July/August 2001

RATINGS (05)
Installation: N/A
Documentation: 4.5
Features: 4.75
GUI: 4.75
Overall: A-

The alternative was often a long wait in a phone queue, followed by a greeting from a fast-talking, unsympathetic "support person" who seemed to be wielding some sort of odd, uncanny authority. Many times this lead to a personal visit made some hours later by one of the support team, who'd hunker down in your chair for an undeterminable amount of time, leaving you to your own devices. Resolving a computer problem never seemed to be quick and easy.

The helpdesk field has since evolved, becoming much more structured; adopting call center ideals, employing newer remote technologies, and making available almost instant access to a qualified technician via the Internet. Control-F1 too, has employed these industry staples into their helpdesk ASP model -- along with some more distinctive features. TMC Labs acquired an account and took Control-F1 for a hard-and-fast test drive.

INSTALLATION
Installation is minimal, and doesn't require much more than standard port 80 access to the Internet. There are however, some minimum system requirements, which are outlined below. Additionally, Control-F1 boasts that they can have your account set up and ready for use in about 24 hours.

Administration/Technician:

• Pentium 200 PC;
• 32 MB of RAM;
• TCP/IP-compatible network;
• 56 Kbps modem connection (broadband preferred);
• Super VGA graphics card;
• Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT with SP 4 or higher, or Windows 2000;
• Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher; and
• Current version of Java VM.

Client:

• Pentium 133 PC;
• 32 MB of RAM;
• TCP/IP-compatible network;
• 56 Kbps modem connection (broadband preferred);
• Super VGA graphics card;
• Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT with SP 4 or higher, or Windows 2000;
• Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher, Netscape 4.74 to 4.77 (not compatible with Netscape 6.x); and
• Current version of Java VM.

DOCUMENTATION
Overall, we didn't need to reference the online documentation often, which says something about the GUIs and aesthetic program architecture: They're very good. The interfaces are logical and intuitive, fostering a small learning curve, and as a result smaller instructional manuals, thereby somewhat limiting our section on documentation. Building GUIs that make sense is very hard to do, and is a common problem among technological companies, even today.

After all, what helpdesk tech is going to want to reference a huge manual for anything? And what company is going to want to pay their techs to do it? Not many, not when there are better, more efficient solutions. Yet this is one of the alternatives to not having an intuitive and logical interface for the users. And most companies don't have the funds or resources to pay their employees to learn some new software while not performing daily duties -- duties crucial to their internal customer base. If a company is doing its homework when shopping around for new helpdesk software, this is a good reason to keep on looking.

Control-F1 put together some solid GUIs and a succinct user manual with many visual references to screenshots. Although, one thing we would have liked to see included in the System Builder Section of the documentation is a few more examples, in particular, when creating a new custom macro to extract file information. This being one of the "most powerful features" Control-F1 has to offer, we thought it might be a bit more informative if a few examples were provided along with the explicative text.

FEATURES
Control-F1 is an e-support ASP (client hosting is also available) that provides Web-based, live interaction. Remote diagnostic tools are standard, and are designed to retrieve the following information from any PC: System devices, running tasks, running processes, Windows information, memory information, and installed applications. Additionally, custom macros can be created to procure specific information from a customer's system. These macros can be created by any technician and are shared among all technicians.

Desktop sharing is a result of Control-F1's partnership with Lotus. The technology behind the sharing feature is borrowed from Lotus Sametime, which is a real-time collaboration platform. Sharing allows the technician to take control of the customer's desktop (if permissions are granted, of course), and conversely allows the customer to view the technician's desktop.

Similar to diagnostic tools, Control-F1 also provisions some system management tools such as: Remote Explorer, Remote Registry, System File Editor, Session Live Log, and System Shutdown. These tools are designed to aid in the management of files, registry maintenance, and the configuration of system settings.

Control-F1 has also allowed for CRM integration, supporting these standards: Goldmine, Remedy AR System, Interact Commerce SalesLogix; as well as cultivating OEM relationships with UniPress Footprints, GWI cSupport, and TechExcel Front Office. The ability also exists to integrate with additional products -- contact Control-F1 for further details.

Additional Features Include:

• Queue administration, role administration, and keyword routing;
• Corporate branding;
• E-mail alert option to notify tech when a new customer is in queue;
• Sessions monitor;
• Security options;
• Text chat;
• Session Escalation allows a technician to invite another (perhaps more qualified, or less busy) technician into a conference;
• Billing and history options allow subscribers to track Control-F1 charges;
• Firewall compatibility; and
• E-support statistics.

OPERATIONAL TESTING
Administration
Initially, we got started with a password, two Web addresses and one "Admin" user with all privileges. From there we used our single administration user to erect a complete remote help desk. We built queues, added technicians, added keywords to enable the skills-based routing capability, and used role administration to assign technicians to queues and allow access to additional program areas. Sound difficult? It's not.

Granted, it took some time (an hour or so) to fine tune the queues and keyword routing (this consumed the majority of set-up time), but the bulk of it only has to be done once. Keywording can be a bit tricky, since requests are routed based on values assigned to words or phrases, these values may require some adjustment after testing. A key testing tool is provided directly on the routing table page, which expedites testing and adjustments. After the initial round of tests, additions may be made at any time to the routing table, to further hone its accuracy. The option is always present to disable the Keyword Routing feature and allow customers to manually pick a queue themselves.

