Parature and Blackboard Incorporate Google into Customer Self-Support  (email this article)

MCLEAN, VA – January 4, 2005 - Parature (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies), provider of award winning, on demand customer support software, announced today that it has enabled customers of Blackboard, Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB), a leading provider of software and services to the education industry, to take advantage of Google Enterprise Search capabilities when receiving customer self service support. Integrating Google search functionality allows Blackboard customers to rapidly find the most relevant information to solve their individual questions, and receive comprehensive results in order of relevance, regardless of where the information is located in under 0.14 seconds.

“Investing in Parature and Google ensures that our customers have the best access to information to solve their issues, and makes their experience with Blackboard a positive one across the board,” said Jason Minkoff, Customer Support Manager, Blackboard, Inc. “By integrating Google with Parature we fully believe our clients’ support experience will be the best in the education marketplace.”

Results of a study by Jupiter Research1 showed that only eight percent of website visitors studied relied on search to find answers to their customer service questions, while 72 percent primarily used phone and e-mail. This initiative by Parature and Blackboard to incorporate Google search capabilities looks to reverse that trend for many reasons, one of which being analyst firm IDC’s2 study that found that companies save $30 each time a customer answers a support question online instead of utilizing a live customer service representative. An additional benefit of using Google search is that the service level agreements (SLA) with each customer are abided by. Each customer has access to Blackboard information based upon the SLA their organization has purchased, which is recorded within the customer user profile they log in with.

Even in instances where Blackboard customers need to speak with a live representative to get help, the Google search capabilities enable Blackboard support representatives to rapidly search internal resources such as listservs, the product engineering tracking system, yet-to-be-published knowledge base articles, as well as the previously mentioned locations to uncover answers to customer questions. This capability significantly increases the volume of support requests that Blackboard representatives can solve, as well as increasing the quality of the answers, and customer satisfaction levels, which grow as the time to resolve answers decreases.

“High quality search functionality has proven to be very important within Parature’s Customer Support Solutions, and we have realized how imperative it is to extend these capabilities to our customer’s whole enterprise,” said Duke Chung, CEO, Parature. “Incorporating the Google search functionality is a win-win for Blackboard and its customers, and we’re thrilled with the success of the initiative. Helping our customers become even more successful is our ultimate goal, and we’re looking forward to working with more Parature customers to achieve the same success Blackboard has attained.”

To learn more about how support organizations can achieve measurable success with Parature’s solutions, a case study on Blackboard’s customer support accomplishments is available at www.parature.com/case_study.aspx

Parature customers who would like details on this initiative at Blackboard may access Jason Minkoff’s presentation on the project from ParaFest ’05 and read this month’s ParaTrooper article authored by Mr. Minkoff on ParaUnity, Parature’s user community, at www.paraunity.com.

1 Search Technology: Resurrecting the Web’s Workhorse, Jupiter Media Metrix, November 2000
2 Unpuzzling Search: Best Practices from Mondosoft Study, IDC, August 2002

About Parature
Parature, the leader of online support software enables companies to improve their internal and external support, while reducing costs. Through its suite of modules, Parature allows companies to provide critical self-servicing information on a 24x7 basis via the web, resulting in reduction of inbound support load and therefore reducing support costs. Continually growing, Parature serves industry leaders such as Office Depot, ATI Technologies Inc. and Florida State University. For more information on the full features available in Parature, or to sign up for the FREE 30 Day Trial, please visit www.parature.com.

About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) is a leading provider of enterprise software applications and related services to the education industry. Founded in 1997, Blackboard enables educational innovations everywhere by connecting people and technology. With two product suites, the Blackboard Academic Suite and the Blackboard Commerce Suite(TM), Blackboard is used by millions of people at academic institutions around the globe, including colleges, universities, K-12 schools and other education providers, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve education providers and their students. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe and Asia. ###