PhaseWare is part of the answer to Vince Kellen's "Fourth Age"

Vince Kellen, of the Cutter Consortium, blogged June 7 about a "Fourth Age" in the evolution of organizational structure. The first three evolutions encompassed the changes from owners controlling their organizations themselves to the military type top-down organizational structure to today's structure that is becoming flatter and is less manager-employee oriented; instead it is powered by individual contributors known as "information-based knowledge specialists".

The Third Age organization, as illustrated by Mr. Kellen, is cross-functional in nature. Presumably knowledge sharing comes along with it. Unfortunately it seems we haven't quite embraced this type of structure due to several issues, including the need to share information over distances. But we are getting there and as we become more decentralized, more highly connected through currently available technology we can start to move to that Fourth Age.

One aspect of that fourth age is beginning to appear. A rapidly growing component to many customer support and help desk solutions is the self service center and the web portal for mobile employees. The self service component can contain forums for customers and agents to interact, knowledge bases open to customers and agents to answer questions about common issues and operational techniques, even ways for customers to log their own trouble tickets without going through a phone agent, telling their story, and the details being input by a third party. The portal for mobile employees allows agents who are not locally based or who are in continuous movement to access the customer support system just as though they were in the office.

PhaseWare's Self Service Center and TechWeb components contain all of these functions and are easily integrated into the Tracker and Event Engine system which, in turn, is readily integrated into supporting systems such as e-mail solutions and databases. The collaborative tools of today's information technology, just like social networking, have made possible a truly decentralized business that is efficient and cohesive without losing all human contact. These technologies bring customers and business together in a way never before possible. With careful deployment, the customer can partner with business rather than simply consume a business' output or await resolutions for issues without any knowledge of their status. Remote agents can come together and access the same information as those who are at an office computer. Resources are used more efficiently which increases the ROI of the systems that make this cultural change possible within a company.

With multiple channels of contact, business and customer come closer together with the convenience of technology without wasting time and money. PhaseWare, Inc. is a place to start.