As an MSP owner a question I often ask myself and that circulates around our industry, favored by ChannelE2E’s content czar Joe Panettieri, is when will we move forward using the power of Bots, AI and Automation? The industry hasn’t evolved much from the current PSA, RMM and Documentation tools. So what’s next? Who will make the first move? Well I’m pleased to say Invarosoft® is putting our entry into the ring as the first vendor to try and make the future a current reality.
Invarosoft recently unveiled our latest innovation at IT Nation Evolve 2019 called – ITSupportBot®.
Your MSP will now have the ability to turn your IT Glue (or other) documentation into a bot which helps you ‘reduce support tickets’ AND ‘help your Engineers solve tickets faster’ with two (2) exciting new Bot’s:
However, before I give you the details of how these bots work, let’s take a step back and examine the problems we’re trying to solve.
The problem that most small, medium and large MSPs have is we don’t have enough time in the day. We’re always strapped for capacity and more growth means more support tickets. In fact we calculated that for every 100 desktops/laptops you manage you get 3-4 tickets a day. It’s never ending. So when you get ‘unnecessary support tickets’ for things the user could probably of solved themselves by ‘re-booting’ or indeed following some simple steps – it’s a waste of precious time for the MSP and of course the client.
There isn’t anything currently on the market to stop this from happening. RMM tools actually create ‘more’ tickets and the PSA / Ticketing systems don’t add any value since over 70% of tickets are logged via email.
Documentation tools such as IT Glue and PassPortal have absolutely taken the MSP industry by storm. It was clear there was a latent need for these tools and IT Glue in particular built a very successful SaaS business solving that problem. MSPs have lots of documentation & configuration information about clients which aid in providing fast and accurate support. The problem is as the information grows it takes longer for the Engineers to find the information when they get a ticket.
For example, imagine you get a ticket from a client to setup a new user and you know they have a fairly detailed setup process. Now you have to spend a few minutes searching around for the right article to solve the problem. Multiply that by every Engineer searching around on a high percentage of tickets, it’s a lot of admin time being spent by technical resources.
With 70% of tickets being logged by email or specifically ‘support@’ this is the reason why they haven’t worked in the MSP industry. The only way a user can be assisted by a bot or any type of AI is to be interacting in a ‘support channel’ where this technology is embedded. The current support channels are ‘Phone’, ‘Email’ and a ‘Web Portal’ with the latter never getting used because the user can’t find the URL. At Invarosoft we are creating the ‘fourth support channel – a desktop and mobile App’. This ITSM App is the front end to the ticketing back-end and enables a user to easily find support from a simple IT button ‘one pane of glass’. The point being if the user can be introduced to a new proven road or ‘channel’ they’ll drive down that road and then you get the opportunity to put some amazing street lights and smart billboards in their path. Enter the bots!
So how are we aiming to solve these problems? Well, let’s take a look at your new bots.
Now that you’ve got your clients logging tickets via the ITSupportPanel App, instead of ‘support@’, you can now create your very own ‘self-service bot’ assigned to clients and ticket types. So when the user goes to log a ticket for a ‘printer issue’ your personalized bot says ‘Hi Jamie, before you log this ticket I have a suggestion that might help’. You can then configure your bot to provide instructions on how to fix the issue and if you need a longer explanation link articles from IT Glue, PassPortal, SiPortal, Confluence, Invarosoft or where ever you like.
The ROI
The goal is to reduce these ‘unnecessary tickets’ by embedding a bot to help the user self-service their issue. We anticipate this will save between 5-10% of all in-bound tickets based on how many are actually simple to solve with a re-boot or basic instructions.
Example
Imagine when Office365 is down. You can use our platform to send a branded push notification to your clients alerting them to the issue. But what if it drags on for days. Then you can now place a bot on any tickets relating to ’email’ so your bot can remind the user of the issue and that you’re working on it. One less ticket asking for an update – phew!
To solve the issue of your Engineers wasting time searching IT Glue (or other) for an instruction guide you will be able to attach a Smart Engineer Bot to clients and ticket types. When the user logs the ticket, the bot will include instructions or document links relating to that particular issue in the ticket. Now your Engineers have what they need immediately at their finger tips.
The ROI
The goal here is to save your Engineers 2-5 minutes on every ticket. Over a year this adds up considerably!
With ITAppsPanel you can configure App links at the bottom the panel which can launch URL, Command Line or AppPath Lookup Execution. Now imagine a user logs a ticket and you configure your bot to give them instructions to go down the bottom of ITSupportPanel, find the App link and run an executable such as ‘re-mapping network drives’. Bingo, less tickets and a happy user impressed with your modern approach.
So in Invarosoft land we believe the future is now here for MSPs. Finally we can start to be as innovative as the technologies we consult around. Our clients are going home with their iPhone and Android devices using Netflix, Spotify, Google Drive, Health, Stock Market and Weather Apps etc. When they come to the office their IT company uses a mouse pad or sticker with their phone number on it – it’s just not a great customer experience befitting our industry.
Give them an App and use Bots and Automation to wow your customers! The future is now here.
Book a demo via the quick form below (name, email, company) to find out more about ITSupportBot.
