Fewer Customer Calls

Friendly Technologies' CRM solution built for ISPs promises to solve computer and Internet-related problems.

by Wayne Kawamoto [June 5, 2000]

Friendly Technologies recently announced the launch of its FriendlyWeb, a client/server solution for ISPs that's designed to reduce the number of calls made for the support of dial-up services. And with fewer calls, the solution claims to reduce the associated costs for human customer support, as well as generate new methods of media and messaging delivery.

Fixes Computers Automatically
The company says that FriendlyWeb uses a proprietary, next-generation customer care APR (Automatic Problem Resolution) technology that relies on self-healing software agents to automatically solve computer and Internet-related problems on a user's PC, before the need arises to contact an ISP's help desk or customer care.

"FriendlyWeb is the only industry solution that actually fixes an ISP's customers' Internet-related problem automatically, before having to resort to time-consuming and costly human intervention," said Romie Sidabras, Friendly Technologies' COO.

Collect Stats on Frequency of Problems
Within the FriendlyWeb product, the company has also developed its own PDS (Personal Delivery System) that is supposed to create a bi-directional communication link between customer care organizations and their clients.

According to the company, the system also enables the receipt of Quality of Service and Problem Resolution statistics from clients' PC.

Easier Messaging
"Providing ISPs with this link will enable remote control of the users' PC settings and software updates, so that they may target continuous personal messaging, as well as registration of new users," added Sidebras.

Major ISP clients include Cable & Wireless and PacificNet.

Price and Availability
FriendlyWeb is now shipping and available through the company's direct sales force. Friendly Technologies would not release pricing information for this story.

The FriendlyWeb client is compatible with Windows 95, 98, NT, and 2000. There are three versions: full install at 6.5 MB, lite at 2.0 MB, and superlite at 500K. A Mac-compatible client is expected in the third quarter of this year.

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