Help Desk Software 101 : Evaluating your IT Management Software

Many factors can influence your ultimate choice. High functionality is a must, but what about cost? Is the software portable and flexible? Is it user-friendly? Are there customization options for your specific needs? How long will it take to implement? It can sometimes be difficult to distinguish irrelevant factors from truly crucial ones. These considerations can be painstaking – after all, every IT management team dreads the risk of choosing the wrong software solution. Here are some essential criteria that industry experts have gathered to help you determine whether or not your software is getting the job done.

1) Quick installation and implementation
Installing your IT management software should require minimal time and resource investment. After installation, implementation should be a quick and seamless transition into immediate use. The processes of deployment, customization, and setting configurations should take no longer than a few hours. If a program is so cumbersome that it takes months to effectively implement, you’ll have wasted valuable time and energy that could have been channeled towards meaningful productivity.

2) Simple interface that facilitates ease-of-use
All too often, your purchase of IT management software is immediately followed by a new challenge: how does the thing even work? If your software does not provide a user-friendly interface, you’ll have to invest more time and resources into learning the program’s basics. Even worse, you might miss out on important functionalities simply because you can’t figure out how they work – or can’t find them in the program to begin with. Your program should offer an interface that is so intuitive that even your less technically-inclined end-users can use it without needing a user manual.

3) Modular and integrated structure for centralized access to information
Effective IT management encompasses a wide range of components: helpdesk, asset management, monitoring, reports, projects, tasks, problem management, change management, and CMDB. Combining multiple tools can be incredibly complex, and your IT management software solution must not consist of “stand-alone” modules that isolate data into silos of information. Your software must provide a comprehensive and completely integrated range of tools. This unified approach provides centralized access to information and facilitates your success.

4) Low maintenance and upgrade costs
When evaluating the cost-efficiency of your IT management software, the price of your initial purchase is only a small component of your long-term investment. Many tend to overlook the pressing issue of hidden costs: how much is maintaining your software going to cost you? Maintenance fees can be surprisingly expensive, and if the program is complicated, you may need to hire private consultants every time you want to upgrade your system. As the effectiveness of your software depends on continued maintenance, you should have to pay no more than a small percentage of your initial purchase on an annual basis for continued maintenance.

5) Intuitive customization options
Customization extends well beyond implementation into the ongoing maintenance of your system. Choose IT management software solution that provides you with as many customization options as possible, and these customization options must be simple and straight-forward. You shouldn’t have to hire a team of consultants every time you want to make a customization. The point of customization is for the product to cater to your needs, and if the process takes longer than a few minutes to do on your own, it’s too complicated. Remember, you shouldn’t have to work for your software – it should work for you!

6) Long-term support approach
In the months and years after you purchase, your software provider should demonstrate an unwavering commitment to your satisfaction. An excellent service experience means that every issue you report is taken seriously and quickly addressed. Personal attention should be more than lip-service – it should truly be a core tenet of your product provider’s support mission. Your purchase of an IT management software solution is largely motivated to by the desire to improve your IT service quality; why shouldn’t you expect the same quality of service from the company you purchase it from?

7) IT professional community
A true enhancement to any IT management software is access to an active online community of other IT professionals. Whether it is learning how to perform a remote reboot or how you can implement ITIL best practices in your organization, online community forums give you indispensable tools for better IT management. Your participating can help you get the most out of your software’s capabilities. An IT community also lets yourself compare yourself to other IT professionals – see what they’re up to, what they’re concerned about, and where you stand. Staying in-the-know on the latest trends is crucial in the ever-dynamic world of IT.

8) Strong references
A reliable indicator of your software package’s merit is what other customers have to say about it. When evaluating your IT management solution, ask for references and testimonials. Don’t hesitate to ask for references per industry or geography if this is meaningful to your evaluation. Feedback from other IT professionals is a trustworthy reference, and it can help you reach a conclusion about what the product can do for you. If they love it, ask why. A company that boasts an especially loyal customer base is doing something right – especially when those customers are IT pros, who don’t settle for anything less than excellence.

