Archived Webinars

These are a sampling of previous webinars we have had.  If you have any questions on these webinars please email us at info@smasystems.com.

Topic: 5 Reasons to Upgrade to HEAT 9.5 Now!
               (and learn how SMA can help you do it seamlessly!)

If you are a current HEAT user, learn why it will benefit you to upgrade to HEAT 9.5 and how SMA can help you do it easily and cost-effectively.

The webinar covered:

• The HEAT 9.5 release - new features and modules**

• Best Practices for a successful upgrade process

• How to “sell” an upgrade to your boss

• SMA HEAT Upgrade Packages

• Special Savings on Upgrades

**New features in HEAT 9.5:

• Redesigned HSS (HEAT Self Service) - Full Form Rule Support, Multiple Call Group Support, Journal Filtering, HEAT Board Subscriptions, Auto Tasks

• Email Enhancements

• UI Enhancements

• HEAT Messaging Center Enhancements

Also, new with HEAT 9:

• Web-based HEAT User Interface - major functionality of Call Logging through any browser

• HEAT Messaging Center - more powerful Auto Ticket Generator; automated process for creating and updating Call Records, Customer Records and Configuration Records from email, XML or text files, or Web Services

• Lotus/GroupWise Email Support

• More AutoTask Functions

Topic: SMART Reporting for HEAT Software

            Web/Email-Based Reporting Solution

You use HEAT to automate your service desk, why not let SMART automate your reporting?

Now you can easily deliver critical information throughout your organization with: SMA Report Toolkit (SMART) for HEAT.  SMA exclusively developed this powerful Web/email-based reporting tool for HEAT by utilizing Service Management Best Practices as the foundation, along with leveraging Microsoft SQL Reporting Services.

SMART for HEAT includes a Web console with access to a series of Best Practice reports, also designed by SMA. These parameter-driven reports provide graphs, charts and drill-down functionality that will deliver "real-time" information to support processes and drive management decisions. 

During this FREE webinar, SMA will host a live DEMO, demonstrate various SMART reports and discuss the following key features:

• Intuitive web interface
• Effortless export to Excel, PDF & other formats
• Immediate, cost-effective deployment
• Powerful analytics
• Report delivery, via email, with automated options
• Best practice pre-built reports
• Additional report creation and customization available

Topic: Online HEAT User Group, PLUS SMA Report Toolkit for HEAT

      
Online HEAT User Group
~ Latest, discovered technologies to help leverage your HEAT system ~

 Agenda:

• NEW!! Enhancements:  HEAT 9.5.1, HSS 9.5.1, HPK 9.5
• HEAT Messaging Center (HMC): Improving customer experience
• HEAT Upgrades: Best practices to follow
• HEAT Tips & Tricks: Improving navigation, leveraging automation and more
• HEAT Roadmap: Learn about the latest 2011 plans

plus....

SMA Report Toolkit (SMART) for HEAT
~ Powerful, easy to deploy, web/email-based reporting solution ~

Key Features:

• Intuitive web interface
• Effortless export to Excel, PDF & other formats
• Immediate, cost-effective deployment
• Powerful analytics
• Report delivery, via email, with automated options
• Best practice pre-built reports

Topic: Help Desk Reporting -- Quick & Easy!

Do you have access to ALL necessary information to make effective, proactive management decisions?  Do you believe more valuable time may be wasted, while constantly waiting or searching for high-quality help desk reports?

Unfortunately, many IT/help desk professionals are typically disappointed with their service desk reporting capabilities, as well as other operational applications.

SMA is listening!  Come experience potential solution options to finally receive effective reports, which may lead to ultimately achieving a successful help desk!

Join SMA for this insightful webinar, thoroughly detailing results-driven reporting solutions. In addition, witness a demo regarding easy-to-use, help desk-based best practices, with easy implementation at your organization including:

• Crystal Reports: Proven tool for help desks

• SMA Report Toolkit (SMART) for HEAT: Ad hoc web/email-based solution

• MS SQL Reporting Solutions:  Designed for IT service management

Topic: HEAT Help Desk - LIVE Tour 

Come experience how HEAT's capabilities can increase IT effectiveness, service productivity and overall customer satisfaction!

