noHold Joins the LANDESK One Partner Program to Create the Next Generation Help Desk

"MILPITAS, CA, (July 24, 2014) — noHold, Inc. announced today that they have joined the LANDESK One technology partner program to provide employees with the next generation, self-service help desk solution. LANDESK One is designed to provide opportunities for ISVs to create innovative and complementary technology on the LANDESK platforms. The program advances LANDESK’s user-oriented IT vision by enabling ISV partners to amplify the complete LANDESK portfolio to create customized, user-focused solutions. noHold and LANDESK are coming together to support the need of interactive technology for internal customers (employees). 

noHold Virtual Agents are used by leading brands to revolutionize their customers’ experience. Albert is an extension of noHold’s flagship product, InstantSupport™, but instead designed for employees to find answers to their problems, on their own terms. Albert can be customized with company-specific information or pre-packaged with answers to top questions about Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), Windows and Apple Operating Systems, and more."

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Please click here to continue reading the full press release. 

www.nohold.com

Gartner Predicts, "By 2016, 35% of IT Operations Organizations Will Have 75% of IT Service Desk Contacts From the Business Resolved by Virtual Assistants"

Hi all, I wanted to share with you a blog we posted for Albert written for IT professionals/CIO's, but it also gives great information for Virtual Agent enthusiasts as well. Enjoy!

     This year I have been talking a lot about the growing popularity of smart machines, the Internet of Everything (IoE), and Virtual Agents. I typically write about these topics from a customer support or customer service perspective in the PC market, though. I recently came across a document from Gartner explaining that similar trends hold true for the IT Service and Support Management (ITSSM) industry. Gartner predicts, “By 2016, 35% of IT operationsorganizations will have 75% of IT service desk contacts from the businessresolved by virtual assistants” (Predicts 2014: Automation Brings Promise to IT Operations Management, But at What Cost? December 2013). With BYOD, WYOD, bid data, and more, IT organizations are in need of extra hands to eliminate some of the work load. Using Virtual Agents to answer tier one questions open up a huge amount of time for IT professionals to focus on other important aspects of the business, all while reducing the cost within the IT department. In a population that demands technology, self-service is the norm to most people and is quickly becoming the preferred channel for support. Employees want to find the answers to their own questions fast and avoid long resolution times. Providing them with Virtual Agents, allows them the capability to help themselves.

     As I mentioned, artificial intelligence is one of the few, big disruptive technologies emerging into the tech world in 2014. More and more big name companies are recognizing its popularity and becoming more proactive in their journey towards automation and Artificial Intelligence. Just recently, IBM invested over one billion dollars into developing a new business unit for Watson (IBM’s Watson for Business: The $1 Billion Dollar Sire Slayer). The market is getting dominated by smart machines fast and experts agree that there will be a strong demand for artificial intelligence in the coming future. It is beneficial to stay ahead of the curve and be prepared for the undergoing changes. Gartner recommends, “Act now to initiate exploration, build expertise, assign resources, and launch smart machine initiatives. This area is in the early state of evolution, but holds enough promise that early adopters should benefit more over time” (IBM Bets on New Watson Unit to Ignite Smart Machine Era Growth, January 2014).

www.nohold.com

Throwback Thursday: Tablets taking Over the Industry!

Happy Throwback Thursday!

With the holidays fast approaching, I’m seeing a bunch of articles talking about how Tablets are going to out sell PCs for the first time.  This got me thinking about when the first tablet was introduced to the world of technology and when did they start to gain popularity.

Photo Credit: EdibleApple

I think the most commonly known tablet is the iPad, but did you know Apple had created a tablet before that in 1979! It was called a Graphics Tablet. The main feature of this tablet was to be able to draw a design with a stylus and be able to transfer that image to your computer; this was before Photoshop was around of course.  Original asking price? $650!

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

iPaq was also a trendy device in the early 2000’s. This personal “pocket PC” was created by Compaq until Hewlett-Packard acquired them. This tablet used a Windows Mobile interface. Check out the photo of the personal digital assistants (PDA) on the right.

How many people remember the Palm Pilot? Before Smartphone’s were around, people needed a way to manage and store information such as phone numbers, addresses, to-do lists, calendars, etc. The Palm Pilot was capable of all those things, but had the convenience of being compacted into portable device.

