Archive for the 'Help Desk Companies' Category
Blip.Tv Handles Growth with Zendesk
Blip.tv is a platform for web show creators to host and distribute videos for free. Since 2005, Blip.tv has grown rapidly from a business with only two users to a successful business with over 50,000 hosted shows and 96 million monthly views. This growth comes with new costs and responsibilities, including an influx in customer inquiries.
Blip.tv’s staff is a small startup company, with only thirty individuals able to provide support for the platform’s 44,000 users. For most growing companies, customer service can get pushed aside as new responsibilities and tasks arise. Blip.tv wanted to avoid neglecting their customers, which is why the company sought out Zendesk, a customer support and help desk company. Dina Kaplan, the co-founder of blip.tv, said, “We call customer support the operations of blip.tv. Our dedication to customer service is how and why blip.tv has been successful.” The customers are why Blip.tv is so successful and abandoning them would dramatically hurt the company.
One year ago, Blip.tv did not have a consolidated content support system. Blip.tv had two systems- one for support and another for customer feedback. The company needed a single solution to engage their customers better and to listen to customer ideas, requests and general feedback. Last year, Blip.tv started using Zendesk. Tom Reynolds, Blip.tv’s Content Relations Associate, said, “By the end of the first day using the software, we knew Zendesk was exactly what we were looking for.”
Zendesk is a growing help desk solution company that was only founded a few years ago, in 2007. Zendesk serves over 5,000 businesses, including Blip.tv. Zendesk is useful for internal and external support. The ticket management system that Zendesk provides is innovative and useful. Mikkel Svane, the CEO of Zendesk, said, “Customer support solutions have been out there for many years, but they haven’t been glamorous. We are revolutionizing this area.”
With Zendesk, Blip.tv is able to live up to its company policy that states that no email will go unanswered for more than 24 hours. Tickets are managed better because Zendesk assigns, routes and escalates tickets ensuring that they all get answered in a timely and efficient manner. Zendesk even offers Twitter integration with “twickets”, or tickets submitted through Twitter. This revolutionary advancement shows how Zendesk adapts to modernization. Zendesk continuously updates the features of its help desk and offers these updated features for free to its current customers. Blip.tv appreciates this because it ensures that the help desk solution will stay up-to-date.
Zendesk is an affordable solution. The pricing of the company’s help desk depends on the size of the business. Zendesk even offers a free 30 day trial to test out its product. Read more about Zendesk’s solution on its website.
No commentsVirtual Helpdesk Software from Quest
Enterprise systems management software developer Quest Software Inc announced yesterday its managed services platform, PacketTrap MSP, is now available with Live Virtual Help Desk, a ‘Live’ Help Desk/Network Operations Center support service for Managed Service Providers.
According to the company, the new service allows the MSP a to delegate the general support calls while maintaining the company brand. The business focus can be shifted toward meeting Service Level Agreements and delivering higher value services. In addition, it enables MSPs to add more end clients without the related costs in technical staffing.
PacketTrap MSP is a services enablement tool that allows MSPs to remotely monitor and manage their clients’ IT assets. The solution provides granular details of problems associated with the desktops, servers and networking devices that need immediate action by MSPs.
PacketTrap simplifies the monitoring process required to navigate traffic bottlenecks and bandwidth constraints. The solution also offers network mapping, troubleshooting and resolution, SNMP Trap Manager and performance baselining, the company said.
No pricing details were disclosed.
No commentsZendesk Leveraging Twitter for Help Desk Tweets
Help desk software maker Zendesk struck a deal with Twitter to let companies monitor tweets to connect with customers over customer service questions and concerns. Many businesses use Twitter, which has more than 100 million users, to see what their customers are saying about them. Employees have e-mailed tweets, the short message methods popularized by the microblog, into existing ticketing systems to connect with customers.
Zendesk customers can now find tweets that reference their company and use Zendesk’s hook into Twitter’s favorite button to answer questions or address complaints. The integration extends to any desktop or mobile Twitter client employees use, including TweetDeck, HootSuite or Twitter for iPhone and Android.
Maksim Ovsyannikov, VP of product management, explained that Zendesk “listens” to, or monitors Twitter accounts Zendesk customers configure and converts key tweets into Zendesk “twickets” by favoriting tweets in Twitter. Users may also command that any Direct Messages sent to these accounts be automatically converted to favorites.
Agents responsible for converting tweets into twickets will log into Twitter.com or a Twitter client created by the company. Users and agents can decide to continue their discussion about problem resolution on Twitter, within Zendesk or both until the twicket is closed.
Users can also record Twitter conversations on a ticket and copy and consult with colleagues privately while interacting with Twitter users publicly. Users may also elect to move the conversation off Twitter to e-mail.
Once the twicket is created, Zendesk will pull in the conversation with the requester comment by comment until the twicket is closed. Users may send a tweet back from their Twitter client without logging into Zendesk, or add a comment from within the Zendesk twicket. The entire conversation will be recorded until the twicket is closed.
Zendesk customers may also turn on an out-of-the-box trigger that automatically tweets to the requester with a message and a link to the twicket. Requesters can log into Zendesk using their Twitter credentials.