During this insightful webinar, observe a LIVE HEAT DEMO, along with an introductory review of the following value-added solutions:

• HEAT Plus Knowledge: knowledge management module that finds the information you need, exactly when you need it, regardless of its location or structure. ROI is achieved through fewer call escalations, more first call resolution rates and shorter call resolution times

• HEAT Self Service: web-based module that allows customers to solve their own support issues, leaving agents free to handle more complex issues

• HEAT Plus Mobile: interface for BlackBerry users that provides access to the HEAT console, tracking tools, customer data, assignments, data-logging functionality and more

• SMART for HEAT: web-based, parameter-driven report toolkit for HEAT that includes
  pre-built Best Practice reports which can be viewed over the web or emailed to your Inbox. Administrators can analyze trends, root cause, resource allocation and other metrics that are critical to call center management

Whether supporting customers, employees, vendors, and/or clients, HEAT is the ideal resource for superior, results-driven service & support.  HEAT Software continues to excel in dynamic, help/service desk solutions for corporate customer service & HR departments, as well as successfully achieving technology management requirements.

Topic: Maximizing ROI with IT Asset Management 

Topic:  Online HEAT User Group and SMART for HEAT- Sponsored by SMA

Topic:  HEAT Help Desk Software:  Live Demo and Q&A

Discover how HEAT Software can increase IT effectiveness, service productivity and customer satisfaction!

HEAT offers powerful tools for Customer Self Service, Web Access for Analysts, Knowledge Management, Asset Management, Business Process Automation...and more!

During this webinar you will see a LIVE demo of HEAT software, along with a review of what comes "out-of-the-box," as well as value-added solutions, including:

• HEAT Plus Knowledge: knowledge management module that finds the information you need, exactly when you need it, regardless of its location or structure.

• HEAT Self Service: web-based module that allows customers to solve their own support issues.

• HEAT Plus Mobile: interface for BlackBerry users that provides access to the HEAT console, tracking tools, customer data, assignments, data-logging functionality and more.

• SMART for HEAT: web-based, parameter-driven report toolkit for HEAT that includes
  pre-built Best Practice reports which can be viewed over the web or emailed to your Inbox.

See for yourself how HEAT Software can help your organization
be more productive and customer-focused!

Whether supporting customers, employees, vendors, and more, HEAT is the answer for higher value service.  HEAT provides an efficient service desk solution for the customer service department, human resources department, and/or technology management needs.

Topic:  What's New in HEAT 9.5 and HSS 9.5?

             Free Educational Customer Briefing

HEAT 9, through to the recent 9.5 release, includes many new features and modules which can expand the power of your HEAT system and help improve productivity. 

JUST RELEASED! - New HEAT 9.5 features include:

• Redesigned HSS (HEAT Self Service) - complete with: Full Form Rule Support, Multiple Call Group Support, Journal Filtering, HEAT Board Subscriptions, Executing Auto Tasks

• Email Enhancements

• UI Enhancements

• HEAT Messaging Center Enhancements

New HEAT 9 features include:

• Web-based HEAT User Interface - provides major functionality of Call Logging through any browser.

• HEAT Messaging Center - a new, more powerful Auto Ticket Generator; provides an automated process for creating and updating Call Records, Customer Records and Configuration Records from email, XML or text files, or using Web Services

• Lotus/GroupWise Email Support

• New AutoTask Functions

This webinar included an overview of these new features as well as a discussion on what should be considered during the upgrade process.  All current administrators, managers and users are encouraged to attend.

Is Your HEAT Complete?
Enhance and Expand Your HEAT System

The HEAT Service and Support family is a comprehensive service solution, combining core out-the-box technologies with a variety of expansion options.

Is your organization using HEAT to its fullest? Are you leveraging the automation and workflow features of HEAT's built-in tools?

Are other departments (facilities, HR, etc.) taking advantage of the HEAT solution?

Today, many organizations are faced with increasing end-user demands and technology complexities.  And some need to support their end users with fewer IT support personnel.

HEAT Software options can help you continue to provide high quality support!

Did you know HEAT could assist with...