Photo Credit: Home Toys

Another popular device that received a lot of attention before the tablets of 2010 was the convertible laptop to tablet. The screen of the laptop could swivel around and convert into a tablet.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Tablets that are popular today (i.e. iPad) have not been on the market for too long. The first iPad was introduced in 2010, only 3 years ago. They have gained popularity quickly and the demand for tablets to growing. Employees are starting to bring their tablets to work, instead of working from a PC. And some schools are providing tablet use for the students in their libraries.(BYOD phenomenon!) Today, there are tons of top companies that produce tablets. Apple has the iPad, but shortly after the release of the iPad came the Samsung Galaxy Note, Google Nexus, Sony Xperia, and more. 

Photo Credit: Digitaltrends

With so many developers of tablets, consumers are sending in thousands of questions wanting to know what tablet bests suits them or ask technical support questions. Having a Virtual Agent to answer your customers questions will increase sales and customer satisfaction, while lowering costs.

Adding QR codes to the tablet packaging which will bring up a Virtual Agent on your phone will enhance the customer experience and encourage customers to purchase the device that fits his or her needs confidently. This will also give you a step up on competitors. To find out more about QR codes and Virtual Agents, view "How to Increase Sales by Providing a Great Customer Experience That is Easy To Socialize."

What's your favorite tablet? How do you get shopping advice and support on your device? Have a great week!

Photo Credit: memecenter

Customer Feedback Fridays - How Your Organization Can Influence Employee Self-Service

On August 22nd, noHold held a webinar for the pre-launch of Dweeb: Your Self-Service IT Help Desk. We received some great feedback from the webinar, and are excited for the beta program to begin on September 3rd.

During the webinar, noHold's CEO (Diego Ventura) talked about the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). He also discussed how to become part of the free one month beta program. During the beta program, we are soliciting feedback from all participants and users which will help us continuously improve the experience of Dweeb. Dweeb's User Interface, knowledge, and roadmap are all flexible and will adapt over time.

For this Customer Feedback Friday blog, in parallel with the pre-launch of Dweeb, we are interested in your feedback. If your organization is looking for ways to increase employee self-service and you would like to provide feedback that will influence the future of Dweeb, please contact us. Keep in mind that Dweeb is designed to be implemented quickly (less than the time it takes to watch your favorite movie) within your self-serve portal with only a few lines of html.

The feedback from members in our beta program is critical to the future of Dweeb!

Have a great weekend, and stay tuned for more Dweeb updates.

Meet Dweeb: Your Self-Service IT Help Desk

In place of today's Customer Feedback Friday's blog, I would like to introduce you to noHold's newest Virtual Agent: Dweeb.

With the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement in full affect and the release of Windows 8 on the horizon, IT organizations are challenged more than ever to empower end users to self-serve. The era of personal flexibility and functionality is rapidly changing. The internal help desk is faced with the complexity of supporting multiple devices, Operating Systems, software, and more. How is your organization adapting?


Join noHold in a cutting-edge webinar introducing "Dweeb: Your Virtual IT Help Desk." Learn how 'Dweeb' can help:

• Reduce incidents and requests at the help desk 
• Significantly minimize IT costs
• Promote employees to self-serve by offering an interactive and conversational approach to common issues

Register Now for the official launch webinar, and be part of the free one month Beta Program beginning September 3rd.

Date: Wednesday, August 22
Time: 11 AM - 12 PM Pacific Time (PT)

We hope to see you on the webinar! Have a great weekend.

Customer Feedback Fridays - What Do You Ask Your Help Desk About the Most?

Today, I'd like to ask for your feedback. In a previous post, I mentioned Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) a.k.a the Consumerization of IT. The BYOD movement is one of the fastest growing trends affecting your business. Using your own personal device for work challenges the IT organization to provide not only security for those devices, Operating Systems, and software, but also to provide support.

What do you ask your help desk about the most? Is it your iPhone or iPad, VPN, security software? Maybe a combination of a few things? Please take a minute to answer. Thanks for your time, and we look forward to tallying up the results!
click here to answer.

Enjoy your weekend!