Pathworks Takes Web-Based Customer Support To The Next Level With Launch Of Helpstream

Unveils New On-Demand Collaborative Customer Support Solution at DEMO 08

PALM DESERT, Calif. – January 28, 2008 – Pathworks Software Corporation today unveiled Helpstream, the company’s flagship on-demand collaborative customer support solution, at the DEMO 08 conference. Taking web-enabled customer support solutions to the next level, Helpstream is the first on-demand application that tightly integrates all the essential elements of effective customer support, including case management, knowledge management, and community collaboration, into one easy-to-use, cost-effective solution. Designed from the ground up to offer users an unprecedented and highly-collaborative self service experience, Helpstream is breaking down the old barriers to achieving effective customer support.

Developed to meet the needs of mid to large-sized organizations struggling to provide cost-effective, high-quality support to their external or internal customers, Helpstream gives users everything they need for effective web-based customer support with zero entry cost. The standard Helpstream service is ad-supported and completely free. The solution can also be deployed rapidly due to its highly-intuitive user interface. Combined with an on-demand deployment model, the result is a quicker time to value and lower cost of ownership than any other customer support solution in the market.

"Our business is growing quickly and we really needed to track customer support activity to make sure customer needs are being handled efficiently,” said Doug Moeller, chief technology officer at Autonet Mobile. “Helpstream provides everything needed to deliver web-enabled customer support, all in one easy-to-use application, which saves our company valuable time and money and allows us to pass those savings along to our customers.”

Chris Shipley, industry pundit and executive producer of the DEMO conferences, states that “organizations with fast-growing customer bases and lower profit margins – the majority of web-based businesses today – require a cost-effective solution for providing high-quality, highly-collaborative customer support to their user communities. Helpstream addresses this glaring industry need and represents the next-step in the evolution of business process applications, combining elements of Software-as-a-Services with consumer applications and open source business models.”

Specific features of the Helpstream solution include:

Community collaboration – an innovative community Q&A feature that enables users (which can include company employees and business partners) to bring their issues to the user community and quickly receive solutions to their problems. In addition to being available by searching community answers, these solutions can be easily brought into the solutions knowledge base, reducing the workload on a company’s solution experts. Knowledge base solutions and community answers are both made available to customer support agents and web portal visitors alike.
Knowledge management – integrated features allow the easy creation and storage of a variety of content. Dimilar to a document content management system, Helpstream’s knowledge base stores multi-media files, text documents, PDF files, Adobe Flash files, and Helpstream’s own Interactive Checklist content.
Case management – powerful case management capabilities provide the business process automation required to effectively manage case workflow. A highly-advanced business rules engine, email integration, and integrated reporting capabilities give customer support organizations the necessary tools to effectively manage, monitor, and report against business objectives, including those related to community collaboration and self service.

“We are incredibly proud to have designed a powerful and highly-collaborative on-demand solution that uniquely meets the demanding needs of the customer support market,” said Anthony Nemelka, CEO, Pathworks Software. “By coupling years of customer support and help desk expertise with advanced Web 2.0 capabilities, we are able to offer customers the next generation of on-demand customer support applications that transform self service into a highly-collaborative experience for problem resolution. For the first time ever, organizations using Helpstream can reap the benefits of rapidly deploying an all-inclusive customer support application that solves their customer support needs for zero entry cost.”

Helpstream’s patent-pending Interactive Checklist technology brings deep visibility into the self service experience, allowing incident management processes to be tightly integrated with self service procedure execution. These easy-to-follow checklists guide people step-by-step through problem resolution instructions, while automatically tracking their progress. This feature lets agents turn practically any set of instructions into a self-service activity that can be performed by people of any experience level.

Helpstream is available immediately worldwide and supports all Unicode (multi-language) content. The user interface is currently available in English only. The standard Helpstream offering is ad-supported and absolutely free. RSS feeds and other unobtrusive ads help pay for the standard service and are kept out of the way so they don’t negatively impact productivity. Premium options include the removal of advertisements, contracted support, customized business rules, reports, and email response templates, and modifying the application user interface to match a customer’s web site.

About Pathworks Software Corporation

Pathworks Software Corporation, the provider of Helpstream, is leading the development of the next generation of customer support and help desk solutions. Designed as an enterprise-class SaaS solution and built for collaborative self service from the ground up, Helpstream allows organizations to quickly drive down support costs while increasing customer satisfaction. Pathworks has over 70 customers representing a variety of industries, including high tech, consumer electronics, government, healthcare, financial services and professional services. For more information, please visit www.helpstream.biz.

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Press Contact:
Kari Curto
Voce Communications
650-228-5167
kcurto@vocecommunications.com