Better Business Communications with Bridge Help Desk Software
Case Study

Kemma Software, the creators of Bridge, a powerful help desk and tracking application, have been servicing the technical business community since 1996. Bridge provides a number of tools to enhance internal and external business communications and prevents critical issues from being left unanswered. Bridge simplifies electronic messages, automates email, and incorporates a BridgeWeb interface for users at remote sites. Internal communications are enhanced with Bridge's Knowledge Base, a problem/resolution resource. Track and analyze your IT department's productivity and efficiency with Bridge's reporting and graphing tools.

Currently used by hospitals, education facilities, manufacturing plants, government offices, non-profit agencies, financial institutions and other entities, Bridge brings valuable resources and high-end functionality at an affordable price.

Helping to Bridge Business Communications

Providing immediate response to customer issues while eliminating communication bottlenecks can be an overwhelming managerial task. Bridge's issue management features help "bridge" the lines of communications for small-to-medium sized companies or those firms with limited support personnel.

"Before Bridge, we had no electronic way of tracking calls. The call tracking has allowed the National Marrow Donor Program IS staff to be much more proactive instead of reactive on problem areas", says Bridge user Darrell Stewart.

Bridge Software has a familiar Windows interface and is easy to implement, with most companies "up and running" within a day.

"Bridge is simple, intuitive to use, and manages our help desk the way we need it to", says one Bridge user from an IT department managing over 120 customers.

Help Desk Management

The majority of Bridge users employ the application for call tracking within their internal help desk, or to support external companies or clients. In either instance, reliably tracking information and communicating with customers is of critical importance. Bridge aids in issue management by providing a hotlist for each logged on Bridge user. The hotlist displays all assigned issues including the issue status and priority level.

"We don't have a HelpDesk manager; everyone can share and participate in this role, looking after their allocation of customers and functions, because Bridge manages this process for us", says Bridge user Craig Soutar of TOWER Trust.

A status toolbar is a constant display in the Bridge window to inform users of their open issues.

"I always have my hotlist up", says one Bridge user. Choose from Bridge's toolbar options to pick your own criteria to customize this display.

Expanding Help Desk and Tracking Requirements for Growing Organizations

Keeping the lines of communications open in an expanding business environment is critical to any organization's growth. Bridge is a client-server application, and ships with a Microsoft Access^TM database. As a user's customer base expands, or its volume of issues grows, users can easily migrate to a more powerful database with no need to reinstall Bridge.

Automating Your Electronic Communications

Communicating electronically allows users to immediately contact customers or other Bridge users directly from their desktop. With Bridge's email, and notification options, users can automate support requests or notify customers of an issue's status.

Bridge's email is used for corporate mail, Internet mail or a combination of mail systems. Simplify communications by automatically extracting fields of information from an issue and incorporating them into your email.

"I forward issues via email to the individual who reported the problem if it's been open for a while to see if it has been resolved, and to bring it to the attention of support people if a non-Bridge user should be dealing with it", says Bridge user Beverly Pinske.

Bridge's Notification feature automates email according to user-defined filter criteria. Establish notification rules, and Bridge will send the email to the requested person at the designated time interval/s. For example, a notification may be set up send an email report to a client regarding an issue's status every 12 hours, or until the issue is resolved. Or automate the sending of an email with notification to support personnel.

Communicating through the BridgeWeb Interface (Web-Enable Your Help Desk)

Kemma Software has implemented a Web interface that allows an unlimited number of Bridge users to access their database of issues independent of their location. BridgeWeb enables users to tap into the database and edit/enter issues or view their hotlist. Support personnel can access the Knowledge Base to assist in problem solving. Access the BridgeWeb application through your browser (MS Internet Explorer^TM and Netscape Navigator^TM are currently supported).

Identify and Track Recurring Problems with the Knowledge Base

Improve your IT department's problem solving capabilities, increase productivity, and improve communication with the Knowledge Base. Create an internal resource for problem resolution by entering information on past issues. The Knowledge Base can significantly improve the performance of support personnel. Retrieve information on selected items/topics in your Knowledge Base by keyword search.

Analyze IT and Technical Support with Reports, Graphs

Track an indefinite number of fields, using Bridge's reports and graphing menu items. Bridge provides a number of pre-defined settings that allows the user to create queries, reports, and graphs encompassing your complete history of issues. Choose from Bridge's pre-defined reports to track an IT department's productivity, or create user-defined fields to create customized reports.

"Reporting is a Breeze", says one Bridge help desk software user.

Use Bridge's predefined graphs to analyze how issues are managed among your IT staff, or create customized graphs with user-defined parameters.

Bridge's application has improved the efficiency and productivity of help desks and IT departments globally. Bridge provides the tools to track issues reliably, speed response time, identify recurrent problems, and communicate immediately with Bridge users or external customers. With the addition of BridgeWeb, users now have access to their Bridge database of issues from any remote location. Kemma Software provides technical support through emails, phone consultations, on-line communications, or Support Agreements. Bridge's ease-of-use, scalability and affordability makes this help desk tracking application an attractive package for managing issues and communicating effectively within your IT department.