9) Commitment to feedback
As an IT professional, you know what tools and features you need to maximize your IT performance. The company that provides your IT management software should listen to your input and strive to implement your ideas in future releases. Your constructive feedback can – and should – help forge the future of the product, and you must feel that your ideas are valued. More than just demonstrating a commitment to user satisfaction, a company that incorporates your feedback into its product guarantees to deliver the kind of performance you need.

10) Strong vision and dynamic future
IT is a world of ever-evolving innovation and technological development. When evaluating your IT management software solution, you need to ask: is this company receptive to change and improvement? What is its past, and where is it going? How many new versions does it release a year? How many features does every new version introduce? Are these features significant additions to the product’s capabilities, or are they just minor patches and bug fixes? On the support page of your product’s website, check out its release history to evaluate its direction into the future.
You shouldn’t have to settle for anything less than a superior IT management software solution. Believe it or not, you don’t have to.

SOURCE

New IBM Tivoli Service Request Manager

ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today
announced a new service aimed at helping businesses automate the flow of
information across IT service desk operations, resulting in faster incident
management and issue resolution, higher employee productivity and lower
operational costs.


(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )


Many large enterprises have several IT service desks to support both internal
and external organizations, sometimes spanning multiple divisions and
geographies. One service desk might handle reports of IT incidents related to
the broader IT infrastructure of a company, while another may manage specific
business applications. This IT environment often requires manual processes to
route incidents to the right organizations.


IBM is addressing this issue for users of IBM Tivoli Service Request Manager
and the IT service desk of the SAP® Solution Manager application management
solution. The new offering from IBM Software Services for Tivoli helps
customers design and implement a complete incident management strategy. As
part of the service, customers can use IBM Tivoli Service Request Manager
version 7.1 software, now SAP-certified for integration with SAP Solution
Manager 7.0 via the service desk interface scenario (SMG-SDI 4.0), to
automatically route incidents to the appropriate groups across the enterprise,
regardless of the environment in which the incident originated.


As a result, the new services can provide a quicker resolution to incidents
related to the SAP environment, improving its availability and the quality of
related business services. The services can also help companies reduce
operating costs through centralized support coordination and data
consolidation.


"Businesses are looking for new ways to improve the effectiveness of their IT
service delivery organizations and lower costs," said Al Zollar, general
manager, IBM Tivoli Software. "The use of IBM Tivoli Service Request Manager
integrated and used in combination with the service desk software from SAP can
help our joint clients respond to their customers' needs faster, eliminate
manual processes, and drive more value out of service desk data."


Customers who currently use Tivoli Service Request Manager and the IT service
desk of SAP Solution Manager can take advantage of this new service. For
example, if an incident opened in Tivoli Service Request Manager pertains to
an application in the SAP environment, all the information about the incident
will be automatically sent to the IT service desk that handles those issues in
SAP Solution Manager. The issue can be tracked and managed centrally; there
is no re-entry of data, and no manual hand-off between the groups.


"The certified integration of IBM Tivoli Service Request Manager with the IT
service desk of SAP Solution Manager is a significant step forward for our
joint customers," said Dr. Matthias Melich, vice president, Application
Lifecycle Management, SAP Active Global Support. "The integration allows
Tivoli users to also benefit from the integration of SAP Solution Manager with
SAP's support infrastructure, which in turn provides fast access to SAP's
world-class global network of support consultants. The results are tangible:
Joint SAP and IBM Tivoli customers receive higher support quality and faster
responses through the integration if problems occur."


IBM Tivoli Service Request Manager provides an integrated service desk and
catalog for a "one touch" IT experience. This integrated service desk software
unifies and automates key service support and asset management processes. This
level of integration is made possible by IBM and SAP taking a leadership role
in the development of open architectures.


