ISPs need to enable tech support staff to do more with less. Here's one company's answer to the problem.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [September 10, 2004]

When we spoke to New York-based Public Internet Network Services in January of this year, we learned that the ISP and phone consultancy is working hard to achieve more efficiency from its support workforce. The goal is to be able to do more, and do it better, but with the same number of staff.

Now, San Marcos, Tex.-based Internet Technical Services (ITS) is offering ISPs a prepackaged piece of software called Click-Support that does exactly that. It is designed to automate the standard operations that support staff ask end users to do by enabling multi-step actions to be done with a single click.

That's very good, but we can also imagine situations in which it might be very bad. For example, the toolbox has a button that says "Specify DNS". If this button were pressed by someone who wasn't on the phone with your tech staff, they could cause significant problems for themselves in a very efficient manner.

Overall, however, we think this software is very very promising. We received a demo version. Open up the app, and you get a very simple start (see below): three simple buttons. Todd Simmons, ITS COO, explains that the interface should be simple rather than spiffy.

"Cool looking is not the way to go. When I tell you to click on the green button, there's no question about what I'm asking you to do."

That's much better than a system that looks like Microsoft Windows. "You want to avoid PEBKAC situations (problem exists between keyboard and chair) by avoiding having users go through menu chains. We call this click support. For example, we offer one step dialup account creation, not thirteen steps. If you need the user to do a ping test, you don't want the user to open a CLI to do it. These six pings could take a customer 10 to 15 minutes."

Testing my e-mail access was very easy (right). I simply entered by POP3 and SMTP servers, and my own account name and password, clicked a button, and ran the test.

The software has a wide range of common, necessary functions. Simmons says that having it decode common error messages has proved very useful in beta tests. "When a user sees 'error 691' in their e-mail client, they usually don't know that means they just put in the wrong user name or password."

He says that for dialup users especially, a large file can be a problem. When a user's mailbox gets clogged beyond their ability to download what's in the pipe. At that point, they can use the tool illustrated below.

There's a lot more in this toolbox, and every ISP should try a free demo. Our free demo crashed once, but we were unable to repeat the problem, and were able to restart the app immediately. ISPs will be impressed with the wide variety of features on display.

Pricing and availability
The product is available now for Windows 98 SE or later.

Licenses start at $250 for 250 users, with volume discounts kicking in rapidly, so a 3,000 user license is $750. Simmons says he wants it priced low to increase adoption. "I'd rather sell it more times for less than less times for more." If only other companies felt that way.

In addition, own branding is free, and Simmons takes pride in responding rapidly to requests. He's already working with several VISP providers. "We say, this is how much is costs you for an unlimited license (a low rate per ISP) and then we customize it for each ISP. Orders are normally fulfilled in 24 hours, and the VISP providers charge a certain amount above what they're paying for it."

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