If requester’s Twitter account has already been associated with their profile in Zendesk, requester can also view the twicket by logging in with their Zendesk e-mail address and password.
Though just launched broadly, Zendesk’s integration with Twitter sports several early participants, including HootSuite, TweetDeck, Seesmic and Twitpic.
No commentsBMC Software and Salesforce.com Fuel Adoption of Cloud-Based IT Management
Business thrives when IT runs smarter, faster and stronger. That’s why the most demanding IT organizations in the world rely on BMC Software across both distributed and mainframe environments.
Salesforce.com is going to resell BMC ServiceDesk on Force.com to further accelerate momentum. BMC Software and Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, announced their strategic alliance is fueling the adoption of cloud-based IT service management and Cloud 2 applications by IT departments.
Customers are rapidly adopting the BMC ServiceDesk on Force.com solution for IT service management (ITSM), an indication of the need among IT departments for cloud-computing apps that are collaborative and deliver access to data in real-time.
Further strengthening the strategic alliance between the two companies, salesforce.com is now reselling BMC ServiceDesk on Force.com to accelerate the momentum for Cloud 2 within IT departments.
Since its announcement, hundreds of companies have signed up for a free trial or demo of the cloud computing solution, BMC ServiceDesk, which will help them increase the value of IT operations and improve customer service without costly hardware or software. BMC has also secured new customer wins, including Allied Wireless Communications Corp and Lumen21.
As a cloud-based ITSM solution from two industry leaders like BMC and salesforce.com, the companies are confident that the pay-as-you-go pricing and lack of hardware or software costs will help reduce costs and improve service levels for their customers.
The BMC ServiceDesk on Force.com solution offers customers consolidated service desk, self-service and inventory management capabilities delivered on the Force.com platform. The addition of Chatter social capabilities in Force.com, such as real-time feeds, status updates and profiles will foster stronger collaboration within IT departments and with internal users.
No commentsContact Center Virtualization with Siemens OpenScape V8
Siemens has announced an upgrade of its OpenScape Contact Center. The Version 8 (V8) release will be available to the public on May 18th with virtualization from the server and client directions. The V8 upgrade will also be compatible on any device with a USB port, including netbooks and smartphones.
The new virtualized servers allow data centers to use a software-based contact center solution. The new solution will help to optimize server load and reduce the cost of disaster recovering planning. Using hypervisors, the V8 IT software allows for multiple operating systems and application software to run on the same physical server.
The open solution enables easy deployment, simplified management and cost savings through server consolidation. Through a partnership with VMware, the software and server virtualization company, Siemens is able to run different operating systems on the same physical machine. This will allow data centers to deploy software in a way that will balance workloads instead of segregating software per operating system. “If you think about a server in a conventional way, you would have one application on a server running Linux and another running on a Windows server” explains Ross Sedgewick senior director at Siemens. “Virtualization allows you to spread those applications evenly over multiple servers.”
Virtualization will also allow companies to load their contact center software onto data center machines, instead of having to add onto proprietary hardware at each location. The physical barrier between the contact center and the data center will be eliminated.
The V8 update also offers a web-based agent interface. Users can still used the windows-based client, but have the option of deploying the contact center solution through a browser as well. The web-based agent interface will allow contact center agents to view real-time availability of enterprise workers. Through the agent interface, companies can promote team-wide collaboration to optimize customer service.
OpenScape Contact Center V8 also has Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capabilities. The capabilities are only available on the software and entirely SIP-based. The company boasts that IVR functionality will lower costs instead of using more expensive proprietary hardware. “With this latest version of OpenScape Contact Center, not only do we provide Web-based desktops and an integrated IVR to bolster the classic contact center goals of productivity and customer service, we provide IT with the flexibility to meet business goals quickly and cost effectively,” said VP and GM at Siemens Enterprise Communcations, Scott McDonald. “Since it is optimized for virtualized environments, it gives IT managers increased deployment flexibility and easier management, all while saving money.”
For more info visit: www.siemens-enterprise.com
No commentsZendesk Raises Prices for Help Desk Software
Zendesk, the on-demand help desk software maker, is raising their prices by over 300% for some plans. The help desk company sent the bad news to their customers via email recently which has left some with a bad taste in their mouths. Coincidentally, Zendesk reported crossing the 5k business customer mark right before their drastic price changes.
The price changes:
Before
Single package: $9/month per agent, 1 agent only
Regular package: $19/month per agent, minimum of 3 agents
Plus+ package: $39/month per agent, minimum of 5 agents
After
Starter plan: $9/month per agent, 1 to 3 agents
Regular plan: $29 per month, 3 to 20 agents
Plus+ plan: $59/month, 5 to 100 agents
The help desk vendor is offering what they call ‘Grandfathering Terms’ which will allow current customers to remain on an existing price and feature plan by converting to an annual billing cycle. However, customers are still up in arms over the forced switch to annual payment.
Zendesk has recently faced a huge backlash on their company forum in the wake of the changes. The customers demand to know how the company can justify a 300% price increase for a commonplace commodity. Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane responded by issuing this statement:
“Yes we are raising our prices on two of our plans. We now have three plans at three different price points (starting at $9). This is the first time EVER that we have increased pricing. But we have added new functionality to the service for every week for the last two and half years.