The SAP Solution Manager application management solution facilitates lifecycle
support for heterogeneous SAP solutions, with functionality that covers all
key aspects of solution deployment, operation, and continuous improvement. SAP
Solution Manager combines tools, content, and direct access to SAP support
services to increase the reliability of solutions and lower total cost of
ownership.


For more than 35 years, IBM and SAP have collaborated to bring joint customers
offerings to improve business efficiency at more than 13,000 client sites for
their millions of users.


For more information, visit www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/services/consulting.


SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in
Germany and in several other countries.


All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their
respective companies.


SAP Forward-looking Statement
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are
forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe,"
"estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project,"
"predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP
are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no
obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All
forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors
that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in
SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"),
including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of their dates.


Leigh Ann Schmidt
IBM Media Relations
914-766-1362
leighanns@us.ibm.com





SOURCE IBM

Leigh Ann Schmidt of IBM Media Relations, +1-914-766-1362,
leighanns@us.ibm.com

This article is from www.reuters.com

Help Desk Software Announces Integration With Microsoft SCCM and SMS

Fremont, CA - Web Help Desk, a leading provider of practical, flexible and comprehensive ITSM help desk software, announces out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), formerly Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS). The seamless integration delivers scheduled imports of hardware and software asset discovery data from Microsoft SCCM or SMS to the Web Help Desk database, providing instant access to up-to-date SCCM asset data within the Web Help Desk browser-based interface.

This unique approach to out-of-the-box integration conserves IT budget resources by removing the need to purchase expensive, proprietary discovery modules from the help desk vendor. The availability of validated asset data directly within a service request ticket creates an efficient "one stop shop" for ITSM fulfillment.

Joel Gibby, Systems Specialist with Camas School District #117 in Camas, Washington proclaimed, "The Web Help Desk SMS integration setup couldn't be easier. We simply put in our SMS server IP, database name, username and password. The level of integration is great - if an asset discovered by SMS has a last logged on user, it will show up under that user's assets in Web Help Desk." Mr. Gibby continued, "All installed software on an asset is listed, along with IP, MAC, model number, serial number, disk and memory usage. Web Help Desk even tell you how to setup RC.EXE, so that you can launch SMS Remote Tools directly from the help desk software. I'm impressed. This level of integration really jump-started our use of the asset management features within Web Help Desk."

The inclusion of Microsoft SCCM and SMS integration into the application's feature set solidifies Web Help Desk's commitment to cross platform compatibility and vendor neutrality. Web Help Desk currently provides support for all modern web browsers, virtually any server-side operating system and most major databases. This flexibility allows organizations to maximize their existing infrastructure and provides peace of mind that any future infrastructure changes will not disrupt their Web Help Desk deployment.

"This hardware and software data is already available in your SCCM or SMS deployment. Why not make it easily accessible to your service desk tickets, where it's most needed?" explained Terry Siddall, VP at Web Help Desk. "Having this asset information within the service request ticket makes perfect sense, but buying another help desk vendor's discovery system to provide the same information you've already paid for does not."

Microsoft SCCM integration is available to on-premise licenses running on Windows Server, Mac OS X, Linux or Unix, and on Web Help Desk SaaS hosted plans as well.

SOURCE : prmac.com

Vision Helpdesk Partners with Mollom to Combat SPAM!

Do you hate spammers? Spammers beware, Vision Helpdesk Partners with Mollom to Combat SPAM!

TheVisionWorld, the developers of leading helpdesk software — Vision, announced their new partnership with Mollom last August 29.

Vision Helpdesk integrates with Mollom to offer “Anti-Spam Plug-in“. The Company claims that “The Anti-Spam plug-in is capable of stopping spam and unwanted content in all languages”.

Vision Helpdesk is the ultimate modern help desk software, capable of handling multiple companies with various support areas and organize staff to their zones allowing the highest efficiency for support ticket replies. “Vision” provides the optimum combination of call management automation, functionality and flexibility, delivering a comprehensive Helpdesk solution that satisfies most of the IT service management requirements.

