Novo Solutions | Technology Talk
December 16, 2011 | 
Author What does your office staff chat about around the water cooler? Tebow? Politics? The economy?
Well call us geeks, but invariably when we start chit chatting at the Novo office the conversations almost always turn to technology. The excitement builds when a staff member tells of something new they have learned about. Like kindergartners at ‘show and tell’, new purchases are brought in for everyone to ‘ooh and ah’ over. Sales and buying tips are freely shared so anyone can join in.
And while it may seem all fun and games we almost always end up discussing a customer’s unique use of our software or a need in the marketplace. This kind of dialogue not only bonds departments together but spurs interdepartmental creativity. Support gives ideas to marketing, and sales gives ideas to accounting, etc. Great ideas for our software arise as we discuss new technology effects on consumers and businesses. These chats almost always end in some sci-fi type of invention one of us is going to create.
These commonplace chats remind us that the world is changing at a rapid pace. We as a company have ridden the technology changes of the past ten years and will continue in 2012 with more and improved support software offerings. We feel this coming year is going to be our best year ever. Keep an eye on us…. we’ll keep you posted!
Novo Solutions | ANNOUNCING…Version 4.8 – The Best Novo ever!
You spoke….we listened! We are pleased to deliver version 4.8 with many feature enhancements our clients have been asking for!
Here’s what’s new!
Company News: Central area that can be a Home Page +Search hub for your Knowledge Base
Article Comments: Blog style in line comments beneath selected articles so visitors can interact with each other on article content
Enhanced Article Feedback: Article Feedback and Voting enhancement that allows you to better track how well your support documentation is serving your customers
RSS Capability: RSS feeds allow customers to stay informed with the latest article posts.
Other Enhancements:
Core/General:
- Ability to Disable Admin Users
- Ability to reorder Custom Rules
- Ability to run custom timer rules on Date & Date/Time UDF’s
Knowledge Base:
- AJAX style auto complete search field on Home Page and Advanced search pages
- Normalize Cute default font and default.css content styles
- Ability to display Author &/or Editor
- Ability to change Authorship of an article
- Ability to enable a Captcha feature on Article Comments, Feedback and Questions
- Various Custom Rules Enhancements
- New Mailto Variables (Author; Editor; Group; etc.)
- Run Rules based on Editors
Help Desk:
- Memorized Ticket Scheduling Enhancement
- Ability to export viewcase.asp to excel
- Enhanced Assign Due Date and UDF action for custom rules
- Enhanced Ticket Search Enhancement
- Ability to Enable/Disable Automatic New Ticket Notifications
Assets:
- Add Asset UDF setting display on asset search
- Related Articles section on Add/Edit Asset.asp
- Status ordering for Assets
- View Paths for Locations (reports)
Reports:
- Ability to create a Report that shows all users that are subscribed to a particular article
- Ability to create a customer report that includes subscriptions
- Ability to report on Assets with related Articles and Visa-Versa
- Report on Included Articles
- View Paths for Categories and Asset Locations
Contact us for a free trial!
Did you ‘Novo it’ today?
Who would have thought we would be speaking words in the workplace such as “tweet’, ‘wiki’, ‘blog’, and ‘google’? Technology sure does wear a face of humor doesn’t it? I guess they are really no different than words of the past such as ‘Xerox’ and ‘Kleenex’, but they do have silly rings to them.
Take google for example. This company name has become a verb. How often have you heard (or said), “have you tried googling that”? Around here we say that a lot.
Imagine our delight when our customers tell us that they ‘novo’ at their workplaces. When they need to retrieve knowledge they will ask, ‘did you novo that’? That has become the term for looking for something in their Novo Knowledge Base.
Now we are not google, but we are happy that our software has become the mainstay of getting quick information for many organizations. This is what we have dreamed of since we developed our foundation knowledge base application.
So the question is, “have you novo-ed today”? If not please contact us and we will set you up with a free trial so you can try it out for yourself.
Wiki or Managed Knowledge Base – what’s right for you?
All of us know the value of accessible, stored knowledge. Not that long ago few of us used words like wiki or knowledge base, now they have become common words in our workplaces and in everyday life.
