Amdahl has launched a new Internet venture, trustedanswer.com, aimed at companies doing business over the Internet. The mission of trustedanswer.com is to become the premier provider of hosted customer service and support, with a Web-based self-service as the centrepiece of its offerings.
trustedanswer.com is fully funded by Amdahl, with intentions to spin off into its own entity. Amdahl intends to grow trustedanswer.com into a $100 million business by 2004.
"Amdahl has estensive expertise with integrating and managing all aspects of customer service and support, and in particular with building and deploying knowledge base technology as the basis for all solutions," says Chris Dorn, head of Amdahl at CCH Enterprise Solutions, which bought Amdahl SA last year.
"Amdahl`s reputation has been built on the mission-critical customer support it provides its customers to help them compete and thrive, and trustedanswer.com extends that reputation into the world of hosted services."
trustedanswer.com meets an important need of today`s Web-wise customers and end-users who are not always satisfied with traditional phone-based customer service. They need help 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the Internet provides e-businesses with that capability. trustedanswer.com offers a full range of support options, including graphically rich Web-based self-service, eQuery, advanced chat and phone support.
trustedanswer.com also advises clients to help them determine which options are most appropriate for their needs. trustedanswer.com has special expertise in building and deploying graphically rich knowledge base technology as the basis for its solutions.
trustedanswer.com is initially targeting three types of companies with its customer service and support solution:
Traditional brick-and-mortar companies launching or expanding e-commerce initiatives;
Emerging dot-com companies or e-commerce companies that deliver services or products via the Web; and
Companies such as software or network equipment companies offering technically complex products or services that need a superior technical support solution in order to provide effective Web-based self-service. trustedanswer.com delivers an operational support solution and helps companies transition to knowledge base technology to improve customer support effectiveness. In addition, the reduced operating costs that come from trustedanswer.com`s economies of scale and focus on Web-based support make an immediate impact on the bottomline.
trustedanswer.com - the wave of the future
"Hosted Web-based solutions will become the preferred way to deliver software applications over time," says Dorn. "To meet this future demand and go one step further, trustedanswer.com combines advanced customer support technology with expertise to provide complete business process outsourcing for customer support."
By using a hosted service, rather than building its own infrastructure in-house, a company can realise many benefits:
Conserving resources: Using trustedanswer.com to host customer service functions allows companies to focus resources on revenue-producing activities. Companies will be able to cut support costs by more than 50%, says Amdahl.
Increasing speed: trustedanswer.com speeds companies into the world of Web-enabled knowledge-based customer support with a standard eight-week deployment cycle.
Using pay-as-you-go economics: trustedanswer.com eliminates the expense and risk of a significant system implementation project, as well as associated hardware and software costs.
All options are completely transparent to end-users, who are unaware that they are interacting with trustedanswer.com rather than the customer or e-business site. The company offers superior understanding of the support process through its ServiceTrax system, which supplies a direct link to customers, providing instant feedback.
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