The UniPress Blog

I was thinking about the Hosting service we offer that has helped so
many people. It lets customers run a full-function FootPrints system
on a computer which we maintain for them. The customer doesn't need
any servers or any IT infrastructure. We do it all. (Some customers
from larger companies which have IT capability choose Hosting anyway,
so that they can take care of their own needs without utilizing -- or
paying for -- their in-house IT services.)

One customer had no IT department so they could not have any helpdesk or
issue tracking system until they found the UniPress FootPrints Hosting
service.

Another customer had a large installation of FootPrints being used for a
CRM Service Desk running on a corporate server. Their IT Department
was charging them a lot of internal funds for using the equipment, and
furthermore they had a lot of outages. They turned to UniPress: The
Hosting fees were a lot less than their own company was charging them,
their uptime was substantially better once they switched, and they got
faster response time. This customer inputs more than 50,000 tickets
per month!

We have dozens of customers, and they are happy with the service. They
each get a full FootPrints installation, so they can have multiple
projects, they can be system administrators, etc., and we have
developed an installation 'cookbook' to get them running very
quickly. We do the setup for them (at no charge!), so they can be
installed and running without being FootPrints experts.

The more I think about the Hosting service, the more I believe that it
can be a great help to small organizations who don't have the in-house
IT capability but whose operation is complex enough to need a powerful
issue tracking system.

These customers typically are not using FootPrints for IT-helpdesk
purposes. They use it for many other 'issue tracking' needs, such as
customer service, HR, facilities management, etc.

One wonderful use of FootPrints is as the communication 'nervous
system' for a multi-location organization. The system can be run
through web screens, or FootPrints will send emails (including any
attachments), automatically record replies (including any
attachments), can act as a reminder/tickler system, and much more.

Until now, we have been 'offering' the Hosting service more than
'promoting' it. I am sure that the FootPrints Hosting Service can help
many more organizations than it does presently. We are going to start a
more active effort to promote it.

- Fred Pack, fhp@unipress.com