Helpdesk Benchtest - How can I help you?

Helpdesk systems and software have broken free of their traditionalms, these days they are an essential business tool. roles as IT support functions. Any process that involves interaction with people and requires call logging, call tracking, workflow and analysis is an ideal candidate for being aided by a helpdesk application tool.

Helpdesk applications come in different shapes, sizes and packages.

Some are specifically designed for a small number of users, while others will scale to provide enterprise and global support functions catered for by thousands of operators. The possible need for sophisticated telephony, IT management or other service integration depends on the demands of the business and what the application is being used for.

A well-implemented helpdesk provides a tool to ease a company's support costs and burdens. It is also a platform for business processes, employee productivity, customer support and asset management. Consequently, the market has flourished to the point where a purchaser is faced with myriad vendor and product choices. There are many criteria to evaluate, but the two key parameters are that the product should fit the organisation's IT environment and business processes.

In this round-up we look at five very different support centre products, which - although they have their roots in the IT support environment - have also been put to more creative uses, to the benefit of the business.

ALTIMAX PULSE

Pulse is designed to be an out-of-the-box call centre, and although it can be used as an IT support service this is not its prime function.

Instead it is aimed at customer support, and is able to deal with anything from enquiries to complaints.

Pulse is sold as a modular system - you simply buy the components you want. It is promoted as being an ideal solution for managing company surveys and reports, complaints, defect tracking, enquiry handling, configuration, helpdesks, suggestions and incidents.

One aspect that lends itself to external customer service is the postcode integration feature. This automatically completes the rest of the address when a postcode is entered, reducing call-handling time and ensuring correct data entry. Operators can also generate standard letters from within the application, which can then be exported to other third-party word processors if required. Categories, contacts or customers can be associated with appropriate letters, so that, for example, follow-up letters are automatically triggered.

Pulse includes a simple workflow methodology, which prompts operators with their next actions and targets, based on predetermined procedures.

A chain of priority actions and target times can be associated with the contact, and escalation procedures can be defined to ensure that contacts are not lost within the system. Business rules can also be implemented to define trends, allowing problem areas to be identified quickly.

Standard and ad hoc reporting is available, and Pulse links to any SQL-based report writer - such as Seagate's Crystal Reports. A small number of standard reports on frequency and distribution of contact types, root-cause analysis, frequency of contacts and effectiveness of service are available.

Pulse is a true client/server system and runs happily in any Windows environment using back-end databases such as SQL Server or Oracle. Pulse consists of two elements, the client software and the database server.

The client software is available in 16- and 32-bit versions to run on Windows NT, 95/98 and 3.1.

BENDATA HEAT

Heat's comprehensive helpdesk offering includes full problem reporting and tracking - from call logging all the way to management reports produced by Seagate's Crystal Reports.

Optional add-ons provide a variety of features, such as CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) and a web-based front-end to the support service. Highly customisable, Heat can be used for internal or external support, with both configurations built into the same system. Available in 16- and 32-bit Windows versions, there is no support for alternative platforms other than via HeatWeb, the optional web-based front-end.

Heat has no middleware component, so the Windows client talks directly to a back-end database such as Microsoft Access, SQL Server or Oracle.

This provides the product with its scalability, so that with enough network bandwidth and a high-performance database back-end, Heat can scale to many hundreds of users.

Several sample systems suitable for a variety of typical uses are included on the installation CD. These can be up and running within minutes. However, to fully benefit from what Heat has to offer, it is recommended that you undertake training or hire consultancy services to aid with the initial design. Users confirm that Heat is so easy to configure that help is not required for later changes.

Flexibility in the call logging process means that, where necessary, operators can start creating a call record immediately, before finding the customer record to relate it to. If interrupted, new calls can also be started before completing existing records. Where one problem - such as network failure - is reported by several users, only one call record is created. The spell checker is another helpful feature - to make call logs look professional.

Monitoring and reporting are two of Heat's strongest features. The Answer Wizard takes an administrator through the process of choosing the report - from several hundred - which will provide the metrics that are key to the organisation. The manager's console also makes life easier by providing an at-a-glance view of critical metrics.

Technician notification by pager, e-mail or a pop-up screen speeds response times. Mobile engineers can download a list of calls to a standalone database on a notebook computer, with an automatic update of the main system.

CHORDIANT CCS

Chordiant CCS (Customer Communication Solution) has been designed for companies with large, diverse consumer bases, which use call centres, the internet and other means of communication to manage customer interactions and business transactions.

It promises a single point of contact, where customers can conduct their business with any part of the company via telephone, e-mail or the web. It differs from a helpdesk in that it is neither internal nor restricted to IT, although the software is flexible enough to be tailored to meet both needs.

CCS is component-based, using a three-tier layered architecture to insulate components in a way that still permits enhancements to be made in a plug-in, modular fashion. The three-tier architecture means that business logic is identified and isolated from application and system-level services, but remains deployed in the traditional client/server manner.

The first tier, ChorServices, creates the IT infrastructure and communicates with the telephony equipment, legacy systems and data networks, as well as the transactional applications hosted on those systems.

This layer also handles the communication with new SQL relational databases and external interfaces, to provide business-to-business communications and inter-company connections.

ChorObjects integrates business processes with best customer practices and activates the workflow components - a drag-and-drop workflow editor and management functions. A set of common business objects is provided.

ChorApps are role-based applications that provide a dynamic interface to personalised interactions based on the customer's profile, the business processes invoked and the company's policies.

CCS is based on industry open standards that maximise portability and interoperability with other system components. Open APIs (Application Program Interfaces) to other systems - such as fax, the web, e-mail and groupware software such as Lotus Notes - are defined in order to support self-help methods of customer access. Workflow Sequenced Object Processing (WSOP) is an integrated engine that combines dynamic customer profiles and business policies to create processes that are personalised for each transaction.