Control-F1 doesn't require the expertise of an experienced administrator or helpdesk technician to set up a routing table, add a new technician profile, or perform any duties that either the administrator or technician (user) features facilitate. An intermediate PC user can probably figure it out. As mentioned in the Documentation section of this review, the GUIs are well done -- they're easy to look at, easy to understand, and easy to operate. The total time to set up a profile for each technician is about ten minutes.

Technician
Logging in as a technician doesn't really allow for much functionality if there are no customers in queue, except perhaps, communicating via text chat with another technician who's logged on. Clicking the "Handle Incident" button to begin a session grants technicians access to their toolset: Diagnostic Tools, System Templates, Desktop Sharing, Advanced Tools, and access to a Live Log of events for the session in progress.

Most of these tools were designed around the premise of allowing the customer to continue work (if the state of their computer permits), while a technician examines the system. And it works well. By the time you've typed, "Hello, how may I help you?" into the chat field; Windows memory information can be culled from the distressed customer's computer at just about the same time you're receiving this from your distraught customer: "I can't find PowerPoint on this new computer, and I've got a presentation due in an hour!"

Of course security is an issue, and permissions may be set by the user (if the admin decides to afford these options). The worst case is that the customer will have to grant you permission to access the information. Which may slow things up a bit. Assuming that permissions are granted, a quick click on "Installed Apps" retrieves the name and in most cases the versioning of all installed applications on the PC within about ten seconds. The results are listed in a "spreadsheet-style" pane on the technician's GUI. The information can then be conveyed to a pop-up window, so the technician can keep this information onscreen throughout the session, or add it to the live session log, which can be referenced and printed by both the technician and customer.

Desktop sharing is a virtue within the help-desk genre. Control-F1 makes use of Lotus Sametime technology via an agreement, providing desktop sharing to its users. Once the two parties are connected, a separate window is used allowing the technician to toggle between a customer's desktop and other critical information afforded through the Control-F1 interfaces. Additionally, the technician's desktop can be shared with the customer as well.

System Templates can also be created to extract customized, or more specific information than what's garnished using the standard toolset. Templates can be created to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, or extract information about a single file. Thinking about this from the perspective of specialization, it seems to add many merits to the product in general. After all, this product is built around servicing its customers, providing: The ability to create specialized queues, which are then populated by technicians possessing the best skill set, in turn enabling keyword routing to provide the means for trafficking incidents directly to the most highly qualified person to solve the problem. These system templates allow technicians to create focused macros enabling them to retrieve very specific information from the customer's PC, which may not be pertinent for other technicians working in different queues, with different skill sets.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
No VoIP? ASPs provide a fantastic service. Granted, in the long run a "leasing model" isn't as cost effective as a product that's purchased outright. Undeniably though, ASPs and the Internet allow companies who otherwise would not be able to afford "startup costs" associated with buying system hardware, software, and know-how, to benefit from these same services hosted remotely. The Internet also allows many employees to work remotely, avoiding metropolitan commuting pressures, longer workdays, and the noise frustrations that often pilfer concentration when working in a noisy "cubed" office environment.

Unfortunately, many of us still don't have broadband Internet service, either because of the stiff monthly fee, or availability issues. That means we're still using good old dialup access from home. And the answer is "Yes," some of us also only have one phone line. This means that if a Control-F1 helpdesk incident requires communication richer than what text chat can offer, telecommuters must terminate their Internet connection to accept a call from a help-desk technician, or burn up expensive minutes on a wireless phone (if they have one). VoIP is a simple resolution for this problem. The popularity of VoIP is only going to grow, and adding this functionality to the product would not only acknowledge this fact -- additionally, it will bring added value to the product and resolve what can be a legitimate communication issue.

A notable part of Control-F1's offering is the ability of a technician to "work in the background" while customers continue work on their own PCs (whenever possible). This minimizes wait time for the customer because the technician doesn't have to physically go to the location of the PC, and it also diminishes downtime since it doesn't require that customers stop what they're doing to allow the technician access to their system files. However, we did notice something that in our opinion, could be improved upon when text chatting with a customer.

If a customer continues work while a tech is evaluating a system (which is part of what makes Control-F1 unique) -- let's say the customer's GUI gets lost behind some other windows while working, or it's minimized to get it out of the way -- when the tech hails the customer via text chat (say five minutes after the incident is handled), there doesn't seem to be a way to alert the customer that the technician was attempting to re-establish communication. That is, there isn't a noise to alert the customer, (as there is for the technician when a new incident arrives in the queue) or a flashing window, as is afforded with many presence-based applications. We contacted Control-F1 to inquire further about this issue and discovered that there is a way to do this, however the functionality isn't packaged neatly and displayed in the form of a button or a link on the GUI yet. Since the text-chat window is pure HTML, the tech can post HTML tags directly into the chat window, which will cause the customer's interface to blink or pop up onto the desktop. A Control-F1 representative also said that they're working on ways to build this functionality directly into the interface.

CONCLUSION
Control-F1 seems to provide a solution that both minimizes customer downtime and maximizes a technician's exposure to system information; allowing customers to work largely undisturbed while system assessments are made. Additionally, the administration features allow a solution to be setup with a call-center type of structure: Granular cues can be developed using keyword routing, and coupled with role administration ensure that a customer gets the person best suited to answer their query. Lastly, eSupport statistics and CRM compatibility are also key features allowing the storage and incorporation of company information for future use and perusal.

Overall, Control-F1 appears to be a concrete ASP help-desk solution. We felt several small changes may enhance the product's appeal, but principally the solid design, comprehensive features, and data-collection capability comprise the foundation of a quality solution. An Editors' Choice award is well deserved.

[ Return To The July/August 2001 Table Of Contents ]