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SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS are rushing in to help resellers and service providers meet shifting customer-support needs.
Among the crop of vendors are ServiceSoft Corp., with its Internet-based self-support application; and Opis Corp., a developer of computer-telephony-integration products.
ServiceSoft's top products are Web Advisor and Knowledge Builder, which let companies build Internet-based technical support systems.
Visitors to a Web or corporate intranet site can solve their own problems through a question-and-answer series posed by Web Advisor. The questions posed and solutions given by Web Advisor are based on knowledge bases of information obtained from experts and stored in the Knowledge Builder application.
Ultranet Communications Inc., an Internet-service provider (ISP) based in Marlboro, Mass., uses ServiceSoft's products on its Web site to automate its most frequently asked customer questions, thereby reducing calls to its telephone support center.
Initially focused on direct marketers and ISPs, ServiceSoft signed its first VAR last month and plans to form more partnerships with OEMs and VARs in upcoming months, said Keith Loris, vice president of development at ServiceSoft, Needham, Mass.
"We want to grow, and it's not going to happen if we sell direct solely," Loris said. "VAR relationships are a natural progression for us, an...