Mollom is a well thought Anti-Spam system. It provides a one stop solution for all spam problems – It is a web service that helps you identify content quality and, more importantly, helps you stop spam on your blog, social network or community website.

“SPAM is not just a pain but a serious security risk” said Company HR Preeti Sharma — She added further — “SPAM can cause a serious damage to an organization’s infrastructure: clogging mailboxes, defrauding recipients, overloading systems, reducing employee productivity and much more..” She said — “Considering spam as a biggest threat for email systems - we decided to develop Anti-Spam plug-in which will help our users to combat spam efficiently and it will also save their time they spent on deleting spam emails”.

Further she said — “Integration of two software’s plays an important role in today’s online business. The integration not only increases the features but also improves control over the operations flow. Keeping this in mind we are looking forward to integrate Vision with other leading software’s that will benefit users to a large extent in their day to day helpdesk activities”.

Source : Vision Helpdesk Partners with Mollom to Combat SPAM!

Kayako Offers Free Help Desk Software for Charitable institutions

Kayako, vendor of help desk software, CRM and live chat software solutions has announced the immediate availability of free, perpetual and unlimited licence for their help desk solutions for charitable institutions and open-source software projects.

Established in 2001 and now with more than 30,000 customers including the likes of FedEx, John Deere and ICANN, Kayako has help desk and live chat software solutions.

“We have been helping organizations and teams cut their costs by making their customer service more efficient and enabling them to offer easy-to-use self-help resources to their own customers,” said Jamie Edwards, operations manager at Kayako.

The free licence offer comes with 12 months of technical support. Eligible organizations are also entitled to receive any number of free licences of Kayako’s supplementary add-on products, such as KayakoMobile – a help desk management client for mobile devices.

Source : MicroFinance Focus : Free help-desk software for charitable institutions

Free Help Desk Support Software

I’ve been focusing a bit too much on CRM and now it’s time to shift gears a bit.

I’m going to focus on the small to medium business as a one or two person IT shop can simply use Outlook and public folders to track help desk tickets and incidents.

Here are a few good (and free!) Help Desk Support Software.

OpenSource Ticket Request System

Based on the current numbers and user base, OTRS appears to be the leading ticketing system.
OTRS which stands for Open Source Ticket Request System is also known as Trouble Ticket System.

Their list of over 150 paid customers includes Nokia, Siemens, Lufthansa, Boeing, NASA Ames Research Center, Amnesty International, and Fujitsu Microelectronics America.

On the free installation side, their implementations includes companies such as Intel, Sun, GE and the American Stock Exchange, plus over 6,000 other companies.

At the time of this writing, there are over 55,000 installations in 24 languages with over 4,200 mailing list subscribers

How big was the development team for OTRS?

22 OTRS employees and an additional 20 freelancers!

This may be the Redhat of the DotCom Boom (or meltdown) a decade ago, where we saw RH spin off a free version of their OS (Centos) plus their paid Enterprise level software and support. Remember, it’s the support you are paying for.

Maian Support

Maian Support is by far the most popular for small entrepreneurs and blogs.

Their current version 1.3 was released in March 2007 and has 65,000 downloads for this version alone.

This Support Ticket software is particularly good for external customers submitting help desk or support tickets. I’ve had good experiences with this ticket system (the product I am getting support for is another story!)

Some of their options include:

• Add separate support area departments
• Add individual users to each department
• Gravnt users one of 3 permission types
• Auto cron function to close unanswered tickets after certain time
• Option for support people to contact each other via admin area
• Ability to search ticket database
• Template driven system utilizing the Savant2 template engine
• Tickets show response time between posts in days, hrs & mins
• No user login required to view or create tickets
• Adds database prefix for people with only 1 database
• Add user signatures to appear at the bottom of all tickets
• Enable/disable e-mail notification for users
• Ability for admin to go straight to ticket after log in to save time
• Administrators can view users response times at a glance
• Captcha code implementation for spam prevention
• Time offset feature
• Merge ticket to another ticket with optional notification
• Admin tools to purge old tickets/attachments older than specified time
• Permanently close tickets that visitor cannot re-open
• Knowledge Base (Optional)
• File Attachment (Optional)
• Ban filters (Optional)
• Live Support Module (Optional)
• Auto zip attachments (Optional) 