• SMART Web-based Reporting for HEAT

• Asset Management

• Expanded Self Service

• Mobility for Technicians

• IP Telephony

• Expanding HEAT to other departments

Let SMA, the #1 HEAT Solution Provider,
help you receive a greater ROI on HEAT!

Interactive Dashboards with Xcelsius
Easy-to-Use Software to Help Make Business Decisions

With Xcelsius interactive dashboards you can share analytics over the web or across the enterprise in a scalable, secure environment.

During this free webinar we discussed the benefits of Xcelsius interactive dashboards and demonstrated how you can transform dry spreadsheets into visually-appealing charts and
graphs - the sort of information you and your colleagues can easily manipulate, share and discuss. 

We presented stunning visual displays of data and metrics on interactive dashboards for
IT service management, sales and other functions that are critical in today's business environment, all using SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius software.

Xcelsius is a dynamic, customizable data visualization software that enables users of different skill levels to create insightful and engaging dashboards from any data source with point-and-click ease.

Use business intelligence (BI) and reporting like this to assess and improve your organization's performance.

What's New in FrontRange Discovery 9

FrontRange Solutions recently announced the latest version of FrontRange (Centennial) Discovery, version 9.  The Discovery 9 release has added a great number of enhancements!  Some of the new features that were discussed on this webinar included:

• Discovery and audit of virtual IT assets

• Auditing of Thin Client hardware & applications

• New audit platforms

• New server platforms

• Greynet Software Reporting

• Improved ability to audit & communicate across corporate networks

Voice Self-Service for the IT Help Desk

Improve Efficiency AND Lower Costs

Using FrontRange Voice technology, help desk agents can now get help from a Voice system to accelerate problem resolution, and callers get better service with less time on
the phone.

Integrated IP telephony greets callers with automated prompts for intelligent call routing.  Routine requests can be handled automatically with menu-driven self-help and automated password resets.  The platform is scalable, flexible and cost-effective. 

FrontRange's voice self-service technology can be integrated with the HEAT help desk and FrontRange ITSM software, and can be used as a stand alone solution as well.

During this webinar a live demo was performed and there was a presentation on the business value of FrontRange’s voice self-service, such as:

§         Fulfill password reset without involving an agent

§         Improve incident management and problem resolution while lowering costs

§         Automate ticket creation, status updates and ticket closure

§         Free agents to resolve more complex issues

§         Enhance customer experience

§         Address increased audit requirements

Voice self-service delivers an entire series of new voice-enabled, self-service capabilities for your service desk to help contain costs, improve efficiency and increase customer satisfaction.

Reporting and Interactive Dashboards for IT
Get the reports you need to manage your IT operations!

Many IT professionals are unhappy with the reporting capabilities of their service desk and other operational applications.

If you are like many of these professionals, you may be looking for:

• Reports that track & measure IT performance using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• The ability to evaluate current performance based on historical information
  & key success metrics

• Interactive dashboards that enable what-if analysis & illustrate the potential impact of new strategies

• Easy access to reports & dashboards in a web browser and through automatic email distribution

During this webinar we discussed and demonstrated exciting, easy-to-use IT reporting solutions based on best practices, including web and email-based reporting and interactive dashboards, that you can easily implement in your own organization.

Empower Your Service Desk with HEAT!

Explore how HEAT can increase IT effectiveness, service productivity and customer satisfaction!

During this webinar, attendees discovered what HEAT Software has to offer and saw through live examples how HEAT can empower your service desk operations.

They learned how to become more productive and customer-focused within the organization by automating the service desk's core functions: Incident, Problem, Change and Service Level Management.  The presentation talked about customer retention, as well as how to streamline your support process to keep IT costs down.

During the webinar we also discussed HEAT's additional capabilities, including:

• Asset Management

• Knowledge Management

• Web Access

• 24-hour Self Service for Customers & End Users

• Reporting Solutions to Track Key IT Metrics

Whether supporting customers, employees, vendors, and more, HEAT is the answer for higher value service.  HEAT provides an efficient service desk solution for the customer service department, human resources department, and/or technology management needs.

