UniPress Announces New FootPrints Service Desk & Change Management (email this article)

Edison, NJ (August 16, 2005) – UniPress® Software (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies), Inc., a leading mid-market provider of web-based service desk automation software, today unveiled FootPrints® 7.0, the next-generation version of its award-winning service desk product line and services. Widely used by more than 2,000 organizations, FootPrints offers a 100% web-based platform to automate help desk and customer support operations, as well as other business-critical processes. FootPrints 7.0 includes numerous enhancements, a new change management module, integration with sales automation components of leading CRM tools, and additional support with leading IT asset inventory solutions. All versions of FootPrints software – FootPrints, FootPrints for eService, the FootPrints Hosting Service, and FootPrints for Exchange – are now available in version 7.0.

FootPrints gives help desks, customer service departments, IT, and other management teams a web-based platform to centrally track and manage issues of all types, requests, and projects. The new version is designed to empower organizations to create more advanced workflows, introduce greater controls in the service management process, support industry best practices, and further integrate “FootPrints-powered” service desks with other critical systems. It provides a range of tools and capabilities all focused around improving agent productivity, reducing costs, and delivering world-class service and support.

FootPrints 7.0
New features and major enhancements in FootPrints 7.0 include the ability to customize the service desk with “field level” permissions by role and status, create master company or organization contact records to quickly pre-populate trouble-tickets, and a new XML/SOAP interface that makes it easy for organizations to integrate and link other third-party applications. Other features include secure email capabilities, a new agent flashboard, an enhanced scheduling and availability matrix, more comprehensive escalations, additional project templates for training and resource management, and expanded reporting options.

New Change Management Module
A major advance in FootPrints 7.0 is the new FootPrints Change Management add-on module which is a customizable rules-based workflow and reporting engine to manage all types of change requests without requiring programming. This module includes an approval and voting process to automate different phases of a change request, and provides comprehensive reporting on all change processes. It is ideal for managing all types of IT change request, as well as compliance tracking related to Sarbanes-Oxley, HiPAA, 21-CFR Part 11 (pharmaceutical tracking), and other business process/change management needs.

Expanded Integrations With Leading Solutions Enabling organizations to deploy best-of-breed service and support systems, FootPrints 7.0 offers out-of-the box integration options with sales components of existing third-party CRM tools and applications through the use of the FootPrints CRM Bridge®. This capability provides a dynamic link to share and access customer sales and service information on a two-way basis between FootPrints-powered service desks and the sales automation component of leading CRM products, such as Microsoft® CRM, Salesforce.com®, and Salesnet’s® hosted sales automation solution. This is an ideal tool to help service and support teams facilitate support calls, and to help sales teams close prospective deals and uncover possible sales opportunities. Additionally, the FootPrints Integration with LANDesk® Inventory Manager® provides help desks with comprehensive IT asset management functionality to more quickly troubleshoot and resolve technical problems. This integration expands upon UniPress’ already available IT asset management solutions.

“Leveraging the knowledge we gained from our 2,000-plus customer base, the new FootPrints 7.0 delivers a broad range of features and capabilities to help organizations of all sizes deliver responsive service and support to internal and external audiences,” said Mark Krieger, President of UniPress Software. “We see the centralized, web-based service desk continue to be a strategic tool for organizations to manage employee and customer support, and this new version provides a variety of features and enhancements to streamline processes, reduce costs, and manage service levels more effectively.”

FootPrints provides a centralized problem and incident tracking system that manages requests received from multiple channels, including phone, email, chat, the web, and wireless devices. It includes built-in self-service online, knowledge management, comprehensive workflow and business rule automation, two-way email management, service level management, and comprehensive reporting all within a fully-customizable web-based platform that requires no programming to configure, manage, and customize.

FootPrints’ signature ease-of-use, fast implementation, and ability to create multiple, separately partitioned project databases for a range of business activities gives organizations the flexibility to expand their service desk initiatives as needs change.

Additional FootPrints 7.0 Features & Enhancements
· Increased Performance and Scalability with Mod_Perl: FootPrints 7.0 offers significantly improved performance and speed when a large number of agents are using the system. Mod_Perl versions are now available for UNIX® and Linux® platforms. Microsoft Windows versions will follow in Q4 2005.
· Agent Workflow Enhancements: Organizations can use the built-in FootPrints calendar to support multiple shifts and flexible agent schedules, easily set up SLAs by priority, create user-definable quick descriptions, and automatically generate time/date/user stamps when using “Internal Notes” field.
· Escalation Enhancements: FootPrints now offers customizable email templates for escalations, and allows users to create subtasks from an escalation, and implement new escalation actions to update custom fields.
· Security Audit Trail: Transaction details can be logged to a secure audit file, giving a thorough description of “who/what/when.”
· Project Administration Enhancements: Managers and administrators can track and manage resource and training activities with new built-in project templates for Resource and Training management. Colors can be customized for each FootPrints project. Multiple dynamic SQL field lookups can be automatically cascaded from a single lookup.
· Time Tracking Enhancements: FootPrints now offers the ability to record comments for time tracking entries, giving organizations more control over who views time tracking and billing information by administering permission to access the information; and choosing enter start and end times with auto-calculation of time spent on issues.
· Reporting Enhancements: Agents can now create and customize their own agent flashboards. Organizations can easily save and auto-run metric reports to quantify performance, trends, etc.; report the issue history in a customer report.

FootPrints 7.0 is now available across the entire line of the 100% web-based service desk tracking and automation software, including FootPrints, FootPrints for eService, the FootPrints Hosting Service and FootPrints for Exchange.

Pricing & Availability
Available today, a three-agent starter pack for FootPrints 7.0 technology remains priced at $3,995. Pricing for the FootPrints Change Management add-on module starts at $2,995 for up to 8 agents. Volume, concurrent user, and site license pricing options are also available. UniPress provides discounts for educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. FootPrints technology is available on the GSA schedule under contract number GS-35F-0391L. Contact UniPress for additional product and pricing information at 732-287-2100.

About UniPress Software, Inc.
Headquartered in Edison, New Jersey, UniPress Software, Inc. is a developer of web-based service desk automation software serving the mid-market, as well as large and small organizations. The company’s FootPrints® product line, launched in 1996, provides a comprehensive range of capabilities to significantly improve help desk and customer support operations, and is used worldwide by over 2,000 corporate organizations, government offices, and educational institutions, including Prudential Financial®, BHP Billiton® Petroleum, IBM®, Kampgrounds of America, Hunter Fan Company®, the IRS, and the University of Pennsylvania. UniPress software develops and markets FootPrints software, available in numerous versions, along with add-on tools and best of breed integrations. The company also offers a complete line of product and best practices training courses and professional services. For more information, contact UniPress Software at 1-800-222-0550, or via the web at http://www.unipress.com.

UniPress® Software and FootPrints® are Registered Trademarks of UniPress Software, Inc.