Many of us have learned the hard way that with knowledge comes responsibility. In order to be effective one has to build & maintain organizational knowledge to its end goal to be accurate, easy to access, &helpful. Organizing knowledge does not happen by itself – it has to be regularly managed.
Consider the wiki. Someone had the great idea that assembling knowledge could be a shared effort. Why not let people who may be experts contribute their knowledge so it can be shared with others? This would allow experts to play a part, and take the burden off management to be required to compose all of the desired information.
For many a wiki is a good solution, but it is not without its Problems.
Wiki submissions:
- Must be reviewed and/or approved for accuracy
- Must be reviewed and/or approved when edits are made
- May be subjective to the writer’s motivation
- May not provide a thorough answer
So for those who are counting on a wiki to be a big timesaver you may need to think again. There is still a significant time investment to manage a wiki.
For many organizations a knowledge base is still the best solution. Today’s new features, such as workflow automation makes article management easier than ever. Workflow automation:
- Offers the capability of defining workflows with various completion or approval paths.
- Empowers administrators to easily view pending task status, assignments, predecessor relationships & deadlines
- Email notifications can be automatically sent to the appropriate person or group when tasks are completed or rejected.
This flexibility allows management the ability to manage article creation through administrators’ and others as needed.
For information on the Novo Knowledge Base see http://www.novosolutions.com/knowledge-base-software/.
Posted in General, Knowledge Base | 
Tags: customer support, Customer Support Software, knowledge base, knowledge management, Novo Solutions | 
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IT Help Desk | Going Mobile?
You know that image you have of the typical company help desk? A ‘techy’ guy sitting behind a desk, answering calls to help people with their PC problems. Well according to the IDC that is changing rapidly. Tablet sales are booming and “The savvy IT organization today realizes that this trend is happening and that IT can lead, follow, or become road kill”, according to Bill Laberis, Senior Editorial Director, IDG Enterprise Custom Solutions Group. In fact it is projected that tablet sales will surpass PC sales this year, 2011.
So how will mobile technology change the everyday tasks for IT help desk personnel?
- As tablets are rapidly deployed into the workplace, help desk staff will need to maintain and support them. Both self help resources and help desk request tracking will need to include tablet management.
- Remote technicians themselves will become mobile users. Knowledge documents, protocol, even request management can be done via a tablet.
What are your organizations plans to go mobile? We would love to hear how tablets are being used in your environment!
For more information on the Novo Help Desk Software see: www.novosolutions.com/help-desk-software
Knowledge Base Software | Managing Your Company Data
Whether it is the beginning of your fiscal year or you are approaching year end, now is a great time to work towards managing your business goals. Organizing company-wide goals into a searchable, central knowledge repository is a great way to categorize and keep track of essential business data.
Beginning of year: Now is the time to layout goals for the year. From mission and vision statements to business plans to policies and procedures, having important information in an easy to access tool is vital. With a knowledge base you are able to easily add, edit and remove content; workflows allow you to automate reviews and approvals so correct information is always at hand.
End of Year: Managing company knowledge in to a single area is a great way to not only organize data so that everyone can see it, but also allows you bring everyone on board with goals of what needs to be done to finish well. You can review goals to see where you are, set end of year goals, and have valuable data on hand to set goals for next year. Automated review reminders will notify you to clean up outdated content to ensure company data is current and accurate.
Here are some examples of information that can be managed in a knowledge base:
- Mission/vision statements
- Company policies
- Human resource documents
- Business plans
- Security reviews
- Safety regulations
- Images, rss feeds, videos
- Searchable attachments: MS Word, Excel, pdf’s, etc.
For more information on the Novo Knowledge Base see: www.novosolutions.com/knowledge-base-software/
Posted in Knowledge Base | Tags: knowledge base, Knowledge Base Software, knowledge management, Novo Solutions | No Comments »
Get out of that ‘software’ rut!
We all do it! We purchase software that meets a need and use it to help us in our business or personal lives. Once our problem is solved and we are running along well we drive into that software rut. We simply do what we know how to do and nothing more. After all, who has the time to learn something new?