Assessing the Performance of IT Service Management Operations

As technology changes and becomes more and more complex, the ability to provide world-class service and support to those who use it is more relevant than ever before. 
IT Service Management is the key component in addressing these needs.  Your organization may have different needs than others, perhaps even different from your competitors, but they are needs that should be addressed with the right procedures and technologies.

Uncontrolled changes to the IT infrastructure can result in increased downtime, reduced employee productivity and efficiency, increased costs, and poor customer service. 
IT Change Management allows you to control the impact of changes on your IT infrastructure. 

During this webinar we discussed best practices for managing service desk operations.

Using IT Asset Management to Increase Your ROI

IT Asset Management allows you to comprehensively manage and track all the IT assets in your enterprise.  With a complete view of your IT inventory, you improve customer service, corporate productivity and drive down IT costs.

Every organization requires an IT asset management program, whether to simply get a

handle on what you own and where it is located, to meet new demands, or to meet audit or compliance-related regulations.

During this webinar we discussed how you can:

• Better budget for hardware & software upgrades

• Save money on future software purchases

• Avoid costly compliance audit risks

• Track down & manage all IT assets with ease

• Reduce internal support costs

• ...and much more!

Implementing an IT asset management program provides your organization with a number of benefits, including creating the needed baseline for determining what you have, where you can create efficiencies, and how you can meet compliance requirements.

A New FrontRange Winning Combination! HEAT Plus Centennial

Looking for the most comprehensive IT Solution on the market?
 

FrontRange Solutions' HEAT Service and Support offers powerful tools for Customer Self Service, Web Access for Analysts, Knowledge Management, Business Process Automation...and more! HEAT provides an ideal combination of ease of use, advanced features and customizability to IT help desk professionals and the people they support. 

And now, Centennial Discovery, the latest IT asset tool from FrontRange, optimizes the HEAT suite even further, providing you with the most comprehensive IT solution in the market today.  The award-winning Centennial Discovery software includes auto-discovery, inventory management, and license management solutions.

During this free webinar, we discussed how to use these two products in tandem and  bring out the best in them!

Increase Your Help Desk ROI with Mobility, Knowledge & Reporting

Are you looking to get more out of your Help Desk system?

SMA hosted a webinar on how to increase the return on investment on your Help Desk system by integrating products that provide you with mobility, knowledge and reporting solutions.

MOBILITY SOLUTIONS FOR HELP DESK SOFTWARE

The value of interacting with critical enterprise data within the help desk system when

employees are away from their desks and in the field is motivating organizations to roll

out tools for mobile interaction with service management applications.  We discussed and presented tools that bridge the "gap" between employees and their IT service management system, such as access to your help desk system via mobile phone browsers.

Benefits of Help Desk Mobility

• Decrease Critical Asset Downtime

• Reduce Help Desk Costs

• Improve Service Levels

• Lower Hardware Expenses

• Management of Entire IT Infrastructure

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS FOR HELP DESK SOFTWARE

Knowledge management can provide important benefits to an organization's support

function.  Organizations need to focus on fully leveraging their existing information assets and subject-matter experts to best take advantage of the knowledge that exists and new knowledge that can be created within the help desk system.  We discussed and presented knowledge management tools that increase productivity and improve customer service, and ensure compliance with policies and other operational efficiencies.

Benefits of Help Desk Knowledge Management

• Minimize Call Escalations

• Improve Customer Service

• Increase Employee Productivity

• Reduce Calls to the Help Desk

• Improve First Call Resolution Rates

• Shorten Call Resolution Times

REPORTING SOLUTIONS FOR HELP DESK SOFTWARE

Having access to all the information you need in help desk to make effective, proactive management decisions is very important.  Organizations need to be able to leverage data collected at support centers to analyze trends, root cause, resource allocation and other metrics that are critical to call center management.  We discussed and presented reporting tools that show you parameter driven reports that can provide graphs, charts and

drill-down functionality that deliver real-time information.

Benefits of Help Desk Reporting

• Real-time Information Via Web or Email

• Intuitive Graphs & Charts to Drive Decisions

• Pre-built Best Practice Reports for Management

• Cost Effective Organizational & Planning Tool

SMA has selected these 3 topics because of the positive impact they can have on your support function.  Taken individually or together, they can improve the service you provide to users and your own productivity.

