According to Forrester Research, end users experience a problem six times before calling the help desk. Only 50% of issues that are intermittent or for which users can create a work-around are even reported. End users will avoid lengthy support calls, even if it means they continue to use the application inefficiently.

Tier One and Tier Two end user support is costly. But not providing effective support is even more costly. Help Desks need to get users back to optimal productivity as soon as possible by reducing the time per call. Better yet, they can proactively identify issues to prevent calls in the first place.

End User Support teams need insight into the end user experience so they can pinpoint the problem faster, increasing first call resolution rates and reducing overall call time and volume. They need end user metrics that enable them to transition from being expensive and reactive to being cost-effective and proactive.

Knoa EPM enables Help Desk personnel and power users to solve problems faster and to proactively reach out to users experiencing frequent issues. With a detailed log of the end user's interaction with the application, Help Desk personnel can instantly scan the facts rather than asking an end user to recount how an error occurred. They can get to the root cause more rapidly, accelerating resolution times.

• Reduce the average time spent with each user, maximizing Help Desk resources and end user productivity
• Accelerate time to resolution
• Reduce unnecessary escalations to tier 2 support
• Proactively identify users with frequent issues
• Eliminate costly on-site visits and non-reproducible problems

Accelerate the Support Function
Knoa EPM provides the metrics and insight to enact these best practices:

1. Evaluate end user performance as the first step in Root Cause Analysis.
   Knoa research reveals that end user behavior is often the cause of reported "application problems". Use a Knoa inquiry to compare the experience and performance for a specific user to that of a peer group. Quickly gauge the user's active utilization, response time, system errors, and "User errors".

2. Use Knoa EPM's work flow data to accelerate problem resolution.
   Review the workflow detail from an end user's application session to see exactly what transpired prior to the error. There's no need to ask the user to recreate their actions, list which applications were running, or describe specific error messages.

3. Proactively contact end users who are having problems.
   When the application is experiencing a known issue, Help Desk personnel can reference Knoa EPM Utilization Reports to identify, and proactively notify, end users who frequently work with that aspect of the application. By monitoring both utilization and error metrics, the End User Support team can spot a problem before users start reporting it, reducing call volume.

4. Evaluate the impact of "system errors" on the end user population.
   Intermittent system errors comprise a large component of the 30-50% of issues that end users do not report. Yet these errors may significantly reduce productivity when you combine the cumulative impact of how often they occur and the number of individuals affected. In addition to slowing productivity, they create a negative end user experience and perception of the system. Use Knoa Inquiries to identify transactions with a high number of system errors and the number of end users affected. Drill down for the details that will reveal frequent, recurring issues that affect a small population as well as infrequent errors that affect a large number of users.

5. Determine appropriate Help Desk staffing levels.
   Application utilization fluctuates since processes often occur on certain days of the week or month. Reviewing Knoa utilization and error reports will help you predict appropriate staffing levels for various usage times.