With more than 10 years of front-line experience in enterprise support services, Bruno will spearhead Previo's eSupport advocacy and education program, which seeks to raise awareness among IT executives of the vital role of the Help Desk.

"Our mission with the HDI website - and with all of HDI's offerings - is to provide an unparalleled resource for information and education about and for the help desk and support industry," stated Ron Muns, founder and CEO, Help Desk Institute. "We are very pleased and honored to receive this acknowledgement from the Harvard Business School that we have achieved our goal."

Initially IKON will provide training leading to the first level of certification, HDA. Courses will include "Essential Skills of the Help Desk Analyst" and "Understanding Help Desk Tools and Problem Solving Techniques." These courses will teach both the fundamental and advanced survival skills for today's increasingly complex help desk environment. In addition to preparing help desk analysts for HDA certification, the courseware is designed to improve overall success and job satisfaction for the support technician; and to enhance productivity and employee retention for the employer.

According to the terms of the partnership, Witness Systems' eQuality(TM) multimedia recording and analysis suite integrates with Remedy's Action Request System(R) - the underlying technology platform supporting its help desk and CRM application suite - to monitor and evaluate complete customer contacts. This integration will provide businesses using Remedy Help Desk(TM) with valuable insight into the effectiveness of their employee and customer interactions. Witness Systems' certification in Remedy's Product Partner Compliance Program further reinforces the integrated solutions' capabilities.

Help Desk Institute's mission is to lead the customer support profession worldwide by setting the standards, establishing certification and training programs, and providing access to industry resources. HDI provides targeted information about the technologies, tools, and trends of the help desk and customer support industry. HDI cosponsors the annual Support Services Conference and Expo, offers regional training, and publishes a wide range of training publications and research materials. Membership exceeds 7,500 with members from every continent worldwide.

KnowledgeSync's revolutionary unified alert messaging (UAM) acts as a "smoke detector" to alert customers to potential problems. HEAT users now have the ability to automatically identify and respond to critical time-sensitive Help Desk incidents, such as backlogs and bottlenecks, thus improving overall Help Desk operations.

"With this alliance, we are taking one more step in leading the way to helping corporations streamline their support processes," said Brian McAdams, Chief Executive Officer at MyHelpDesk, Inc. "By working together, we are ensuring that some of the largest companies in the world have access to a Web-based solution utilizing our award-winning computer self-help directories and search capabilities complemented by powerful options for assisted support. These combined features make this offering an incredibly comprehensive, dynamic and effective medium for technical support."

"Specialized help will also be available to business and individual users who need more hands-on assistance," Mr. Gentile said, noting registered users of the Help Desk Doctor will have the option of contacting one of RomNet's experienced technicians directly via email, phone or on-line chat. RomNet will offer a selection of service packages covering single, multiple or unlimited access to its technical support staff, which will be on-call around the clock, seven days a week. In addition, single incident access will be available.

CompuCom's help desk has received several industry awards including the 1998 and 1999 STAR (Software Technical Assistance Recognition) Award in the outstanding outsourcer category from the Software Support Professionals Association. Most recently, CompuCom was recognized as the highest ranked outsourced help desk provider by the Help Desk Institute as the only outsourcer to achieve a finalist place in the Help Desk Institutes' 2000 Team Excellence Award. In addition, CompuCom's help desk has received the prestigious Support Center Practices (SCP) certification for the past three years, 1998, 1999 and 2000, demonstrating CompuCom's commitment to following industry best practices.

Said Ed Coleman, chief executive officer of CompuCom, "The opening of our Tempe, Ariz. help desk will enable CompuCom to provide additional support and expertise from a facility staffed by experts knowledgeable in the environments of many of our newest clients."