Dollars and $ense: Building a Business Case for a Software Asset Management (SAM) Program

How do you present a business case to your management for implementing a Software Asset Management (SAM) program? 

In this webinar, SMA and SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association) explained how.

We discussed the Risks of being audited for software license compliance, including:

• the likelihood that your organization will receive an audit

• what the audit process is like to go through and how it can burden your organization and your staff, and

• the impact on your organization for being out of software license compliance
  (financial penalties, etc)

We discussed the Benefits of having a software asset management program in place before you are audited and we showed examples of how a SAM program can:

• save your company money in more ways than just avoiding compliance penalties

• provide more efficient IT support

• improve financial and IT planning for future software needs, and

• assure lawful abiding of your software license contracts

Following the Risks/Benefits analysis, we demonstrated tools that can be used to easily implement a SAM program at your organization.

IT Asset Management (ITAM):  Strategies to Manage Technology Transition and Change

Luckily, there are IT asset management solutions that can help you smooth the transition and manage changes.  Best-in-class tools provide a complete audit across the network so you can understand the exact status of installed hardware and software, making it easier
to avoid potential project pitfalls, avoid costs, and realize cost savings.

During this webinar we discussed best practices and demonstrated how tools can help you improve ITAM in your organization. 

The following was highlighted:

• Seeing exactly what hardware on your network is ready for new system installs
  and which need memory or hard-drive upgrades, or which machines need to be
  swapped-our for new;
• Providing a full audit of installed software, which makes it easy to highlight which applications are not supported by new operating systems and thus need replacement or upgrading;
• Tracking all assets and their locations - PCs and all IP-addressable hardware, including servers, workstations, laptops and other network devices, so you can easily implement necessary changes;
• Calculating and forecasting upgrade or replacement cost of getting your IT estate ready with software project management wizards;
• Tracking project progress of your applications rollout with real-time monitoring of which machines, departments or locations have been successfully upgraded and which have not;
• Integrating your ITAM solution with your help desk or service center software to improve service, productivity, and provide management reporting.

Maximizing Service Management with HEAT
 

Looking for the latest Service Management Solution that can help your entire organization be more productive and customer-focused?
 

FrontRange Solutions' HEAT Service and Support offers powerful tools for Customer Self Service, Web Access for Analysts, Knowledge Management, Asset Management,

Business Process Automation...and more!

During this webinar we discussed how to leverage automation in your help desk or support center and save your company money. 

We discussed:

• Leveraging technology to align procedures to Best Practice frameworks,
  such as ITIL

• Optimizing your call tracking system to be more responsive to your customers.

• Asset management to support your customer in a more accurate and timely manner.

• An effective knowledge management environment including the use of your organization's existing knowledge.

• Tools to measure trends, root causes and recurring issues that need to be addressed.

• Information that will empower you to make proactive decisions and enhance support processes.

Best Practices in IT Asset Discovery & Management

Using practical, "how to" examples, we demonstrated how you can easily and quickly implement best practices for IT Asset Discovery and Management.

We discussed:

• The IT Audit:  Know what you own on your network

• Software Compliance:  Assess your current software licensing risk

• Asset Location Mapping:  Know exactly where your IT assets are located

• Change Management:  Track changes in hardware and software with real time technology

• IT Inventory Control:  Predict the costs and impact of changes to technology assets

• IT ROI:  Optimize IT network assets and measure software usage

• Help Desk Integration:  Leverage IT asset management to improve service delivery and efficiency

Learn more about IT Asset Management and Centennial Discovery, a solution for today's demanding IT asset discovery, auditing and management requirements.
 

How to Assess Your IT Operation Using ITIL Best Practices:
A 5 Step Approach

Featured in this webinar was SMA's "5 Step Approach to IT Service Management." 
Using a five step process, SMA evaluated a company's IT service management
operation and developed a strategy to change current or implement new processes
based on best practices, ITIL and the organization's business needs.

