Inside Help Desk Software

Matrix42, a company providing client lifecycle and IT service management, announced a survey study of theirs concluded that 80% of companies would be deploying user-self-help portals for software requests and/or IT services.

The survey specifically asked participants whether their organization would allow end-users to begin Windows 7 migration themselves, through a self-help portal, and of the 126 participants, 101 answered in the affirmative. Self-help portals would offer companies cost savings, yet their deployment is currently not possible in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).

Microsoft SCCM is typically employed for inventory, software distribution, and management of end nodes, but survey respondents suggested their IT departments need more flexibility and functionality. Martix42 announced survey results through a press release, and though their motivation in doing so is to hawk their IT-Commerce suite—which allows users to “redefine” how IT departments interact with their customers—the survey findings are still interesting.

Matrix42 was founded in 1992, and by technology standards is not a young company, and they seem to have carved a decent niche in the self-help portal market. We’re curious to see if they generate some serious competition this year with these kinds of surveys. Only time will tell!

Technorati Tags: Matrix42, Self-Help Portal, Surveys

Alloy Software, a company providing service and asset management solutions, is a young company that’s starting to make a big impact on the IT service desk market. This week it was announced that, for the second consecutive year, Alloy was named one of the fastest growing private companies in America by Inc. Magazine.

Plenty of companies struggled to stay afloat in 2009, but thanks to Alloy’s Navigator, and Discovery, products, they did not experience the same crushing amount of stress. In fact, the company noted that most of their growth can be attributed to Alloy Navigator, the comprehensive IT service management solution that is also the company’s flagship product. Last year, Alloy extended Navigator by offering a Navigator Express product for SMBs; the express platform gave users help desk, hardware, and software management tools.

The other product contributing to the company’s success is Alloy Discovery, a network inventory solution offering accurate and up-to-date information for every computer connected to a particular network. Alloy has also successfully maintained a good rapport with existing customers, in part through their JumpStart program, which is a free and intensive technical tutorial service offered to all new and prospective customers to help them become acquainted with the program quickly.

This recognition from Inc. Magazine is not the first Alloy has received. Last year they were also awarded the CRM Excellence Award by Customer Interaction Solutions magazine, and Navigator Express was named “Best New Product” at the American Business Awards. Considering Alloy Software isn’t one of those companies trumpeting the benefits of cloud computing on every turn, they must be offering a really sharp product to have gained such ground in 2009, and we are certainly curious to see how they’ll do in 2010.

Technorati Tags: Alloy Discovery, Alloy Navigator, Alloy Navigator Express, Alloy Software, up and coming solutions

The slow economy has left many IT departments having to “make do” with help-desk software investments that are becoming antiquated. Luckily, there are companies like the Israel-based help-desk software vendor SysAid, which recently launched integrated IT help desk live chat.

The latest version of their help desk platform, SysAid 6.5, will feature the live chat integration. This newest addition will help IT departments make their technology last longer, and more specifically, will help them manage the influx of inquiries via phone and email. SysAid surveyed customers globally, and found that a large percentage weren’t utilizing a live chat platform for their help desk needs. However, the vast majority of users are familiar with SMS services, so the integration allows IT technicians to support multiple channels and end users much more easily.

It is interesting that this solutions pretty much eliminates the need for phones in help desk, but an IDC research director notes that live chat capabilities are essential to any company offering a SaaS help desk solution. Having the ability to support five to six users at once—far more than can be helped via phone support—offers a great competitive advantage. SaaS help desk software is very young right now, but live chat integrations could be the innovation that helps it mature, and quickly.

Technorati Tags: Live Chat Integration, SaaS Help Desk, SysAid

Even though this year’s Dreamforce wasn’t as well attended as Oracle’s OpenWorld conference, the conference’s energy level, and the scope of their guests (from San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom to former Secretary of State Colin Powell)—can’t help but lend to the excitement people are feeling about the rise of on-demand services. And yesterday, two IT management heavyweights announced their services would be available via Salesforce.com within the next year.

Salesforce has been hyping up the Force.com developer platform as a means of stepping outside their CRM categorization, and yesterday BMC and CA both announced they’ll soon be offering apps built on Force.com. CA is adding its Agile Planner to the platform, and BMC’s Service Desk Express will be sold, marketed, and available via Salesforce.com. The assumption here is that more companies will be able to partake of these services once they are set in the cloud.

The bigger message in terms of the IT management market is that this is a “back-office” sector that is moving toward SaaS. The CEOs of both BMC and CA were at the conference, and both declined to give pricing details, but the assumption is that these Force.com-based services will be available to those already subscribing to their IT management platforms. Demands for more cost-efficient productivity suites are rising across all technology segments, and this is proof that going forward, IT management vendors are going to need to offer cloud components (at least) to remain competitive.

Technorati Tags: BMC Software, CA Software, Cloud Computing, Dreamforce 09, Force.com, IT Service Management

Today, social CRM provider BatchBlue announced an integration for their BatchBook product with Zendesk’s help desk platform. The integration targets small businesses, and the collaboration came from both vendors belonging to The Small Business Web association.

The integration will allow BatchBook users to connect their contact database into Zendesk’s help desk ticket processing, which ultimately saves time by creating a unified tracking source, and a an extensive reference point that supplies professional, personal, and social networking information. Furthermore, BatchBook’s “SuperTags” functionality can be used to create custom fields that capture individualized data about active support calls.