Source: crmhelpdesksoftware.com

TATA Technologies: i Support IT

Tata Technologies today announced the launch of i SUPPORT IT, its proprietary four-tiered solution that fuses essential and comprehensive support services for PLM and engineering professionals.

i SUPPORT IT provides scalable support solutions to clients, that range from no-cost, self-help through enterprise-level agreements. This is possible through the unique integration of Web-enabled support, live support, and i GET IT® online knowledge management capabilities delivered through these four packages:

1. i SUPPORT IT Web Help – Web-enabled support that includes 24/7 online access and access to the i GET IT online community.
2. i SUPPORT IT Live Help – All the Web-based support, with the addition of entry-level phone support and single-action HelpDesk support.
3. i SUPPORT IT Multi-Application – Adds multi-application HelpDesk support
4. i SUPPORT IT Enterprise – Fully covers the extended organization

“Every Tata Technologies client receives a free i SUPPORT IT Web Help account, providing them access to more than 100,000 knowledge documents, and including access to all the community features on i GET IT,” said David Fedler, Tata Technologies Chief Knowledge Officer. “With more than 115,000 users in 60 countries currently relying on i GET IT for Web self-help, these options that are available to expand their support solutions are designed to enhance their investment in PLM technology.

“Productivity and profitability are the ultimate goals of every organization, and timely and accurate support for systems and applications is critical to those pursuits,” he added.

Tata Technologies Limited, founded in 1989, is a global leader in Engineering Services Outsourcing (ESO) and Product Development IT services to the global manufacturing industry. The company is headquartered in Singapore, with regional headquarters offices in the United States (Novi, Michigan), India (Pune) and the UK (Luton).

Source:  www.cadcamnews.in

LBI Software Engineering Announces General Dynamics Selects CaseManager for Help Desk Management

CaseManager, an LBi Software Engineering application, allows customer service representatives (CSRs), human capital management (HCM) specialists, managers and system administrative staff to easily enter information about employee calls, find answers and efficiently track cases to completion.

WOODBURY, N.Y., June 29 /PRNewswire/ -- LBi Software Engineering announced today that General Dynamics is implementing CaseManager for Human Resources Help Desk to log, track and resolve employee calls into its Service Center.

"General Dynamics' requirements for automatic assignment, automatic escalation and complete case tracking and history made for a perfect fit with LBi's CaseManager product," said Richard Teed, President of LBi. "We extended the CaseManager solution with the Employee Self-Service Portal for 24x7 access to research and review queries by the employee."

CaseManager, an LBi Software Engineering application, allows customer service representatives (CSRs), human capital management (HCM) specialists, managers and system administrative staff to easily enter information about employee calls, find answers and efficiently track cases to completion. CaseManager seamlessly integrates with leading HCM/HR enterprise software packages like Oracle, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards to give CSRs a holistic view of employee information -- so they can provide the accurate, timely and consistent answers that employees need, with the fast response they expect.

About CaseManager

CaseManager from LBi is a browser-based application providing a comprehensive solution for call center efficiency and help desk management. CaseManager combines the latest web technologies with the basic functionality of DiscoverE, a successful LBi application for more than ten years, to offer customers an end-to-end solution for managing employee calls and tracking issues to resolution. Designed to integrate smoothly with existing human resource management systems, CaseManager greatly reduces start up and maintenance to ease IT workloads.