The five steps that were covered in the webinar were:

• Project Initiation: understand the benefits of ITIL best practices & why they should be adopted

• Structured Interviews: develop a baseline for assessing current IT service management operations

• Observation and Data Collection: gather data to identify your organization’s current conformance with ITIL best practices

• Gap Analysis: target areas (“gaps”) you should address to improve overall process capability

• Development of a Strategic Action Plan: develop an action plan to better
  align the IT service management function with ITIL processes

This webinar presented:

• Methodologies to understand customers’ IT requirements

• Guidelines on meeting business needs through the delivery of IT services

• Techniques to improve the return on IT investments and improve the utilization
  of resources

• Approaches to enhance customer satisfaction with the IT support center

"Even with advances in support technologies, organizations are finding
it difficult to deliver the expected services on time and within budget.
In many cases, support processes need to be re-evaluated and
even re-engineered to effectively meet the requirements
of today’s customer-centric organization." 

Learn more about SMA's 5-Step Approach.

SMART for HEAT
Web and Email-Based Report Toolkit

Looking for powerful, easy to deploy web and email reports for HEAT?

Now you can easily deliver critical information throughout your organization with SMART, SMA Report Toolkit for HEAT.   SMA has developed this powerful web-based reporting solution for HEAT by using Service Management Best Practices as the foundation and by leveraging Microsoft SQL Reporting Services.

SMART for HEAT includes a Web console with access to a series of Best Practice reports, designed by SMA. These parameter driven reports can provide graphs, charts and drill-down functionality that deliver real-time information to support processes and drive decisions.

During this FREE webinar we demonstrated several of the reports and their
key features:

 

·          Intuitive Web interface

·          Easy export to Excel, PDF and other formats

·          Fast, cost-effective deployment

·          Powerful analytics

·          Report delivery via email, easy and automated

·          Best Practice pre-built reports

·          Additional report creation and customization available

SMA has leveraged its 20 years of experience and created this series of Service Management reports that will provide a solid base for reporting, monitoring and
analyzing support processes.  Additionally, SMA can assist in creating custom reports
to complement those provided.

Learn more about SMART.
 

During this Webinar we discussed the issues (a.k.a. “Headaches”) that presently face support teams in many Universities and Colleges.  We de-mystified the ITIL theory and helped to relate its more complex methodology to daily use terminology.  Before closing, demonstrations of industry-defined “Best-in-class” tools were given. 

SMA specializes in delivering technology solutions to Colleges and Universities.  We have provided products, services and information systems planning to support their unique requirements. Learn more about our experience with Higher Education clients.

Is Your Support Center World Class?
Software tools for Call Management, Knowledge Management
and Management Reporting

In order for your service and support team to be successful, they need a powerful automated solution that tracks issues and resolves them rapidly and efficiently.  Management needs to have the right reporting tools to measure performance and costs.

At this webinar we demonstrated how best-in-class software solution HEAT Service & Support, along with HEAT Plus Knowledge, HEAT Self Service, HEAT Asset Tracker and HEAT Plus Remote Support, can be used to manage essential support center processes.

Call Management
We discussed how to:

• Evaluate your current environment and optimize your call tracking system to be more responsive to your customers.

• Effectively manage service levels, improve support through automated processes, and provide customer with self-help options.

• Use asset management to support your customer in a more accurate and timely manner.

Knowledge Management
We discussed how to:

• Utilize tools that work seamlessly with your incident tracking systems.
• Use proven industry solutions to support your customers.
• Design an effective knowledge management environment including the use of
  your organization's existing knowledge.

Management Reporting
We discussed how to:

• Use tools to measure trends, root causes and recurring issues that need to be addressed.
• Quantify staffing levels, training requirements and costs.
• Collect information that will empower you to make proactive decisions and
  enhance support processes.

We demonstrated how an affordable, effective solution is critical to building and taking control of today's help desk and call center.  Learn more about HEAT.

What to Look for in an IT Service Management Application

How do you determine if an IT Service Management Application provides an optimal solution for your company? 

During this webinar we discussed the key features that one should look into when determining the right application for the organization.

Some of the issues we discussed are how to:

• Assess your requirements and IT service levels
• Evaluate the needs of your end users
• Assess the requirements for automation
• Evaluate an application's capabilities (e.g. root cause resolution, managing hardware and software assets and infrastructure, handling planned and
  unplanned change, knowledge management)
• Prepare management reports
• Analyze ROI

Learn more about HEAT.