Footprints adds two-way mail management

Two-way e-mail management from Footprints brings a new dynamic to customer relationship management (CRM), says Ryan Kahan, group CEO at TitanFive (Pty) Ltd.

Johannesburg-based TitanFive holds the exclusive distribution rights in southern Africa for FootPrints, a customer relationship management (CRM) solution from US Web-based service desk automation software provider UniPress.

Footprint`s two-way e-mail management enables help-desks, call centres and customer support centres to improve customer communications, increase response times, automate processes, reduce costs and improve the overall agent and end-user support experience, says Kahan.

"With FootPrints` advanced e-mail management capabilities, all incoming support requests received via e-mail can be automatically turned into tickets and managed easily through the Web-based service desk," he explains.

Auto-generated and customisable e-mail notifications mean that users and groups involved with an issue can receive personalised alerts and updates that allow them to monitor status independently. E-mail templates can be created within FootPrints to streamline communication, and personalise individual and mass e-mails without any programming, he adds.

"Integrated e-mail management is a critical component of the multi-channel service desk," says Mark Krieger, president of UniPress Software. "FootPrints` e-mail management functionality offers end-users a simple and effective communication channel that provides constant visibility into the resolution process. And it helps companies effectively manage this channel to automate service tasks, drive agent workflow processes, and improve communications to internal and external audiences."

With FootPrints, support agents can create issue tickets directly from e-mail, and e-mail attachments can be dynamically processed and linked to corresponding issues. Also, agents and customers can conduct e-mail conversations that can, in turn, be automatically tracked in the correct issue. E-mail enquiries can also be automatically routed to appropriate agents and escalated based on the organisation`s specific agent, timing, and SLA support requirements through built-in business-rule automation features within FootPrints.

To address the inherent problems with spam and its potentially devastating impact on the service desk, FootPrints has integrated SpamAssassin, one of the most advanced anti-spam protection solutions available. This enhanced spam-elimination capability enables organisations using FootPrints to control inbound spam that can hamper help-desk and customer support centre performance, bog down workflow, negatively impact response times, and threaten service level agreements.

The system also includes centrally managed customer-request tracking, business rule and task automation, self-service online, knowledge management, live e-support tools, powerful reporting, and dynamic integration with LDAP-based address books.