President of BatchBlue Software, Pamela O’Hara, said she was particularly excited about the venture because it will make their product “even more social,” which is an interesting choice of words for enterprise software. Nonetheless, it is wise partnership, as help desk systems are the enterprise systems that benefit the most from social media; smaller businesses benefit from it as well. Plenty of SMBs will be eager to streamline their customer service, and this enables them to do that and simultaneously bolster customer relationships, which tend to be stronger in smaller businesses.

Technorati Tags: BatchBlue Software, BatchBook, Social CRM, Social Media, Zendesk

Truliant Federal Credit Union announced this week they’re had great success using KACE’s KBOX hardware as, well, software.

Truliant has locations in four Southeastern states, and are using KBOX Systems Management Appliances—“help desks in a box”—to perform mass software upgrades, keep track of inventory, and answer questions. About 500 end users are utilizing six different appliances, and each has been designated a specific help-desk purpose. End users can log in tickets for support of Truliant’s devices, which range from PCs to servers to ATMs; one of their support specialists, Jason Allen, says this KBOX network is for everything but their core system, which is controlled by another department.

The KACE solution is different from traditional help desk systems in that it uses hardware for deployment, and each of the boxes are hardened and self-healing, with applications for remote support, asset management, and other functions. KACE executives say they’ve had great success implementing software systems via hardware packages, and Allen said that once the support team learned to properly use the KBOX system, it was smooth sailing.

Perhaps more importantly, KACE’s package cost Truliant about $20,000 less than their previous help desk software; it’s also saving staff hours, which is an indirect savings. KACE’s VP Marketing, Wynn White, says he expects this system will have even greater success when enterprises shift to Windows 7.

Technorati Tags: KACE, KBOX Systems Management Appliances, Truliant Federal Credit Union

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An instance where Twitter makes an efficient CRM tool: when it’s used to supplement help desk software. Yesterday, Canadian help desk software company Expinion.net launched Twitter capture technology with its version 3.0, giving subscribers to the on-demand service the ability to track support results on the social media site.

Several companies use Twitter for customer service ends (like digital-services provider Comcast), and it is very helpful for finding troubled customers before they come to you. Companies can find out what’s being said about their brand and products, and reach out to them with Twitter directly from the help desk administration, to offer support and find a solution. There’s also a branding bonus with Twitter integration: since the stream is crawled regularly, this method of customer support is good for public relations and for driving traffic to the company’s website.

With Expinion’s Twitter capture technology, relevant tweets are actually stored in the help desk platform, along with other tickets and internal projects. Furthermore, users can track progress made with each tweet over a longer term. Many CRM sectors are finding it difficult to incorporate the unstructured data coming from social networking sites, but it’s nice to see that one such sector can actually make good use of Twitter.

Technorati Tags: Expinion.net, HelpConnection.net, on-demand help desk, Social Media, Twitter

Most companies have been concerned with weathering the economic storm, but FrontRange Solutions had to worry about lackluster sales six years earlier. Thanks in large part to CEO Michael McCloskey (who came aboard in 2003), the enterprise software company—whose HEAT Help Desk solution is exceedingly popular—has thrived during the recession.

FrontRange ended their fiscal year May 30 with revenue up 6.8% from last year ($138.1 million from $129.3 million), with a total earnings of $23.6 million, up slightly from last year. McCloskey told the San Francisco Business Journal that he plans to take the company public by the end of next year, and has already been CEO or CFO of other companies that went public, like Kana Communications and Genesys Telecom.

However, the uphill climb wasn’t just the benefit of eliminating what McCloskey calls the employees’ “defeatist attitude”—FrontRange has steadily been moving from CRM software to low-cost IT service management software, where they will continue to pursue medium-sized enterprises. The IT sector is highly competitive, but FrontRange is successfully carving its niche.

It will be interesting to see how this repositioning affects FrontRange’s product line. The Business Journal notes that they have a slew of new products to release this year, but does not say whether those products air on the IT side. Given the success of HEAT and some of their other CRM products, it’s unlikely they’ll drop the CRM focus completely, but who’s to say what will happen when IT service management software is in the spotlight.

Technorati Tags: FrontRange Solutions, HEAT Help Desk, Kana Communications

Help Desk staff often deal with a number of simple issues on a daily basis. Many of these problems can often be taken care of within minutes. However, many times it may take double or triple the amount of time to actually complete resolve the situation.

A typical call from an employee to a help desk department often involves long, inconsistent explanations that frequently make little or no sense to help desk personnel. Often, this leads to the department deploying staff to other parts of the building in order to understand and assist in resolving the technical issue. Although the trip and phone call may only take a few minutes, this problem quickly grows larger as one considers the multiple phone calls and multiple “field trips” help desk personnel may need to take in a single day. This can take up lots of time and is a very inefficient way of solving technical issues as much of the time is spent wasted in the phone call and the travel time.

A quick and easy solution to this dilemma would be the utilization of some type of remote access software. This software segment is rapidly catching on as IT personnel can easily access employee computers from their location in order to quickly identify and resolve the technical issue, completely eliminating the need for wasteful trips to the employee’s office. This also gives remote working employees the added benefit of technical support while on the run. Rather than waiting to get into the office for technical issues to be addressed, employees can have IT Personnel quickly log onto their computers and fix any arising issues.

There are many available Remote Access Software solutions available. At a fairly inexpensive price, companies with low budgets can utilize them as a relatively effective help desk solution.

Technorati Tags: Help Desk Software, Help Desk Solution, Remote Access

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