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Roll Your Own Tech Support
By James E. Powell
Technical support is never a pretty picture. Even though one in six employees industrywide is involved in tech support, the average length of a call has risen to 13 minutes and the per-call cost of support reached $25 last year.
That's why solutions are always a source of interest. Case in point: Primus Communications, which aims to stop the reinvention of the wheel with its SolutionBuilder program. "We estimate 80 percent of computer problems are experienced by more than one user," said Primus president Steve Sperry.
Founded in 1987 as Symbologic, the company has developed software that uses synonyms and a smart search engine, plus immediate updates from support staff, to help drill down to answers quickly.
The broader focus for Primus, along with a 60-member group called the Customer Support Consortium, is to have vendors share their knowledge base online and in real time. Using the object-oriented, client/server-based SolutionBuilder, which runs on Sun or Windows NT servers, Sperry envisions accessing tips from every kind of vendor.
The consortium's plan, called Solution-Centered Support, envisions re-using solutions. The group is about to refine the second phase of the model, which calls for making support universally available. This will involve the first commercial exchange of solutions, with answers being distributed directly to customers. Members include Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Novell, Digital, Hewlett-Packard, Adobe, Lotus and Motorola.
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