FrontRange Solutions, a leading developer of IT service management solutions, has today announced the launch of Heat 9.0, the latest release of the company's award-winning help desk software. Heat 9.0 introduces a wealth of features designed to increase the effectiveness of the IT service organisation and improve end-user productivity across the entire organisation.
To enable service technicians to more effectively prioritise service requests, respond more quickly to trouble tickets, while handling a greater volume of calls, Heat 9.0 features an all-new Web interface, which provides all of the day-to-day service desk functionality without the need to install a client package on the PC. This enables technicians to create, modify and close tickets from any computer across the organisation. The interface is browser-agnostic, supporting all popular choices, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari.
To further enhance the productivity of the IT service organisation, Heat 9.0 features advanced integration options through the new messaging centre. This enables data to be imported from multiple sources such as e-mail servers, XML files, Web services and more. This feature can be used to automatically create and update tickets, customer records and configuration records, thereby reducing the manual workload placed on technicians and making the service desk more central to business operations.
With more reliance on corporate knowledge assets, an important development in Heat 9.0 is the ability for Heat technicians to access external knowledge bases and other information sources without leaving the main Heat interface. Tabbed browsing capability makes it easier for users to access all necessary information without the risk of losing the context of the original call.
Kevin J Smith, VP of products at FrontRange Solutions, commented: “In the current economic climate, organisations need to work smarter, keeping users productive and leveraging efficiencies that can be gained by integrating multiple IT systems. With Heat 9.0, we've put the help desk at the centre of the organisation, giving it true go-anywhere capabilities combined with the ability to import data from multiple systems.”
Joe Hackney, a Heat user with over 15 years' experience of the product, is enthusiastic about the latest version: “FrontRange has obviously put a lot of effort into Heat 9.0. The ability to monitor e-mail traffic and Web services opens up a whole new list of integration opportunities, which can significantly enhance the value organisations realise from Heat 9.0.”
Other enhancements to the Heat 9.0 product include:
* Custom dialogue actions - allowing organisations to customise workflows based on user responses
* Integral set-up wizard for Centennial Discovery - enabling configuration of the latest version of the award-winning asset discovery technology
* Automated tracking of record modifications across all criteria - helping technicians see any changes to trouble tickets at a glance
* Native support for Lotus Notes and Groupwise - for a more seamless integration experience
To meet the growing demands for premium customer service, FrontRange Solutions will soon deliver a Web survey module for Heat 9.0, which supports both periodic and transactional surveys and can link results to individual call records. This helps service teams monitor customer satisfaction and prioritise on IT initiatives.
FrontRange Solutions South Africa's Paul Bornhutter says: “The Heat Message Centre application will enable Heat 9.0 and complementary service management tools to interoperate for effectively. Customers can enjoy real-time information access among systems and streamline business processes while maintaining information integrity across multiple systems. The feedback from the market thus far has been very positive and our customers are hailing Heat 9.0 as one of our most significant releases to date.”
Heat 9.0 is available now, visit http://www.frontrange.com for more information.
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FrontRange Solutions
FrontRange Solutions develops software and services that growing mid-size firms and distributed enterprises rely on every day to build great customer relationships and deliver high-quality customer service. The company applies a unique combination of innovation and automation with a standards-based approach to simplify core business processes, including: IT service management; customer relationship and sales force management; and PC life cycle management. More than 150 000 customers use FrontRange offerings to quickly improve their interactions with external and internal clients and achieve better business results. For more information, call 800.776.7889 or visit http://www.frontrange.com
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