EarthLink Business Launches Outsourced Help Desk

EarthLink Inc. announced Thursday the launch of EarthLink TechCare, a fully managed outsourced help desk and the next offer in its new line of EarthLink Business IT Services, launched in April.

EarthLink TechCare is a customized offering fully integrated into the customer’s IT environment. EarthLink’s North America-based, certified professionals resolve end-user technology challenges by answering live calls and providing a knowledgeable and courteous experience for the client’s users.  Clients can select from a menu of components or add unique support elements as needed. These include support of any end-user device, VIP support levels, online reporting tools, trouble-ticketing system, 24/7 or 9/5 options, client satisfaction reports and ITIL best practices. EarthLink documents the business IT environment (networks, devices, printers, partners, applications, peripherals, VIPs) and helps define escalation thresholds and processes for third party vendors, and ensure a seamless handoff for end-users.

Customers have access to a Web-based portal to view the historical record of all logged calls and ACD (Automated Call Distribution) statistics that measure performance based on average call length, average speed of answer and number/percentage of calls answered.

The service was implemented internally to support its sales organization. Current service-level metrics indicate 70 percent of calls reach a live person in less than 30 seconds; on average, calls reach a live person in less than 60 seconds and 70 percent of issues are resolved and closed on the first call.

“Following our May launch of Cloud Workspace, a hosted desktop and virtualization application service, EarthLink TechCare further empowers our clients to achieve their business objectives by expanding their IT capabilities without adding IT staff,” said Michael Toplisek, who joined EarthLink Business in May as its executive vice president of IT Services. “Many businesses today spend a high percentage of their IT resources on routine maintenance and support activities.  EarthLink TechCare provides the help-desk functionality to keep internal users productive without consuming internal IT resources. This solution can significantly reduce the cost of providing help desk support compared to an in-house service, and enables IT staff to focus on more strategic revenue-generating initiatives.”