And today we’re launching a lot more functionality for knowledge base and community support Zendesk has gone from a traditional ticket management system to a complete customer engagement platform, supporting 1-to-1, 1-to-many and many-to-many customer conversations and support interactions. Zendesk is investing heavily in new features and our customers will continue to experience great things with Zendesk.
We will deliver on our promise. Are we the cheapest show in town? No. But we do think that we have an excellent offering for almost every budget starting at $9 per agent seat. And we do offer to grandfather our existing customers for one additional year at their current price point with all of their current functionality grandfathered indefinitely.
The price per agent has gone up with $10 and $20 on the Regular and Plus+ plans respectively. That’s a 50% increase. Some customers may experience disproportional price hikes due to earlier introductory discounts, and we will look into these accounts on a case-by-case basis.
Let me finally point out, that we have been completely open and transparent about the price changes. We don’t try to sneak it in.”
Only time will tell if the response will appease the masses or if there will be a mass exodus of Zendesk customers to other help desk platforms.
No commentsService-now.com Exceeds Projected Annual Revenue in Q1
Service-now.com announced their record customer and revenue growth for the first quarter of 2010. Service-now.com is an IT Service Management SaaS and IT Service automation provider. The company revealed that after only three quarters of business, the company was able to increase revenue by 154%. In the last three months, Service-now.com was able to beat the annual revenue plan for the 2010 fiscal year. Is Service-now’s first quarter success a forecast for the upcoming year?
The dramatic success achieved by the company in Q1 was driven by a demand for modern IT service management and IT service automation. The Service-now model is focused on providing a practical SaaS and approach to automating the IT service process.
The CEO of Service-now, Fred Luddy, describes his product as a “modern, pragmatic and baggage-free ITSM tool.”
Other Service-now.com highlights for Q1 2010 include:
- Added new customers, including a dozen “Fortune 1000″ accounts
- Positive cash-flow for three years
- 100% subscription renewal rate
- Added to Wall Street Journal’s Next Big Thing List for the Top 50 Venture backed firms.
- Added to OnDemand Top 100 technology companies by AlwaysOn.
- 2010 Pink Elephant Innovation of the Year Award finalist
- New online data center in Australia
Service-now.com boasts 400 customers and 100,000 IT professional users who use their product to provide IT services for nearly five million end users worldwide. The SaaS is fast becoming the go-to ITSM for companies that want to optimize the efficiency of their IT services. For more information visit: http://www.service-now.com/.
No commentsITSM’s “Swiss Army Knife”: FrontRange Updates Discovery 9
Ever since FrontRange announced their shift from CRM software to IT service management software, we’ve been interested in what they’re releasing. Luckily for us, 2010 has started off well for the company, as FrontRange won a customer service award and launched the ninth version of FrontRange Discovery, a solution for finding and tracking all physical and virtual assets across a corporate network.
Seems refocusing on ITSM software is boding well for FrontRange, as FrontRange Customer Service Management received a 2009 Product of the Year Award this January. The award was given by Customer Interaction Solutions magazine, which is published by the Technology Market Corporation (TMC). Considering FrontRange’s mission to optimize customer interactions, they were highly pleased with the award.
Whether the ninth iteration of FrontRange Discovery is as pleasing remains to be seen, but surely it’s a deftly crafted update and a product of their reconcentrated efforts. Discovery 9 allows users a multi-faceted approach to network management, and they now also have the ability to automatically detect and then audit virtual assets, from servers to desktops to thin client applications. The underlying objective during development was to help users efficiently maintain their virtual assets—something many companies want to do, but fail.
One interesting tidbit to come out of the Discovery 9 press release: FrontRange is repositioning as the “Swiss Army knife†software company—with the ability to offer varied solutions for myriad issues. With that in mind, we’re curious to see what other multi-function tools they add.
No commentsHelp Desk Software Up-and-Comer: Alloy Software
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.
No commentsSysAid Reports Record Growth in 2009, And More Than New 16,000 Deployments
Israeli help desk vendor SysAid drew attention earlier this month when they announced a live chat integration for help desk software, and today they announced that their customer growth in 2009 was 43% compared to that of 2008. The deployments referenced include not just the company’s help desk solutions, but also their customer service support (CSS) software. The total number of new organizations to deploy is a whopping 16,400, and the company itself has grown 40% over the year.
It’s really no wonder SysAid has experienced such a high growth rate: they’ve launched four new releases this year, and as their platform is web-based, it is more affordable than some of the clunkier, on-premise versions on the market.
Two of the company’s newest releases were internal help desk solutions: SysAid IT 6.0 and SysAid IT 6.5 The latter is the one we noted has the live chat integration, which allows technicians to handle more tickets at one time; it also included an IT benchmark module designed to measure and evaluate IT performance and compare it with other SysAid users globally. The other two major releases were of SysAid’s CSS solution.
Some of their customers are big names, like Xerox, Adobe, and Dunkin’ Donuts. It’ll be exciting to see what they roll out in 2010, for sure.
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