Helpdesk Software: A Question of Support

Helpdesk software can cut the cost of customer support and staff training. As the market booms, it should give all businesses a helping hand. Annie Gurton reports

It?s a tricky balancing act for resellers to keep margins high in the face of a growing desire to cut the cost of IT. But one way that many systems houses, integrators and resellers are pulling it off is through the creative use of helpdesk software.

How? Because helpdesk software is more than just that. At the heart of helpdesk products is the type of software engine which used to be called an expert system, and which is now increasingly being used at the core of many enterprises.

It happens like this: helpdesk software works by recording and ?remembering? problems and faults on hardware, software and networks, so that the next time the same or a similar fault or problem occurs, it can be solved in a fraction of the time. In doing so, it captures the knowledge and expertise of a skilled technician, and this knowledge is stored for future use in dealing with similar or the same symptoms.

But there is no reason why the engine should be limited to IT fault-solving. Although recognising and rectifying IT faults is an important and primary application of helpdesk software, it is by no means all that it can be used for. On the contrary, there are organisations which use helpdesk software for many non-IT related applications, from managing processes and procedures to managing personnel and training issues and organising a company?s internal systems.

Graeme Pitts-Drake, managing director of Magic Solutions, says an increasing number of enterprises are focusing their organisation on a helpdesk engine, and that opportunities for consultancy and installation support are healthy.

?The helpdesk can be a repository for all kinds of information and can answer all types of ?How do I?? questions, and is far from limited to an IT support function,? he says. The misnomer of the helpdesk is the first thing that should be challenged. ?We prefer to call it support software,? he says.

Matt Miller, vice president of marketing of Remedy Corporation, which produces the helpdesk software with the largest global market share, agrees that the nature of helpdesk use is rapidly changing.

?What helpdesk software provides is the central point in an organisation where information and knowledge are stored. It doesn?t matter what type of information or knowledge. Although the software historically comes from the technical helpdesk arena, it is breaking out to serve many different types of applications,? he says. ?Those companies who adopt the strategy of using a helpdesk engine for driving their business functions and processes find they are able to reduce all kinds of costs at all levels.?

The marked reduction of business costs brought about by the ability to store information and knowledge so that it is accessible to all levels and standards of employees is what everyone who uses and installs the products talks about.

Peter Christodoulou, pre-sales manager with Inference, which produces a helpdesk knowledge engine embedded by many software companies into their products, says the current generation of knowledge engines is years ahead of the intelligent software which struggled for acceptance in the 80s.

?Today?s software works far more like people work,? he says. ?It is far more intuitive, easier to set up and use.?

Christodoulou explains that in the first generation of knowledge software, the expert would have to sit down with the programmer and the programmer would have to interpret and translate what the expert was saying into the software. ?These days the expert does it without a programmer,? Christodoulou says.

Pitts-Drake adds that the products now available work in English, taking questions in normal language. ?It is even possible for a competent IT manager to install the modern helpdesk products, although some consultancy is usually recommended to make sure the system is properly bespoke and set up,? he says.

All the products on the market work in the same way, which is to hold a series of cases, each one with a description of a problem or situation, with the right questions to ask to identify the problem, and then a suggested list of solutions in order of suitability. This principle can be used in a variety of instances.

For example, there are the pension and insurance companies which are using Inference products at the heart of their call desks. Christodoulou says: ?There is a big difference between a helpdesk, in which the number of calls may run into the hundreds and require technical answers, and call desks in which calls run into thousands and can be about anything.?

For staff working for insurance and pension companies, knowing which product to recommend can be simplified with the use of a helpdesk product programmed with appropriate questions to ask the caller.

?Once they know all the right questions to ask, and how to respond to certain answers, the switchboard person is able to direct the call to the right department,? says Christodoulou.

Another customer is an office equipment sales company which sends out a large catalogue listing many thousands of lines. The customers are supposed to use reference numbers given in the catalogue, but invariably call up asking for ?a fax machine?.

?The helpdesk software provides all the right questions for a junior telesales person to ask to establish which fax machine they want, out of a wide range,? says Christodoulou.

Miller says any organisation which handles complaints from the public should use a helpdesk product to manage calls.

?The knowledge engine in helpdesk software is the most highly developed and can provide the best management of call response,? he says. ?Customer service departments can use people with limited expertise in particular specialities, and get them to provide a sophisticated level of support, with the aid of the software.?

This claim is supported by Ian Kilpatrick, group MD of Wick Hill, which uses helpdesk software in a general customer support environment.

?There is no doubt that it helps us keep customers happy with the minimum amount of high level skills resource allocated to the front-line telephone desk,? he says. ?It acts as a qualifier and screener, and most calls are resolved without involving an expert.?

Wick Hill?s salesforce also has access to the central knowledge repository and uses it for co-ordinating sales activity across the group.

?It has a keyword search facility which allows the sales people to bring up all kinds of information about customers. It improves enormously the impression that we give to our customers, because the sales staff know everything about the history of each client.?

Kilpatrick also mentions the lower business and support costs. ?Reducing the cost of support, together with improving the quality, is a very persuasive business proposition,? he says. ?It?s not just the costs of providing support which are reduced, but also the costs of training the support personnel ? the knock-on effects of a good helpdesk at the core of a business can?t be underestimated.?

Helpdesk applications will increasingly become the core of business operations, says Pitts-Drake. ?With enterprises becoming more complex, organisations can?t afford the high costs of customer support and support personnel training.?

He explains that according to Gartner, 70 per cent of all IT budgets are spent on support and it costs about #5,000 a year to support one workstation.

?With 90 per cent of support costs going in labour charges, any way to computerise and automate is welcome,? he says. ?With some lateral thinking the knowledge engines can be used in a variety of applications for almost anything.?

Christodoulou says that the future for helpdesk or support software is the publishing of knowledge on the internet.

?Knowledge and experience can be sold as modules to most helpdesk software engines, so that either to start an installation or to use an existing one in a wider context, it is possible to purchase a set of cases with the appropriate questions, definitions and solutions,? he says. ?Once you have defined the problem, the symptoms and the procedures for problem resolution, it is an easy matter to publish them electronically either for a select audience or for widespread access.?

With the knowledge available on the internet, users are able to go through a self-checking process before they even contact their supplier.

?There is a new term in the helpdesk world called call avoidance, which is the ultimate in reducing costs and keeping the customer happy. The customer has the choice of picking up the telephone and talking to someone using a helpdesk knowledge base, or doing it themselves at their own speed and in their own time,? says Christodoulou.

Many software vendors now embed helpdesk software in their products, so customers can go through a self-checking procedure. Christodoulou says: ?Phoenix Technologies, for example, embed our engine in the computers which they provide the Bios for, including Compaq. When the users log on they see something called First Aid 97, which is our Magic Support engine rebadged. Helpdesk software engines are being used for so-called self-healing PCs in which the user can go through a simple question-and-answer routine if they have set-up or use problems.?

Helpdesk software is also being used for document management applications, in companies which have thousands of documents online which need to be managed and centralised.

Christodoulou says: ?Users can create a knowledge base from documents which are stored electronically. Banks are using the technology to get information on investment opportunities, which are passed to dealers electronically.?

The helpdesk software market is one which is booming, but not just for helpdesk applications. The possibilities are fascinating, especially for those who remember the early generations of intelligent systems and expert systems struggling to find a business-driven application, and the hardware to support it. These days, neither are very far away.