About LBi

LBi develops custom applications when off-the-shelf software and major enterprise (HCM/ERP/CRM) applications don't fit the need. Whether it is a full enterprise solution or a smaller "bolt-on," we work side-by-side with our clients to develop the best solution for you. LBi's products are custom bolt-on applications for Human Capital Management systems (e.g. Oracle, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards):

• Employee Self-Service Portal -- allows the employee to directly access HR, payroll and benefit data (e.g. employee contact info, recent paychecks, W-2's).
• Web-based Benefits enrollment -- allows employees to enroll in benefits on the web -- full e-mail integration provides a paperless open enrollment.
• At-Trac -- time and attendance tracking and workflow.
• CaseManager -- a help desk tracking and workflow tool that includes the ability to create a knowledgebase on the fly.

Source: news,prnewswire.com

Elementool Updates Help Desk CRM Tool

Elementool Inc., the leading developer of online project management software, has announced the release of Help Desk version 5.1, Elementool's customer Relevant Products/Services relationship management (CRM Relevant Products/Services) tool. This latest update to Elementool's suite of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) project management applications, allows for easier set up and increased oversight and maintenance of customer service operations. Now more than ever, it's important for small business owners to establish a relationship with their customers or clients and respond to any inquiries in a timely manner. Help Desk 5.1 offers increased flexibility and customization allowing users to adapt the CRM tool to their processes, and remain on top of customer correspondence and website issues.

New Features Include:

      • Drag and Drop: users can drag and drop fields within Forms and Report Queries so that only relevant or necessary data is visible and that data is organized in the most efficient way for individual accounts or projects.

      • Sorting: often times large amounts of data are retrieved in reports Relevant Products/Services increased sorting options lets users find the particular data they need easily and quickly.

      • Welcome Page: increased filtering options on the main Welcome Page allow project administrator to present a quick summary of the customer information they feel is most relevant.

"As a SaaS provider, Elementool is in the position to frequently update our tools and applications in order to provide the best experience for our customers," says Yaron Sinai, CEO & Founder of Elementool. "With the new version of our Help Desk tool, it is even easier for users to maintain successful client relationships through efficient and regular customer contact."

Help Desk 5.1 brings added customization and depth to the original tool with a more dynamic interface. Forms can now be customized for specific projects or accounts by dragging and dropping fields, allowing relevant information to be presented where and when it is needed. In dealing with customers, the most recent request is not always the most urgent. For that reason, Elementool has made report queries more customizable as well. Help Desk 5.1 offers new options within the reporting function, including drag and drop of fields and sorting.

Source: business.newsfactor.com

Alloy - Help Desk Software

Company: Alloy Software

Headquarters: Nutley, N.J.
 
Technology Sector: Software
 
Key Product: Alloy Navigator
 
Year Founded: 2002
 
Number of Channel Partners: 40 active partners worldwide
 
Ideal Channel Partner: SMB-focused solution providers
 
Why You Should Care: Alloy posted record growth in 2008 and is expanding its help desk market reach in all directions, from government accounts to SMBs to large enterprises.
 
The Lowdown: Alloy Software in the past year encountered a problem: its service and asset management products were too expensive and complex for many in its SMB customer base, even as they also left room to scale for larger enterprises that wanted more features. Therefore, the company had to begin offering products targeted to both market segments, increasing its penetration into both and continuing to expand its direct and indirect business in each. Problem solved.



The company was founded in 2002 by CEO Vladimir Vinogradsky, who, as the story goes, began developing the software that would later become Alloy's flagship products as a hobby. Alloy's been expanding ever since, and in seven years, it's developed a worldwide clientele and a reseller channel that comprises about 35 to 40 percent of its overall business.

"We're not really sure how much more we're going to grow that yet, but it seems to be a pretty good balance," said Robert Josefs, Alloy's manager of marketing sales, of the company's indirect sales channels. "The ratio [of direct to indirect sales] is nice. Of course we earn more money sometimes and can manage the customer when they come directly to us, but the partners are very important, and we will work with partners no matter how much we grow."

The company's products are seen in health care, education, manufacturing and any number of large enterprises and small businesses alike. Alloy Navigator is Alloy's top-selling help desk and asset management software, and the company in March launched Alloy Navigator Express, a pared-down, cheaper version of Navigator intended for small and medium sized businesses. The Express version is priced per technician and computer node, and a three-agent license that supports 100 computers runs $990, which is then further discounted for education and government clients and also anyone switching to Alloy from a competitor's software.

