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Vector Networks Group Announces Release Of HelpDesk V5.00

Atlanta - March 20th 2006

New Version Includes Service Level Agreement Management, Time-Based Escalation and Work Team Support

Vector Networks Group, an enterprise desktop management and support software company, today announces the release of HelpDesk v5.0, a Web-based system for tracking and managing help desk issues, centered around the user experience.

According to an annual help desk and IT support trend study conducted by the Help Desk Institute (HDI), the number of support incidents per organization is on the rise, increasing by three percent in 2005 from a year before. The cause? The HDI study found that system changes (upgrades, installations etc.), a larger numbers of customers served and an escalation of responsibilities for the IT department all contributed to the increase. HelpDesk v5.0 was designed to help IT support departments curb this trend, offering new features that will improve, automate and streamline the help desk process, freeing resources to focus on other IT responsibilities within the organization.

New features of HelpDesk v5.0 include:

• Service Level Agreement (SLA) Management – Define, document, manage and monitor service level agreements, using automatic reminders and reports to review and report on performance per each agreement.
• Time-Based Escalation – Assign unique escalation rules and define business hours for each SLA; HelpDesk will automatically assign and re-assign open issues, sending appropriate e-mail notifications.
• User-Defined Queries – Give permission to allow users to define his/her own queries on the Web using an ad-hoc query editor, then view details on or delete queries as needed.
• Knowledge Base Views – Use the new Web views in v5.0 to simplify use of the Knowledge Base.

"Every new feature of v5.0 was designed with the user in mind,” said Chris Jackson, product manager, Vector Networks. “Service level agreement management and time-based escalation helps support departments improve and track performance; while work team support, which groups users into work teams, either manually or through workflow rules, saves teams time and enables them to optimize their workflow. We designed new Web views of the Knowledge Base to make using it even easier than before."

"HDI says the average cost of an incident reported via e-mail is $16 and incidents reported via phone cost even more,” continued Jackson. “The time-based escalation function found in HelpDesk v5.0 makes it easier to provide the correct level of support to a customer quickly and pro-actively, ultimately reducing support incidents and decreasing the support costs."

HelpDesk v5.0 is part of the PC-Duo Enterprise Suite, a comprehensive set of enterprise desktop management and support tools. It is available in the marketplace Monday, March 20.

About Vector Networks

For more than a decade, Vector Networks has provided the world’s most IT-reliant organizations with innovative technology products to manage and protect mission-critical information systems. The company’s primary product offering, PC-Duo Enterprise, is a comprehensive suite of desktop management modules that address control, administration, security and compliance requirements for complex enterprise computing systems. PC-Duo Enterprise solutions are the trusted choice on more than four million enterprise desktops and servers throughout the world and offer out-of-the-box solutions for enterprise desktop management and support needs. For more information, visit Vector Networks at www.vector-networks.com.

For all media inquiries, please contact:
Janice Rosen Bedsole
www.bedsoleandcompany.com
janice@bedsoleandcompany.com
781-789-6108