Support.com Releases Upgrade to Technical Support Information-Gathering Technology

Support.com, provider of IT support infrastructure software, will release the newest version of its eSupport suite on August 14.

The company went public on July 19 and is now listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Representatives from Support.com could not comment on the new release, as they had to abide by the rules of its SEC-mandated "quiet period." Clients of Support.com include Fidelity Investments, Chase and Bear Stearns.

The updated version contains a new technology, termed "Smart Issue," that collects information from end users and transmits it over the Internet to help-technicians working for the specific company. The software does not seek to replace a company's existing technical support center, but rather to facilitate the fix process through automated information gathering and, in some cases, fully automated solutions. But that information gathering has some Support.com customers worried about security issues, according to Renee Woo, research associate with the Giga Information Group.

"Along with this eSupport technology that Support.com has are agents that sit on your desktop that collect information about your system and take all that information and pass it onto the help desk-through the Internet-companies have concerns about how secure this is. This is company data," says Woo.

The name for the patented data-collection software is the DNA Probe. The probe functions much like a search engine or a Web crawler that goes out over the Internet and records the standard blueprints for an application-the system can then automatically identify and fix anomalies identified in a user's version of that application when they occur. The probe can also accesses account information so users can be provided with more personalized solutions and advice when they request assistance, either for a technical or general issue.

The software also gives in-house company technicians the ability to remotely service a user's computer-something especially useful for firms that may have external clients trading on their system. Instead of asking the user to perform numerous steps in an effort to identify the problem, technicians can take over the screen and resolve issues much more quickly.

Sources familiar with the product say that in the new economy, when more and more essential company processes are being fully automated and Web based, support systems must follow corporations onto the Web or risk becoming as obsolete as old legacy systems. Woo says, "The fact that it's Internet-based means that you don't have to call a support desk to solve a problem. You can go to the Internet support portal and, through a knowledge-based searching capability, you can find an answer to your problems, and if you can't find it, you can create a case and it gets escalated to a support technician without everhaving to pick up the phone."

Both the eSupport suite and DNA probe are written in C++ and function on all versions of the Windows Operating System. A company wishing to employ the software would download the suite to their company server, either by obtaining a set of CDs through Support.com or access it electronically through a file transfer protocol (FTP) and pay a monthly or yearly licensing fee. The company's IT department would then download the Internet-based software, making it easy to update to their in-house and remote workstations. Support.com provides a "train the trainer" program to prepare in-house IT staffs to work with their customers.

Support.com signed up 13 new customers in the first quarter of this year bringing the total to more than 30. Those clients include Chase, Bear Stearns and Fidelity Investments.