"Now we can better engage two types of customers," Josefs said. We have the Navigator Express for the SMBs, and in the coming months we'll be adding more features to Navigator to expand it for enterprises. Our Enterprise Edition will be focused on the largest accounts."

Most recently, Alloy formed a partnership with the Winvale Group that allows it access to Winvale's GSA Schedule and ups its ability to do business in the public sector arena. Navigator, Navigator Express and Alloy Discovery -- Alloy's network inventory software -- are all available through Alloy's GSA program.

"If you're in the government, each department, each agency has its own needs," Josefs said. "Most of them have a help desk, but most also need their data cleaned up and relief from so many processes. We can streamline all of that and be very versatile for them."

Source: www.crn.com

Numara Software, Inc. - Service Desk Mangement Solutions

Continuing a trend of contract wins in the important education sector, Numara® Software, Inc., a leader in service desk management solutions, announced today that the rapidly expanding further education and training establishment, Milton Keynes College, is to upgrade its existing solution, Numara® Track-It!®, to the latest version.

Improving processes is a continual driver within the education sector, where wider education and sporting facilities and more students mean an increasing volume of IT demands from an array of users eager to have their support needs met. This in turn leads to growing complexity for the help desk.

In the case of Milton Keynes College, which has campus sites at Bletchley, Chaffron Way and Kiln Farm, that means a help desk serving the support requirements of over 15,000 students and 1,500 staff, managing and closing over 10,000 support calls a year, or 800 calls a month, with a small IT department that only comprises 18 staff.

The College’s growing activities – it is in partnership with the University of Bedfordshire and recently swept the Board in a national competition to find the best young designers in the UK –have increased the workload on the help desk, leading to the decision by the College to upgrade the Numara Track-It! solution it has used for the last four years to the latest version. Peter Drage, IT manager for Milton Keynes College, takes up the story:

“Most of our systems run on a Wintel platform with Wintel services, although we do have some Linux® applications. We have a mix of PCs and Macs, and for many years the Macs were effectively outside the scope of IT. Now that we have upgraded our help desk software, we can deliver a comprehensive service to all our users irrespective of the operating system they use.”

One of the key benefits of the Numara Track-It! solution is its self service facility which enables users to help themselves. Around 30 percent of incidents and problems within the College are now handled via self service, with Milton Keynes having a long term goal of removing email completely as a means of communication with the help desk. In future, Drage hopes, everyone will work through the self service interface.

“The demands on the help desk can vary from the simplest - and most frustrating – of requests such as password resets to managing quite sophisticated IT projects. The quicker we move users to self service, the more efficient and effective our support will become.”

The key features of Numara Track-It! which Milton Keynes College is keen to adopt include a newly redesigned user interface which, as well as being intuitive and easy to use, provides accountability and visibility both for the IT department and for the College. A customisable management dashboard means the IT department has a complete view across the College’s 22 sites: 11 education venues and 11 Milton Keynes area prisons where the College supports a number of local training initiatives.

This volume of sites and the range of the College’s activities mean its support needs now resemble the demands of a growing business, as Drage explains:

“Sometimes we forget that the size and scale of our IT requirements are equivalent to those of a medium-sized enterprise. The number of sites we support and the number of students and staff means we are no small outfit.”

Looking ahead, the College is keen to develop the interface between Numara Track-It! and Microsoft® Active Directory™, as well as cherry picking the elements of the ITIL® best practice framework most applicable to the organisation. Having been a Numara Track-It! user for over four years, Drage expects the College’s relationship with Numara Software to continue to be a strong one.

“Numara Track-It! is an excellent product and does exactly what you want and more. It is also extremely competitively priced, which has always been a key consideration for the College. We have a very strong relationship with Numara Software which is why we have not looked to switch to other vendors, and I expect that relationship to continue in the future.”

