the exciting new changes, you can read the full article here.

Technorati Tags: Help Desk Department, Help Desk Software, Service Desk

Toyota Financial Services is one of the leading vehicle finance corporations in the world. With hundreds of staff and offices found all over the world, Toyota began to feel the effects on its IT help desk. With over 200 calls and emails a day, TFS had to find a way to run its help desk more efficiently and solve issues ina  more productive way.

Issues which plagued the help desk ranged from issues with the company website to internal issues within the company’s systems. Toyota felt it was time to be able to find a help desk system that would be able to support its staff while also being able to track performance through reporting and analytics tools. Boosting its help desk productivity was a key goal for Toyota in being able to provide better customer service.

After reviewing a number of different help desk options, Toyota decided on FrontRange’s Heat service desk package. Heat’s customizability as well as its recording features make it a very convenient system for Toyota. Rather than doing simple administrative tasks such as recording and logging phone calls, help desk staff now have the time to attack the root of problems by working on the issue itself.

Toyota has been impressed with HEAT’s functionality and usability as it provides many tools that simplify the support process for its help desk employees. HEAT provides the staff with accountability as performance is easily monitored through a variety of reports and other tools.

For more information on this successful implementation, you can read the full article here.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Support, Heat, Help Desk Support, IT Help Desk

Numara Software, a popular supplier of help desk solutions has announced that its popular product, Numara FootPrints 9, was awarded the 2008 Product of the Year Award from TMC. Numara FootPrints 9 is the latest release of its popular service desk management solution.

The newest version of Numara FootPrints provides a host of features to allow companies to run their service desks in compliance and more freely. The newest version provides support for an ITIL library while also providing the freedom for help desk technicians to work from remote locations. Its mobile help desk functionality provides employees the flexibility necessary to succeed in today’s fast paced world.

Numara is honored to receive this prestigious award for its Numara FootPrints Software solution. The award is in recognition of the high standards Numara places on its products. With its ease of use and practical features, Numara FootPrints should continue to be a popular choice among companies as it provides companies with the functionality companies look for.

For more information on Numara FootPrints 9, you can find the full article here.

Technorati Tags: ITIL, Mobile Help Desk, Numara FootPrints

Web Help Desk announced that Version 9 of its Help Desk Software solution will be available. The new version of Web Help Desk will provide a host of new features as well as a number of tools that should provide companies with a better user experience. The implementations of these new features are a result of the feedback provide to Web Help Desk from its loyal customers.

A Variety of new features in the newest version of its help desk software should help improve productivity within companies. Some of these new features include:

- Change Management Control
- Asset Discovery Data Importing
- Remote Computer Access
- Language Capabilities
… and more!!

For more on this newest offering from Web Help Desk, you can read the full article found here.

Technorati Tags: Help Desk, Help Desk Software, Web Help Desk