Founded in 1997, Zone Labs, LLC, a Check Point company, is one of the most trusted brands in Internet security. Zone Labs is a leading creator of endpoint security solutions that protect millions of PCs and the people who use them from the threat of hackers, spyware, and data theft. The company's award-winning endpoint security product line is deployed in global enterprises, small businesses, and consumers' homes, protecting them from Internet-born threats.

The Challenge
In 2000, Zone Labs was experiencing incredible growth for its products. Addressing the need to manage the volumes of customer service and technical support inquiries, the company employed three agents located in North Dakota. The team used Banter to track and manage all customer service requests and technical support-related activities.

In early 2002, Zone Labs received approximately 10,000 to 12,000 service and support requests each month. These included customer service related inquires (credit card transaction problems, download difficulties, refunds, etc.) and technical support requests (issues related to installation, configuration, etc.) pushing the Banter system to the maximum.

The Choice
In an effort to keep pace with growth, Gary Garcia, Senior Director of Customer Care and Technical Services at Zone Labs, decided to seek alternatives and ultimately selected UniPress Softwares FootPrints 100% web-based service desk solution. One of the critical decision criteria was FootPrints web-based design and functionality, which made it easy for its agents in multiple locations to access the system and perform a range of service and support tasks. Another important criterion was the affordability of the system which was inline with Zone Labs existing technology budget.

At the time of the FootPrints implementation, Zone Labs continued its torrid growth as their security solutions were being used by millions of individuals and businesses. The companys monthly service requests jumped to 22,000 and FootPrints (deployed on an Oracle database platform) was able to easily scale and accommodate this growth.

In January of 2003, after working with FootPrints for nine months, Mr. Garcia, who is based in San Francisco, and his team (located in North Dakota) decided to migrate to the FootPrints Hosting Service to eliminate the need for Zone Labs IT department to manage the system in-house. Because the licensed (FootPrints) and hosted (the FootPrints Hosting Service) versions leverage a web-based platform, Zone Labs was able to easily and seamlessly move its existing data over without disrupting its operations.

The stability of the FootPrints platform is an extremely important component for us to deliver global customer service, explained Mr. Garcia. We were able to switch over from the licensed version of FootPrints to the FootPrints Hosting Service without compromising our ongoing customer service and support operations, which is a critical component of our business. Using the FootPrints Hosting Service eliminated the cost of technology infrastructure and the need for internal resources required to support it, expanding our overall return on investment (ROI) with the solution.

Since the migration to the FootPrints Hosting Service, Zone Labs has achieved 99.9% up-time, crediting the systems performance and reliability. As of 2004, Zone Labs had 30 million downloads of its products and more than eight million customers.

The Solution
In order to provide the highest level of service to its customers, Zone Labs, through FootPrints, configured its multi-channel service desk to receive requests via phone, email, and the Internet. This allows us to deliver 24/7 service and support while giving our agents a centralized system to log and manage all activities, explained Mr. Garcia. A growing team of 42 agents currently uses the system, accessing it from different locations.

The UniPress team has always been extremely helpful in supporting our FootPrints implementation, both when we initially installed it in-house and then during the migration to their hosting platform, explained Mr. Garcia. I cannot say enough about their technical support. As a software provider, I appreciate the importance of a partner relationship with respect to technical support, and with UniPress this is what we have.

Taking advantage of FootPrints centralized issue tracking, email management, knowledge base, escalations, and business rule automation, Zone Labs configured the system to support the following business-critical operations:

• Customer Service tracking and managing all types of credit card transaction problems, download difficulties, refunds, etc.
• Technical Support tracking and managing all types of issues related to installation, configuration, etc. for all Zone Lab products
• Level 2 and Level 3 Escalation Support when Level 1 customer service and technical support issues are escalated, all activities related to these instances are captured in this separate project, ensuring the companys 48-hour response time commitment

To accommodate the large volumes of requests each month, self-service plays a critical role in Zone Labs customer service and technical support strategy. Mr. Garcia and his team customized FootPrints and integrated the FootPrints Customer eService Portal with Zone Labs web site. This allowed the company to map a form on the web site to 15 specific fields and drop-down menus inside FootPrints in order to capture all types of information, such as type of product, serial numbers, etc. These fields allow the company to understand the types of service and support inquiries that are logged for each product and the different versions. This information is extremely helpful in understanding trends which can impact product development initiatives. For example, the feedback captured in FootPrints is used to help Zone Labs improve its service delivery as well as add new features and functionality to future products. In fact, the intelligence of the technical support information is folded into engineering and R&D for product development. No new product is launched until our team signs off on it, said Mr. Garcia.

Zone Labs was able to create over 300 solutions using FootPrints knowledge management capabilities that are used by agents to accelerate the technical support process. These solutions can be accessed during phone conversations and are typically cut and pasted into common Level 1 support tickets. Using the systems two-way email management functionality, Zone Labs configured FootPrints to automatically distribute email notifications throughout the problem resolution life cycle, starting with acknowledging receipt of a service and support request. The notification provides a trouble-ticket number for the customer to reference, and conveys the companys 48-hour service level policy. FootPrints then sends a final notice to the customer only after a trouble-ticket is resolved to officially close the loop.

With FootPrints, Mr. Garcia can run a range of different reports to track average time to close (aging), per agent performance, etc. These metrics help improve the companys service levels and allows Mr. Garcia to anticipate trends which is helpful for staffing and scheduling.

The Results
With FootPrints, Zone Labs has been able to manage its growth without compromising the companys commitment to delivering responsive, quality service. In 2003, the company logged 462,000 service requests, averaged 42,000 per month in 2004, and anticipates 580,000 - 600,000 in 2005.

Over the years, our team of agents has grown, from three to 42, explained Mr. Garcia. FootPrints has provided the flexibility and scalability to keep pace, and helped deliver timely service and support across the globe 24 hours a day throughout the year.

Since using FootPrints, Zone Labs has improved its average time to close from 10 to approximately four minutes and always meets its 48-hour customer service commitment. In addition, agent productivity has demonstrated a four-fold improvement through the use of FootPrints knowledge base, two-way email management, and other automation capabilities. Zone Labs has been able to keep pace with the companys growing service and support requirements without adding staff. Citing the return on investment of the FootPrints Hosting Service, Mr. Garcia estimates a 20% improvement in his budget.

At Zone Labs, our company and products are all about innovation, explained Mr. Garcia. FootPrints allows us to stay in front of our customer needs by leveraging the most cutting edge tools to deliver and ensure the best customer service experience.