Practical tips and information about running an efficient service desk. News and information about HelpMaster, PRD Software and the ITSM industry.
It's been a week since PRD Software returned from www.cebit.com.au, Australia's largest tech show held each year in Sydney's vibrant Darling Harbour. Each year, the HelpMaster team travel to Sydney to exhibit our customer service and helpdesk software to the masses that walk through the CeBIT doors. According to this years summary, approximately 37,000 people attended. That's a huge amount of tech-savvy, business-oriented people in one area. You could sense their enthusiasm, and it was great to learn from each delegate who walked through the door why they were at CeBIT. This is not a passive audience. Each and every person is here with a tech agenda - to seek out and learn what is new and interesting in the world of IT.
With this year's emphasis on IT startups, tech evangelism and funding, the venue was abuzz with all things hardware, software, business, the entrepreneur, the startups, and the upstarts. ;-)
That was our branding for CeBIT 2013, and it caught the interest of the delegates. There are just so many businesses out there that are not using any kind of software, or even a dedicated process for their client support, customer service or complaints management. Every business needs to perform these functions to have success.
Customer Service Helpdesk Software is what we do
As usual, the HelpMaster booth was extremely busy. The PRD Software team did non-stop demonstrations for 3 days straight and met many people who enjoyed seeing the workflow features that HelpMaster has.
A highlight of exhibiting is meeting up with people actually using HelpMaster for their helpdesk and service management operations. This year we met with many clients.
We also met up with the following ITSM / IT industry people. To name a few:
It was good to see a healthy amount of service management consultants, ITIL trainers, business analysts and educators from the ITSM space. The local universities and TAFEs across Australia are doing a great job.
These are all good signs of a healthy ITSM ecosystem.
Rod and Aprill Allen aka the Knowledge Bird
Without exception, at every trade show we've ever attended, we meet people who use a competing product. This is a great opportunity to compare notes. When people see another product offering in their field of work, they're naturally curious. With our booth fascia reading "Customer service helpdesk software", we attracted the attention of a lot of Help desk users.
This lead to the inevitable and predictable questions.... What's different? How much does it cost? What can it do? Does it do this? Does it do that? What about reports...speed...function... Cloud? Database? Support? ITIL, workflow... etc... This year was no exception. Some of the delegates we spoke to at the HelpMaster booth are currently using the following service management and customer service products: BMC Remedy (many admitting they're paying a lot of $$ for a "ticketing system". More of a reflection on how they're using it, than what it's capable of...but you've got to ask...."Why?"
Infra aka Ionix aka VMWare Service Manager - Quite a few old "Infra" users still out there. Most we spoke to are looking to migrate to something else after product support will no longer continue for this product.
Marvel, Ran into a few users of MSM. Always good to show the HelpMaster Email Manager to these guys.
HP Service Manager - See comments for Remedy...add "slow" to the mix. CA Service Desk Manager - Still going! Frontrange Heat - Still lots of old versions of Heat out there. ...and then there are those who use Microsoft Excel, Outlook and other "home-brew" systems for their helpdesk...(psst...don't do it!) This shows a healthy amount of diversity in this space. It is good to see such a variety of solutions being offered and accepted by Australian businesses. What always gets me is the answer to the question "What do you use HelpDesk Product X for?". When the answer comes down to something like "logging and tracking tickets", you've got to ask yourself, "Why am I paying that kind of of money for a ticketing system?".
Overall, CeBIT Australia is the best IT show we've ever done, and we'll continue to do it. We love the long days of custom product demos, especially that moment when someone realizes that their customer service can be so much better, as well as the satisfaction of getting to meet face-to-face with so many users of HelpMaster. Thank you to everyone who came up to the HelpMaster booth to say Hi, and a special thanks to all our clients and business partners for your support at CeBIT. You are the reason we keep doing what we do.
See you next year!
Scott and Rod from PRD Software