WEB-BASED APPLICATIONS

Do your staff waste time fielding the same enquiries over and over from frustrated customers about how to use your product? You could save manpower and time by offering the information over the internet - 24 hours a day.

Host your helpdesk in-house (employees only) or InterComm can host your helpdesk on the internet (clients & suppliers). An internet-based helpdesk can also carry sales and company information replacing your website.

• Secure. Registered Clients are permitted to access, competitors and spammers are kept out
• No limits on number of users, no per user costs, no ongoing software licence fees
• Self-maintenance. Update information through internet Explorer or Firefox, from anywhere in the world
• Delegated. Let each section be updated by the appropriate department, directly or after approval
• Modular solution: add new modules as you need them.
• Cost: The set of core modules is approximately R15 000 - branded to your image and fully operational

Registration System

Allow your customers or prospects to register online for software or other products. You will build a more thorough picture of who your customers are, and what issues they have. Your registration form has all the basics like email addresses, usernames and passwords, but can be customised for additional questions. These questions can be "multiple choice" so that you can create categories, or free-form. They can be required or optional.

The registration system provides the core security for the Helpdesk as it identifies individual users. As the helpdesk manager, you can identify which registered users have posted questions to the forum, and when they last visited the site. These settings are also used to create authority levels for downloads, subscribing to events, or asking a question.

The user database can be exported, and if your hosting is set up for bulk email, the helpdesk manager can send emails with links and formatting to individual users or categories or users.

Frequently Asked Questions

At the strictest level, the website owner adds both questions and answers based on emails and phone calls received. Random FAQs or most popular FAQs can be shown in a sidebar. You can use FAQs to promote specific benefits of your product.

At the most user friendly-level, allow registered customers to add questions to get a good indication of where problems lie. Although your support desk should give the primary answer, you can allow your other customers to add their own notes. You might find that another user has a different perspective on a problem, and gives a more specific answer.

FAQ responses are moderated - the helpdesk manager can "approve" or delete inappropriate comments - or ban any individual user who is misbehaving!

News & Updates

For many sites, the news page is the home page, although any page can be allocated as the home page if preferred. Short "teasers" or summaries appear on the home page, with a clickable "read more" button. News articles can be set to appear or be removed on certain dates, to minimise maintenance. Add photos, links to the downloads area, or links to other websites. Full formatting. News items can be set to be readable by only specific user groups.

In addition to "custom pages" of general information such as company or product information there is a specific full module for a knowledgebase or online magazine. This is a delegated or decentralised model for categorised long term articles from multiple sources. Articles can be moderated before publishing.

the News module offers sideboxes for latest news stories, quicklinks to articles by category. The full content Management module offers an authors list, recent articles, ratings (with members able to vote - just once - for each article.

Secure Downloads

The downloads area is a core function of the helpdesk. Downloads can be categorised - for example a company can offer PDF newsletters (available to the all members), spec sheets (available to the public) and patches or upgrades (available only to members who have purchased this specific product). Full security is integrated.

Uploading of documents can be decentralised and delegate (with approval), or can be done via FTP. Each document can show a screenshot/cover plus an enlargement. Downloads are displayed with a name, file size, author, icon and popularity.

Sideboxes show the most popular and/or latest downloads to draw attention to the latest patches.

Events Calendar

Publicise your training events, promotions and trade shows to the public, or to specific user groups. The calendar is available with a list of events, or the standard calendar view. Adding of events can be delegated or decentralised by category. If your server is set up for bulk email, registered users may ask to be reminded of events or meetings.

Sideboxes are available showing the next few events, or a countdown to important events. For an intranet-based department or project website, the users database links to a "Today's birthdays" sidebox. This module can be adapted to allow monitor availability of meeting rooms or venues.

Events carry an RSVP email link, as well as an optional link to an external website, or even to any other page on the Helpdesk website.