MOTIVE TRANSFORMS DESKTOP SUPPORT INTO ON-DEMAND MODEL (email this article)

AUSTIN, Texas, August 26, 2003 – Motive (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies), the leading provider of service management software, today introduced a set of lightweight desktop products that allow outsourcers, for the first time, to provide enterprises with electronic self-service and assisted support capabilities through an on-demand offering. By combining new versions of Motive's Desktop SmartSupport and SmartCall products, Motive is giving outsourcers the flexibility to price and deploy desktop support offerings based on customer choices, as well as provide highly competitive usage options that increase adoption and drive business value.

Electronic service has long promised to improve the economics of supporting end-user desktops, yet outsourcers have been saddled with low user adoption rates, high costs and increased complexity and business risk. Motive's latest Desktop SmartSupport product uses a lightweight client that reduces the complexity for outsourcers deploying, managing, synchronizing, and updating support for hundreds of thousands of desktops spread across multiple enterprise customers. It simultaneously offers a lower-risk usage and pricing model that provides competitive advantage for the outsourcer and improved flexibility for their customers. This is in stark contrast to traditional desktop support offerings, which rely on heavyweight agents and require customers to purchase large volumes of "seats" up-front.  Further, traditional approaches leave outsourcers financially exposed if customers do not purchase support offerings or fail to achieve the necessary user adoption to justify the promised economic returns.

Motive's desktop service offering also includes SmartCall, the industry's first application to automate telephone support to reduce the number of calls to live customer service representatives and average handle times. The fact that the telephone is still the primary method of delivering support is often overlooked by traditional electronic offerings. However, with Motive, outsourcers can now use a fully automated approach to troubleshooting and problem resolution. Together, SmartCall and Desktop SmartSupport allow outsourcers to impact 100 percent of their customers' end-users with one comprehensive service offering.   

"Our outsourcer customers have made their desktop support priorities clear to us," said Scott Abel, executive vice president at Motive. "They have asked us to help them reduce their customers' up-front commitment requirements, in terms of cost and deployment complexity. They have asked us to make it easier for their customers to realize value from support automation, regardless of service channel, and they have asked us to prove our commitment to them as a trustworthy partner. This new solution allows us to deliver on all three fronts."

On Demand Deployment
Leveraging advances in native end-point instrumentation, such as Microsoft's Windows Installer Service, Desktop SmartSupport now offers outsourcers a lightweight option readying desktop users for electronic support without requiring a large "footprint," constant updates, or frequent maintenance.  This means outsourcers can quickly scale their desktop support solutions to large numbers of desktops, or have the option to deploy support on an as-needed basis, through on-demand options, rather than mass updates with a large upfront investment.

"The Microsoft Windows Installer Service improves the manageability of Windows environments by enabling automated installation and un-installation of applications along with the ability to automatically repair damaged application installations," said Glenn Pereira, product manager in the Windows Server Group at Microsoft Corporation. "By using the Windows Installer Service to protect and repair applications, Desktop SmartSupport helps Motive address its customers' needs for a resilient, lower cost solution."

On Demand Use
Motive's Desktop SmartSupport and SmartCall can access centralized information from backend systems, such as knowledge bases and entitlement tools, to optimize the entire support process, regardless of whether communication is online or via telephone. In the past, companies have had limited success with electronic support solutions because end user adoption was low, and the telephone has remained the most common method for end users to submit service requests. With Motive's combination of online and phone call support, a company can expect to more than double adoption and automate the full cycle of support. Through both methods, outsourcers can deliver better service with decreased support costs and higher self-service rates, as well as shorter average handle times.   

On Demand Pricing
Since Motive's software gives outsourcers the agility to rapidly deploy desktop support services, those services can be priced on an as-used basis. This transforms existing desktop support business models that lock outsourcers into bulk pricing, allowing for new options to competitively price desktop support, particularly as competitors' outsourcing contracts come up for renewal.

Motive's enhanced desktop support offerings are available immediately. For more information, visit www.motive.com.

About Motive

Motive is the leading provider of service management software for Global 2000 businesses. The Motive Service Management Suite is the only solution that enables companies to manage process and technology ecosystems in a business-relevant way. Motive's patented technology and approach have been proven in more than 25 million implementations worldwide by market leaders such as 3Com, Bell Canada, BellSouth, British Telecommunications, cablecom, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Deutsche Telekom, EDS, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hyperion, Mercury Interactive, Microsoft Business Solutions, NTL, SBC Communications, Telewest, TELUS, Time Warner Cable, VERITAS Software, and Verizon. Motive was founded in May 1997 and is backed by leading venture capital firms and private investors. For more information, visit www.motive.com.


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