InformationWeek

The software, due to ship in April, is priced at $29 per node. Because it is based on Microsoft's Windows Distributed InterNet Applications architecture, it can also scale up to support thousands of concurrent users.

The software is designed to be easy to use. Help-desk personnel can access the software via any Web browser. "Having [the product] browser-based enables people, no matter where they are, to connect into the system without any heavy-duty initial configuration," says Colin Mahony, an analyst at the Yankee Group.

The software also comes with 20 templates that organizations can modify, using a drag-and-drop interface to meet their business' terminology and business-process requirements. Help-desk administrators can also easily customize their support staff's views of databases so that the person responsible for, say, the marketing group's support sees only the information specific to his or her needs. In addition, they can include links to other Web applications or to vendors' tech support Web sites.

Easy modification was a major selling point for Gadzoox Networks Inc., says Dale Chorney, manager of customer services. The 150-employee company, which makes storage area network products, plans to use Magic Help Desk for internal IT support. It already uses the product to provide help-desk support to external customers. "I selected it over some of the competitive products because of its low administrative overhead," Chorney says. "I don't need dedicated [database analysts] to work with the product." At Gadzoox, Magic Help Desk has replaced a manual system for looking up information on the customers the company supports. "Now we have a wealth of information available in just milliseconds," Chorney says.