REMEDY HELPDESK

Integrating the functions of problem management, problem resolution, asset inventory, change tasking, measurement and reporting into a single application, Remedy is the most widely deployed helpdesk solution today, accounting for 23 per cent of the market, according to analysts Ovum.

All the features you expect to see in a helpdesk are here - skills-based assignment capabilities, adaptable workflow, escalation features, complete logging of information and flexible problem categorisation. Self-help capabilities using client/server and web-based tools are also available.

This is to help users solve many problems themselves, reducing dependence on the internal helpdesk staff. Extensive knowledge bases can be built through easy integration with the many problem resolution products available.

Asset tracking and inventory-control components aid resource management and accelerate problem diagnosis. Intelligent links enable users to obtain a complete history of assets quickly and easily.

Multi-tasking management capabilities, automated scheduling of assets and people, and automated notification and escalation keep change requests and tasks on track. Remedy also provides ways to easily link changes to helpdesk cases or assets across the enterprise.

Reporting within HelpDesk can be pre-defined or ad hoc for measuring calls and service performance, and monitoring key performance indicators.

For customised service, HelpDesk integrates with database report writers for improved reporting facilities.

Open integration is the key to Remedy's success. Its open architecture allows the application to combine with a wide variety of third-party network management applications, problem resolution software, and telephony and productivity tools. The list is almost endless: internet, e-mail systems, automatic call distribution and integrated voice response systems, pagers, report writers, knowledge bases, network and system management platforms, transaction processing systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and various application suites.

Remedy is truly scalable, and can be used for single departments right up to tens of thousands of users across a global network. Employing a three-tier client/server architecture, it combines the benefits of a customisable workflow engine and user interface with open design.

For enterprise deployment, a distributed server option enables automatic data transfer between distributed Remedy systems, while maintaining consistent information throughout the environment.

In addition, Remedy offers a range of add-on products to support service-level agreements, asset management, change management and web access.

ROYALBLUE SUPPORTCENTRE

This is a suite of four products - HelpDesk, Hot Topics, Quick Look-ups and ActionTracks - aimed at managing the whole problem lifecycle rather than just separate incidents.

HelpDesk provides IT and infrastructure support. Call logging is fast and accurate, with user and inventory information automatically completed wherever possible. Hot Topics enables operators to log routine calls with a single mouse click, and the graphical call tree provides quick access to commands and allows analysts to see the current situation at a glance.

Quick Look-ups give fast access to related information, and ActionTracks means a call can be split into separate actions if required. Point-and-click facilities speed up processing time.

Knowledge capability from InfoMine and Solutions Management can be integrated to improve turnaround times and links to desktop and resource management products.

SupportCentre retains the core functionality of HelpDesk but adds specific elements to help organisations offer customer support management. Product and customer information is readily available, and information about new customers is captured quickly using postcode identification and caller line identification (CLI) from telephony integration technology. Contracts and service-level agreements are provided so that users can publish support targets, together with escalation points to ensure that targets are met.

ChangeManager monitors problems, controls change and manages configuration items. It includes comprehensive impact analysis, configurable change lifecycles and a host of advanced change management features.

InterChange delivers business information to the support operation in an intelligent, accurate and timely manner. Data can be captured from IVR systems, SNMP agents, groupware products and many others. Alternatively, data can be passed to and from legacy databases and third-party systems.

InterChange forms the backbone of the suite and enables follow-the-sun support, by including intelligent replication between databases for global services provision.

All of the applications run on a multi-tier component architecture that is fully COM/DCOM compliant.

THE FULL REPORT

This is an abridged version of a full group benchtest from VNU's Labs, which appeared in the February issue of NETWORK Solutions, our monthly sister publication.

OUR VERDICT: ALTIMAX PULSE

This is one of an emerging new breed of products that is developing from the helpdesk arena, as vendors recognise the potential of the fast growing customer support market.

Pulse is designed as a stand-alone system for customer service departments within any size of organisation. Although designed for configuration by users who may not be very IT literate, it may still take up to a week before it is up and running.

As a helpdesk application, there are others on the market that may be more appropriate.

OUR VERDICT: BENDATA HEAT

Heat offers functionality and flexibility, which has earned it the place of leader in the medium-sized market. As a standalone helpdesk solution it is superb, and its features make it configurable and adaptable to uses outside the range of the traditional IT support centre.

Heat strikes the right balance between being highly configurable and yet still usable right out of the box. It is readily scalable and the built-in knowledge bases will kickstart any IT helpdesk.

OUR VERDICT: CHORDIANT CCS

This is a big, 'roll up your sleeves, call in a systems house and prepare for months of hard work' type of application. But what you will get in the end is an all-singing, all-dancing call centre that is a world best.

You need to have the business to justify it, because it isn't going to come cheap.

This certainly isn't your average IT helpdesk solution, but it is one of the best web-enabled call centre solutions around, part of which could be used for IT support services.

OUR VERDICT: REMEDY

This is the helpdesk package that will integrate with the rest of the IT functions to provide comprehensive, enterprise-wide management of all your IT from a central location. It is the most flexible package around, but one that requires time and effort to be spent on customisation and integration. However, Remedy has also introduced an out-of-the-box entry-level solution, Remedy Help Desk Express, suitable for smaller organisations.

It's well-established, it's the market leader and, for a highly distributed environment, it's worth considering.

OUR VERDICT: ROYALBLUE

This is a good internal IT support package, suitable for most small to medium-sized companies. Its functions transfer well to the externally focused customer support market, offering flexibility for deployment in other areas of the business.