To read more on this, click here.

Patni Computer Systems - Help Desk Outsourcing

Patni Computer Systems, a leading global IT and BPO services provider, today announced that it has been positioned by Leading industry analyst firm Gartner, Inc., in the "Challengers" quadrant of its "Magic Quadrant for Help Desk Outsourcing, North America" 2009 report1 by Richard Matlus and William Maurer. The report is designed to help corporations identify and evaluate outsourcing external service providers (ESPs) for help desk services.

"We are pleased that Gartner has positioned us as a Challenger in their Magic Quadrant report for Helpdesk Outsourcing. We are committed to providing our clients with world class seamless helpdesk services at affordable costs. At the same time, we are consistently expanding and customizing our helpdesk solutions to address their changing needs and to help them improve end user productivity and satisfaction. We view this recognition as a validation of our commitment to our clients and the superior quality of our helpdesk services," said Sanjiv Kapur, Senior Vice President and Head of Patni's Business Process Outsourcing and Helpdesk Services business.

Patni has a mature Helpdesk Practice and provides a complete range of services including Infrastructure, Applications and Technology helpdesk services. Backed by several years of experience in developing help desk strategies to address unique client business goals, we deliver proven and strategic business value to our clients. We provide a 'Single Window Clearance' service even in a managed services environment and significantly enhanced first call resolution enabling companies to dramatically reduce costs and improve operating efficiencies. Leveraging a global delivery model, Patni also provides multilingual helpdesk support in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese. The Help Desk Magic Quadrant is a proprietary research tool developed by Gartner to evaluate companies on completeness of vision and ability to execute. This report is designed to help corporations identify and evaluate outsourcing external service providers (ESPs) for help desk services.

To be considered for the Magic Quadrant, each applicant submitted a formal presentation to Gartner analysts. The Gartner analysts reviewed customer feedback, which accounts for 70% of the score. Other evaluation criteria included customer experience, marketing execution, operations, client innovation, overall viability, business model and sales strategy.

Source: 1 Gartner "Magic Quadrant for Help Desk Outsourcing, North America" by Richard T. Matlus, William Maurer, March 04, 2009.

What are the functions of a Help Desk Software?

TRADITIONAL HELP DESK TOPOLOGY

Traditionally calls are received by a helpdesk and passed through various support levels until resolved. Often referred to as first, second and third line support.

This may require escalations to managers to ensure that Service Levels are achieved against customer expectations.

Calls are received and logged. A ticket number is issued to uniquely identify the support log.

The call is assigned to the appropriate person or team for resolution.

During the life of a call there may be a number of actions required that need to be logged for example;

     Attachments of further information, screen shots showing the problem, related documentation etc
    
     A series of events often need to be managed –such as ringing back, sending email updates, obtaining more information, escalating, writing notes, arranging visits to resolve the issue.
    
     Record of the resolutions and a knowledge base search to help resolve similar issues in the future.


THE ADVENT OF SOFTWARE

Support services that rely on the personal touch alone can not guarantee or report on any service levels. Any records will be incomplete and cannot be relied upon.

Support staff will be interrupted through out the day with support requests – this is stressful and an inefficient use of resources.

Each requestor will expect immediate response as there is no evidence of the volume or severity of other outstanding support requests

A formal helpdesk application allows the support department to record, track and resolve support requests in a controlled environment

An Internet based helpdesk provides the mechanism to enhance the e-trade business process and provide after sales support and the opportunity to communicate with or promote directly to existing customers.

Software allows the recording and association of the individual actions involved in the support process.

Provides a knowledge base of past calls and their resolutions to assist with the support process going forward.

An audit trail may be kept so that all actions are visibly documented. Some of these may be automated by the system.

Helps identify trends or major issues for ongoing improvement of products and services.

Without a formal logging system that contains all support requests it is hard for a manger to justify his departments costs or request additional resources.


Source: www.help-desk-world.com