19/12/2003: Focus: David Cutting on the Support System | |
Summary
In an article for this website David Cutting, a senior partner at Verrotech and lead developer of the VSI support system talks with candour about the new plans for the system. Article We have found during the past years that a larger
and larger number of customers are choosing to gain
support via online means. This is not merely limited
to the passive gathering of support information such
as configuration documentation, but to interaction
between our support department and the customer. One
of the other patterns to emerge as well has been the
repeated choice of customers to use the interactive
online system rather than using email to lodge
a request for assistance.
Therefore as a customer service focused organisation our attention
over the last few years has been focused on increasing the
availability and functionality of our online systems whilst still
maintaining ease of use at all times. This drive has lead to
several key developments with the VSI (Verrotech Support Interface)
most of which have been invisible to the customer but secured
extra efficiancy within the support department. The most recent
update to the VCI also included a number of minor updates to the
customer portal, mainly addressing styling issues.
Our ongoing strategy has been to add customer-interactive functionality
to the system, allowing customers to add onto and amend existing support
requests. This addition will overcome the existing somewhat awkward
system that allows a customer to raise a request online but only then
communicate with support via email - a situation certainally no means
ideal when dealing with email problems for example. A second factor is
the lack of a direct incoming email interface with the support department's
portal into the VSI. Currently, although outgoing support has been long-since
included directly into their VSI portal, the support department rely on
using a VCP email plug-in to view and catagorise mail before copying the
content into a new or existing support ticket. Although perfectly adequate
this solution is by no means ideal and can slightly reduce the efficiancy
and/or accuracy of the support department.
The next version of the VSI will feature the following key improvements:
- To the customer-facing VSI portal
In addition to the current create/view functionality provided by the VSI to
customers a VCP (Verrotech Control Panel) module will be deployed to give
customers full access to update or close their tickets as well as review
previous tickets opened by themselves.
- To the support department's VSI portal
A number of small improvements to the system will include the automated
recording of outgoing email linked to a ticket into that ticket's events. A
more major and seperate plug-in will enable the incoming support mail to be
seamlessly loaded into the VSI. Support personnel will be able to browse the
new emails and link them to new or existing tickets, at this point the content
will be automatically cross-loaded into an event for the ticket.
Although the exact roll-out date of these updates are still to be decided
it is likely that the upgrades to the customer portal and support department
portal will happen seperately to reduce potential interruption to service
caused by an untraceable fault within such a big change. It is expected that
all updates to the VSI will be fully deployed by Spring 2004.
David Cutting, December 2003.
David Cutting is a senior partner at Verrotech. In addition to being
lead developer on the VSI system he takes a keen hands-on interest in a wide
variety of Verrotech products and systems. David also delivers some of the
more technical networking-related training courses on behalf of the company.
He can be reached via email at dcutting@verrotech.com.
Other Recent Verrotech Announcements23/01/2008: UK Hosting Upgrade15/06/2007: Stavros Upgrade Update 12/06/2007: Stavros Platform Upgrade Back to the Verrotech Announcement Main Page |
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