Customer Support Software Featured Articles

The technology available in the marketplace is giving consumers the ability to interact with companies they do business with directly. Whether it is emails, text messages, social media or help desks, these options have introduced touch points that are generating valuable data that can be used by businesses for delivering high-quality and personalized customer service. Capturing this information and using it effectively is getting easier on hosted solutions instead of on premises installations. This includes help desks, which have traditionally been deployed with onsite hardware systems and software. But cloud computing has disrupted the industry and more organizations are migrating to the new platform because of the many benefits it offers.

Help desk software is a tool companies use to provide support for their customers and employees inside and outside of the organization. Depending on how the system is going to be applied, it is important to define the scope of use because managing relationship with internal employees and external customers requires different sets of solutions. By identifying business goals the software has to address, the company can make informed purchasing decisions on the best available help desk software, whether it is going to be deployed in the cloud/SaaS (News - Alert) or on-premises.

A survey conducted by help desk analysis firm Software Advice questioned IT professionals on the challenges they face in implementing the right help desk software, and the findings has revealed important information for decision makers.

Key points of the survey and report include:

• The need for new functionalities was cited as the primary reason for increased investment by 44 percent of the respondents.
• Eighty four percent of organizations that have a clear help desk software investment plan in 2015 stated they intend to increase the amount they are going to spend.
• Ticket management, reporting and analytics tools, and live chat integration are the most used functionalities.
• 68 percent of respondents currently use on-premises systems—even though the cloud-based help desk software market is gaining momentum.

The benefit of deploying a cloud/SaaS solution is it has a low cost of entry with a predictable monthly payment scheme many organizations find appealing. Another option that is essential in today’s business environment is flexibility, which is a major selling point for SaaS, because it means no fuss upgrades as the circumstances of the company change. Additionally, upgrades, maintenance, security and the IT burden is delivered by the vendor, lowering or eliminating costs across all those points.

The availability of help desks in the cloud means smaller organizations will be able to deploy this technology. With the prohibitive cost of in-house models removed from the equation, SMBs and others will be able to offer better customer service outside of the company, and improve employee interactions to increase productivity levels in today’s collaborative workforce within the organization.