Self-support technologies expand support of desktops

Apr 3, 2001
Gartner
© 2001 TechRepublic, Inc.

By R. Colville and K. Brittain

"Self"-support technologies are a new set of solutions empowering users. Here, we will clarify the question: What are the types and the definition of self-support tools?

Attempting to address the ever-increasing call volume associated with supporting the distributed computing environment, new technologies are beginning to expand the capability of problem resolution in the self-support environment. The renewed interest in problem resolution is driven by the need to reduce service call volumes, dispatch assistance costs, and maximize end-user productivity, all while increasing service levels.

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Empowering end users to solve problems can be facilitated via universal access to problem resolution knowledge. The first attempts at this were presented to users through FAQ servers that had answers to common outages or quick fixes, but required users to leave the application and connect to enterprise servers. Other attempts were made to add smart agents to desktops to try to proactively alert users to problems and resolutions. Neither have reduced call volumes. Recently, however, several vendors have emerged with product functionality designed to diminish end-user outages through self-support capabilities.

Acronym key

CRM—Customer relationship management
CSD—Consolidated service desk
DLL—Dynamic Link Library
FAQ—Frequently asked questions

What is self-help?
Tools that enable an end user to leverage established problem resolution knowledge to benefit desktop productivity
This may range from a list of commonly asked questions with pointers to the source of the answer (e.g., Ask Jeeves) to highly structured approaches used in problem resolution and product selection applications (e.g., Inference, ServiceWare, ServiceSoft). These products offer natural language matching between a user's query and a predefined list of questions, symptoms, or requirements, and then navigate the structured knowledge to provide an answer.

What is self-diagnosis?
Tools that enable an end user to analyze the cause or nature of a problem, along with the ability to offer solutions to resolve the problem
These tools are offered from vendors (e.g., Motive) that have compiled resolution information for common desktop applications with an engine that presents potential "what to try" options when a user has an error. They can also be invoked to assist in "how to" solutions (such as changing a printer driver and updating new virus software).

What is self-healing?
Tools that maintain a root understanding of the distinct system and desktop profiles (DNA) and can restore or heal to a functioning state (e.g., Motive, SERENA, Support.com)
Registry settings and key application executables must be maintained in a desired desktop environment, which, when corrupted, can be reset either automatically and independently of a help-desk analyst or by a call to a help-desk analyst who "hits the recover button." Other uses of this type of tool may be to proactively reset key files (e.g., DLLs) every time a user executes an application.

Independent healing

Files, registry settings, executables, or even DLLs are cached on the system. As the healing agent detects a change, it restores any of these to its prior state. The key to this technology, whether run independently or with help-desk assistance, is understanding the implication of resetting a prior state and knowing which changes were needed and which were not. This understanding is not done with healing tools, but with technical support staff who are intimately familiar with each user's configuration.

Where is it gray?
Not only will enterprises need to sort through the similar jargon used to describe these different self-support resolution technologies, but they will also need to learn that these partnerships between the varying solutions represent just a marketing arrangement. Vendors' solutions may provide some of the above capabilities today, but no vendor has the complete solution yet.

There is minimal overlap between these technology groups. However, it is clear that the product road maps for these vendors are on a collision course, because all three technologies attempt to address the same problems—"break fix problems/dispatch" for the technologies and "how to" problems for self help and self diagnosis. In addition, the market for these "self" solutions is still maturing, thus enabling new players with plausible technology to enter with viable solutions (e.g., back-up and storage retrieval vendors). Over time, self-support solutions will consolidate and be embedded in solutions such as CSD or CRM or used as an enabling technology for service providers.

Bottom line
IS organizations must develop and leverage new processes and technologies to offer self-help, self-diagnostic, and self-healing problem resolution. The capability to capture problem resolution knowledge is essential to becoming more predictive and agile in the delivery of IT service, and this must be done in the context of the problem resolution and knowledge-management process.

Enterprises can reduce ever-rising end-user support costs with "self" technologies but should consider their purchases as tactical solutions in an immature and volatile market. Enterprises must implement these technologies with a defined focus toward specific help desk "points of pain." Deploying all these technologies can create overlap in addressing a set of help-desk calls. It will be difficult to measure the success of each using the same metrics.

Gartner originally published this report on March 15, 2000.