In the typical business, each department is responsible for its own productivity. Sure, there is an IT department that has ultimate responsibility for all digital resources, but software deployments specific to one operation, such as engineering, also have a helpdesk. By nature the helpdesk—whether it is one person or a team—is designed to be reactive, to be available on demand. But a world class helpdesk is also proactive, looking to solve problems before they happen. Two elements are key: Tools and procedures. “Tools” are the software products designed to manage, test, diagnose, and repair; “procedures” are the rules and routines known to solve problems in the least amount of time at the least possible cost.
Just as there are best practices in engineering, there are best practices in helpdesk support. I recently read a list of best practices published by the Help Desk Institute (HDI), a professional organization serving Technical Support Professionals. From a rather long list I pulled out six key attributes I thought were particularly relevant to companies that rely on enterprise document management software like Synergis Adept. Not only must the local helpdesk team have tools and procedures in place to serve their end users, but they must have the software development team available as a back-up and for those occasions where custom work is required.
Those six are:
I had a little help picking these six from the list at HDI, because they are the keys to success that makes Synergis Adept’s support team an award-winning success. And “award winning” is not just a fluff phrase; for the second year in a row, Synergis Software’s Helpdesk Team was globally recognized for customer satisfaction by Helpdesk International, an independent professional association and certification body for the technical service and support industry. Synergis Software was ranked #5 on HDI’s CSAT Elite 50 list, up from position #8 last year.
The award was based on 732 customer satisfaction survey submissions gathered by the Helpdesk International Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) Service, an independent tool tracking and trending customer satisfaction from year to year.
The survey asks a series of structured questions, but also provides opportunity for product users to comment. Synergis customers using the Adept engineering data and document management software scored the team with high marks for quality, responsiveness and technical savvy. Some of the comments on this year’s CSI survey included:
“Without a doubt, Synergis Tech Support is the best I have experienced in 48 years of using computers.” – Christopher LaFarge, MedicaMetrix
“Quick and efficient tech support.” – Ian Spencer, Unifiller
“[They] did an excellent job getting back to me promptly with a concise and accurate answer. Great support as always.” – Christopher Wood, The Dow Chemical Company
“It never ceases to amaze me how good Synergis is to work with. [They’re the] best of any business I have ever worked with!” – Jay Lovelady, AJ Manufacturing
“There is NO support team better than the support team at Synergis Software! Period!” – Phil Money, Gyrodata
Randall S. Newton is the principal analyst and managing director at Consilia Vektor, a consulting firm serving the engineering software industry. He has been directly involved in engineering software in a number of roles since 1985.