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With architecture that allows for future integration of additional GWI and IBM technologies, c.Support® v10 for IBM® Lotus Notes®/Domino™ gives users ability to record, manage, track, monitor, and measure all activity of support operation. Intuitive placement of tabs, menus, and icons facilitate access to information. Other features, such as wizards and spell check, help improve user interaction.
Built on more than a decade of service management experience, award-winning HEAT from FrontRange Solutions integrates core service and support components into one complete solution to reduce costs, drive higher customer satisfaction and achieve full ITIL or Sox Compliancy. Now expand the power of HEAT and support industry best practices by easily combining HEAT products or integrating your system with any of the IT Service Management modules.
HEAT has many Add-ons to integrate with its software.
Last week, my organization hosted a presentation from our university's Safety Office concerning ergonomics and safe computer use. The field of ergonomics can be defined, literally, as the study of work. As it relates to the modern digital office, ergonomic principles can be applied to make sure that employees aren't putting themselves at risk for musculoskeletal disorders through improper computer use.
In lieu of the complex (and often condescending) policy documents that dictate when, where, and how your Help Desk staffers will interact with end users, just hang this sign. It pretty much guarantees a rapid decline in help desk tickets, especially if one of your techs is seen wandering the halls with Spaceballs: The Flamethrower. Found via Neatorama.
We're all familiar, I think, with caller ID. At the time your phone rings, your display indicates the telephone number and (usually) the personal or company name of the caller.
The IT leadership of a client disabled the caller ID capability of telephones of the help desk staff. Their rationale involved concern over what they saw as misuse of caller ID. Specifically, they believed that certain help desk analysts were intentionally avoiding answering calls from customers the analysts saw as being "difficult." In other words, if caller ID were available, the analyst would look at the display, say to him/herself, "Oh no, it's [name of difficult caller]," and "punt" on the call, waiting and hoping another analyst would pick it up. By having to answer "blind" calls, the reasoning went, these difficult callers still would get attention, instead of being avoided.
This week I had the tables turned on me-had to call a help desk to request a minor change to my login account. The helpdesk I call is in a different time zone, so when I called on a brisk winter morning in England it would have still been the middle of the night for the helpdesk.
The phone rang about ten times then was answered by a voice that wasn't trying at all to hide the fact that I had awakened him. Remembering being in the same situation at one time, I went easy on him and explained what I wanted to happen.
Because I had an accent different from his, he seemed to have a lot of difficulty in understanding me. His way of responding to me was usually a monosyllabic "Huh?" or sometimes a more ambitious "Uhuh!"
Some of you will read the title of this post and think to yourselves, "Ha! We don't have the funds we need to hire enough 'regular' help desk personnel. There's no way we can afford to hire a bunch of Microsoft Office experts to sit around waiting for people to call the help desk." But hear me out.
Contrary to what some managers like to think, the Help Desk is not an island. A smart help desk manager doesn't (or shouldn't) sit around idly waiting for the Software Development teams to release new or upgraded applications. If your team is expected to support users of an application, it is reasonable to expect that the application will be thoroughly tested and debugged before it goes into production.
Recently I experienced something I hadn't felt in a long time: utterly humiliated by a dissatisfied customer. If you've ever been tempted to blow off making routine calls to your customers, let my experience be your wake-up call. If you don't call, they won't be your customers forever.
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