The Expanding Reach of Remote Support

I’m preparing for a webcast on February 7th, “Raising the Bar for Remote IT Support: Reach More Users, More Often,” to discuss the expanding reach of remote support. The sponsor for the webcast is LogMeIn, and we are talking about how remote support technology has moved way beyond desktop computers. This also points out a key selection criteria when shopping for remote support software:  be sure that the solution you choose offers as much flexibility for supported platforms and devices as possible.

Standard remote control for desktops running Windows has been around for more than a decade, and while MS Windows continues to own the lion’s share of the market there are other platforms to consider. 

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Despite mortgage crisis, Talisma finds success in Financial Services

If you were to ask me which industry to avoid these days, I’d likely say financial services (FS).  A slow down in purchases has been named as the reason behind quarterly earning disappointments for a while now.  But as I learned last week, support technologies with a clear ROI are still selling within the FS industry, and it appears that consumer banking, in particular, is investing in multi-channel support automation as a way to cut costs and increase service levels.

Last week I had the opportunity to spend a day at a Talisma event, including presentations from two customers:  Richard Searle, head of electronic channels for Nationwide UK; and James McGuire, vice-president, Online Strategy and Client Experience, Royal Bank of Canada. Fantastic content. Consumer banks are under great pressure to move more interactions to online banking, deflecting live agent interactions to cut costs. But since the FS industry understands loyalty and churn propensity, they are darned sure going to capture every interaction, regardless of channel, and monitor customer behavior to be sure the customer experience doesn’t suffer.

ITIL: Not Just for Help Desks Anymore

I’ve been preparing for an upcoming Webcast with Bomgar (January 24th, stay tune for registration info) entitled “The ITIL Imperative.”  ITIL, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a library of best practices for all phases of IT operations, including books on service delivery and service management.  ITIL grew out of a UK government project in the 80s, and found huge popularity with the North American IT service desk/help desk community over the last 5-7 years.  I admit I haven’t always been a huge ITIL fan, having once said “the emperor is scantily clad” in a Forrester Trends report.  My issues with ITIL at that time were:

Will Wikis replace the traditional KB for Web self-service?

Yes, ultimately, I think that they will.

I just wrote up my 2008 Web Self-Service trends, and I am now becoming convinced that Wikis are the new knowledgebase (KB): 

“Though discussion forums dominated the Web 2.0 conversation in 2007, look for wikis to grab some of the spotlight in 2008.  This easy to access, search and edit “living document” is a logical replacement for the maintenance-intensive traditional knowledgebase.  A key new process for 2008:  identify ‘best practices’ as they emerge in discussion forums and migrate them to the wiki library.“