Hedge IT Blog

As we mentioned in our Help Desk FAQs article a few weeks ago, we recently completed a comprehensive profile on our Help Desk team. This includes an in-depth look at all areas of the department, such as the various sub-groups housed within the Help Desk, the team’s client request escalation procedures, professional development and ongoing skills enhancement provided to all team members and more.

While completing this document, we also created a video depicting our Client Support Center and the team members in action. (You may also remember last year’s video, featuring our director of Help Desk services, Dan Kummer, and associate director, Andre Chinkan.) This year’s video introduces viewers to several members of the Eze Castle Help Desk staff, who take us through many of the team’s most important functions and services. Check it out!

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Over the past few weeks, we have been hard at work putting together our submission for this year’s Help Desk Institute Team Excellence Awards. These awards honor top Help Desk teams that consistently demonstrate excellence in customer service and support, focusing specifically on the people, processes, and technologies of the teams.

In talking with our Help Desk leaders, specifically Dan Kummer (our Director of Help Desk Services) and Andre Chinkan (Associate Director), we identified a number of questions they hear repeatedly from our clients regarding what to expect when working with the Desk. So, to help clear some of these up, we’ve put together a set of Help Desk FAQs.

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People take vacations. Companies don’t. 

Hedge funds, just like most financial firms, need staff to run their technology, handle special projects, build (and manage) complex applications and of course execute core business activities. But in many cases it is not realistic or cost-effective to keep everything in-house. Enter outsourced staffing.

Outsourced staffing options for hedge funds abound. So let’s take a look at five common outsourcing practices, which we first introduced in our Technology Outsourcing Guidebook:

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As next week’s SIFMA Financial Services Technology Expo approaches, we are gearing up for some great seminars featuring some of the industry’s leading experts. In preparation for the conference, we have been reviewing the conference agenda and sharing some of our top picks for the seminars to check out.

Earlier this week, we looked at such hot topics as Dodd-Frank compliance and cloud computing. For today’s post, we have compiled some interesting and informative SIFMA seminars on technology trends and the impact of social media that are sure to be a hit at SIFMA.
 

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If you follow us on Twitter, you may have noticed that we have been hard at work putting together our submission for the upcoming Help Desk Institute (HDI) Team Excellence Awards. Each year, the HDI honors Help Desk teams that have demonstrated outstanding customer service and support. The Team Excellence Award is focused on the people, process, and technology aspects of support centers.

Led by Director Dan Kummer, and Manager Andre Chinkan, the Eze Castle Help Desk team is based in New York City with additional employees located in London as well. The desk handles support calls for our clients worldwide on a 24x7x365 basis, through both remote and on-site engineering services.

In submitting for the HDI Award, we seized the opportunity to spotlight the many extraordinary aspects of our Eze Castle Help Desk Team and to create a Video!

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Earlier this week, we looked at some of the personnel factors that are common among extraordinary outsourced Help Desks. Today, we’ll continue the discussion on the characteristics of a great Help Desk, with a focus on the technology aspects to look for when evaluating Help Desk providers. We've also created a presentation on the "Nine Elements of a Great Help Desk."

Call Management Systems: The best Help Desks have systems in place to track all incoming calls from clients. A call management system tracks such statistics as call volume, the length of time a call remains in queue, the length of a conversation with Help Desk personnel, and more. Monitoring important details of all calls allows supervisors to then review the data and analyze it to identify areas of weakness and improve upon them. Call management systems help ensure that all clients who call the Help Desk will be assisted in a timely and efficient manner, as analysts can continually learn from previous client interactions.

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When evaluating technology providers, there are a number of factors to consider when determining which is the best fit for your firm. One important, and often overlooked, criterion is the quality of the Help Desk. Alternative investment firms rely heavily on technology, but no technology is completely infallible. In the event of an unexpected issue, having a knowledgeable, experienced Help Desk at your fingertips is essential.

So, what makes an exceptional Help Desk?

In this series, we will look at both the personnel and technology aspects of a great Help Desk and provide guidelines for what to look for when selecting a Help Desk provider for your firm. Let’s first discuss the human factors that are common among the most effective Help Desk teams.

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