The same is true for a lot of our modern conveniences. Take our cell phones. I know mine can do a lot of things I do not use it for. While it may be true I do not ‘need’ to do everything I have at my fingertips, I could actually be losing time by not learning more of its features.
Many of us use software programs such as MS Outlook. Now I know it can do a gazillion things I don’t use it for. Every time I look at my coworkers desktop I think, “Are we using the same program”? I admit it is intimidating, but there is more power under the hood I am going to go after (one of these days)!
We find the same thing true here at the Novo office. People use our software to meet their daily needs and don’t realize all of the things it can do. We understand that is human nature. But we want to tell them there is so much more!
Each month here at Novo we send our customers techtip newsletters to tell them about application features they may not be aware of. It is so exciting when we get a call from someone who is able to solve a problem they have or just make their workday easier.
So let’s get out of that software rut! Open a help file or a manual and check out the contents of some of your software and take a look. I bet there’s a lot out there we are all missing.
For more information on the Novo suite of support software visit our website: www.novosolutions.com
Novo software…your port in the storm!
The past couple weeks have been eventful here in Virginia (our office is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia). First we had an earthquake – the first in our region in decades. Following that we had a hurricane. We are grateful to have fared well throughout the storms and pray our customers did as well.
All of this has us thinking about disaster preparedness. We just never know what sudden events can unexpectedly impact our homes and workplaces. When these events do hit we are grateful for the preparations we have done. In extreme circumstances planning can help to make sure you are able to maintain business continuity and at the very least help you return to ‘normal’ faster.
The Novo Knowledge Base is a great tool for documenting essential business knowledge. For example you may track:
- Emergency procedures
- Emergency contact information
- Ramp up procedures
- Employee information
- Provide a single, common place for employees to reference
The Novo Asset Manager will track your assets in the event of loss:
- Pictures of assets
- Serial numbers, locations, etc.
- Date of purchase, amount paid, etc.
And finally if you have damage and need to manage restoration issues the Novo Help Desk will allow you to:
- Track and organize requests
- Assign requests to the appropriate person/department
- Record status of requests
Best of all the software is web based, so you can access it from anywhere! If you would like more information on one of the modules above please give us a call at 757-687-6590.
Help Desk Software: An Effective Change Management Tool
If your organization is currently using a help desk software tool, such as the Novo Help Desk, did you know it can perform double duty as an effective change management tool?
Change Management facilitates the use of Best Practices for the efficient and prompt handling of all changes to your IT infrastructure. It allows you to:
- Effectively manage IT changes within your organization
- Ensure that standardized analysis, review & approval processes are followed
- Maintain the proper balance between the need for change and the potential detrimental impact of changes
- Test changes in controlled environments
An added benefit is the powerful reporting capabilities allowing you report and document changes.
To learn more about change management check out these videos.
Help Desk Software | Beyond the IT Help Desk
When you think of help desk software what comes to mind? Most people think of IT support personnel helping coworkers resolve issues, or customer support representatives providing internal or external support. Most of us do not think of the other helpful benefits of a help desk software system.
A question we ask people is, “What do you track”? Organizations track all sorts of things
such as:
- Projects
- Problems
- People/Issues
- Equipment
- And much more
What’s distressing is that many organizations track with inadequate tools. Some use manual methods as remedial as post it notes and paper, other use Excel, but because these tools are not intended for tracking they are very limiting. They miss the benefits of:
- Viewing and managing all issues at a glance by category, issue, priority, etc.
- Reporting
- Automated workflow task assignment
One of the things that we love around here is when our customers take their Novo software into other departments. Because of its flexible and secure permission controls each department can have its own data and reporting, ensuring their information is kept secure. They do not need to buy additional software; they simply purchase additional licenses for the added users. It’s that easy!
So we ask you, what do you track? Chances are it can be tracked better in a help desk request tracking system. If you are presently running the Novo Help Desk software in your company we encourage you to share it with other users. If you do not have the Novo Help Desk give us a call and we’ll set you up with a free trial!
More Information: www.novosolutions.com/help-desk-software/