VIRGINIA BEACH, VA--(Marketwired - Jan 28, 2014) - IssueTrak, a global leader in providing software for tracking business operations released findings from a survey of senior purchasing, IT and HR executives showing that organizations of all sizes increasingly rely on software for tracking issues departmentally and across the enterprise to improve productivity and cost containment, especially during challenging economic times when resources constraints are high.
Responses indicated that IT help desk and customer service and support remain key functions for which operations, processes and issues tracking solutions provide vital support. The survey also found that users increasingly turn to these solutions for general issue tracking outside of traditional help desk scenarios: 43 percent of survey participants noted that they use their issue tracking software in three or more departments in their organizations. Tracking software is also used more often to support change management (23 percent) and process management (23percent).
"The survey confirms that our technology is used more widely across existing organizations and gaining new ground in unexpected areas in addition to its traditional help desk and customer support use," said Hank Luhring, founder and CEO at IssueTrak. "The responses underscore the increasingly urgent need for businesses to achieve tangible return on investment from business operations technology to help them overcome challenging economic and business circumstances."
Issues Tracking Beyond Traditional Help Desk and Customer Service Provides Strategic Value
Responses to the survey, which was conducted in Q4 2013, were drawn from issue tracking software users at varying levels of seniority across multiple departments and disciplines in organizations ranging from less than a hundred to more than a thousand employees. These organizations cut across a broad spectrum of industries and for the first time included users outside the traditional scope of business issue tracking, such as cruise lines, restaurant chains and fitness centers.
"Customer satisfaction is absolutely key to my business," said Hajna Moss Fishborne, co-owner of Bilancio Luxury Management, a provider of management services for fitness centers and an IssueTrak user. "Issue tracking software allows me to track issues in real time, respond immediately, and log on at any time to see what progress is being made. It saves me four to five hours a day - otherwise I would have to drive to six different locations to manage space, staffing, equipment and customer issues."
Combined, 69 percent of respondents actively use software for issue and process tracking work in education, finance, government, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and telecommunications/computer industry. Reflecting the broadening user base, a substantial 31 percent listed 'other' as their main area of business.
Issues Tracking Beyond Traditional Help Desk and Customer Service Provides Strategic Value
Key benefits of issue tracking solutions noted by respondents included: improved time management, greater and more efficient organizational oversight, faster resolution of customer issues, and reduced time to resolve support issues.
Findings from a separate research1 exercise, IssueTrak ROI, indicated that IssueTrak software provided users with an average return on investment of 126 percent, or an additional $1.26 for every $1.00 invested.
Respondents ranked ease of use and automation of processes as the most valuable features of their tracking software, closely followed by customization options, streamlined reporting, self-service features, and responsive technical support.
While 73 percent of respondents use multiple business process management (BPM) software, 36 percent use a single solution (primarily IssueTrak) exclusively for issue tracking. 12 percent of respondents said that 75-100 percent of their organization use issue tracking software to automate the management of business operations and processes. The majority of respondents said they intended to maintain 2014 spending at similar levels to 2013.
Luhring notes, "The survey reflects the enormous productivity benefits that IssueTrak and its process management capability can provide to any organization. Every organization has hundreds of business processes and myriad evolving organizational needs. The survey results confirm our product strategy plans and will help ensure that IssueTrak continues to deliver key features, especially those requested by respondents."
IssueTrak has evolved from help desk and customer support to a multi-faceted, flexible solution that customers can use across many more critical business areas - including human resources, facility management, service and compliance management, logistics, healthcare operations or real estate - to track and manage a broad range of key business processes and dramatically improve productivity and efficiency.
About IssueTrak
Based in Virginia Beach, VA, IssueTrak is a leading provider of business operations software for issue tracking strategic business processes. First released in 2000, its signature software package has become a robust platform for internal and external customer service and support, IT help desk, workflow and process management, and issue tracking. The company has won numerous industry awards, including Small Business of the Year and multiple Inc. 500/5000 placements and is three-time winner of the Inside Business 'Best Place to Work' awards. The company is a Microsoft Silver Partner. For more information, visit www.issuetrak.com.
1 IssueTrak ROI, http://www.issuetrak.com/docs/library/roi.pdf
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