Hi Everyone, I thought I would share some my story of how I was able to drastically reduce our call load here where I work.

Many of our users do not take the time to read the written technical documentation or step by step instructions we have created on how to perform standard settings, Enterprise Activations, reconciliation options, attaching pictures....etc. Our call center is constantly taxed with these tier 1 user settings / basic knowledge call's, it was very time consuming and was costing us alot of money.

Solution? Interative Flash Tutorials!
How you may ask? Well let you explain!

1. Download the emulators to ensure you have the proper skin for the devices used in your company (we standardized on an 8310). If you need to see specific icons on your production device use BBViewer

2. Meet up with a decent flash developer.... (this is the hardest part)

3. Perform a series of steps, screenshotting each one and each transition

4. Document what each screenshot and transition and how it relates to what buttons are pressed.

5. Send all screenshots to flash developer, have them use the Emulator skin as a template, inject the screen shots and use flash to allow the user to interact with the buttons on the skin, hence advancing to the next screen and transition.

6. Publish these tutorials on your local internet site and communciate to users calling in that they can use these tutorials to answer their questions, change settings... etc.


I would publish a sample here but everything has been company specific branded and for legal reasons I cannot. But! We have over 900 users here and we have significantly reduced our call load, this allowing our call center and me (the BES admin) to focus on more important issues at hand, like BES architecture and DR strategies (and some policy configs, groups and software dev).

Please feel free to ask me any questions, I just thought I would pass this along in the hopes that it will reduce the number of calls you get for basic issues.

J

Sounds nice, unforunately we don't have a Flash developer here. I've attached the PowerPoint deck I use when I host a training class users can sign up for.

"Using Blackberry Effectively"

User get a lot out of it that want to go beyond sending and receiving email.

Drop me a PM if you'd like the source files to edit and use.

great stuff jnetter,

I have created some screen casts for training our operations folks using Windows Media Encoder 9. It allows you to capture screen output from an application window (or the whole screen) as well as audio input from a mic. it's very nice, free, and easier to find than a good flash dev.

Camtasia Studio creates great Flash movies from your screen captures. We're starting to use this for a lot of our self-help

Camtasia Studio Screen Recorder for Demos, Presentations and Training

The best part about a flash developer is you can tweak specific items using actionscript, but I do agree that the free (or easy) Flash products are great!

All of my posts have been questions looking for answers, so because I think this forum is the best thing since sliced bread I felt I would offer something for a change. LOL

Wink is good and free too.

Wink - [Homepage]

I use the BB simulator in conjunction with Wink to capture the actions on the device.

Another thing to try, if you haven't already, is Mobiola Screen Capture for Blackberry. The responsiveness is a tad slow, but it allows you to capture an actual BES connected environment.

I wish I could standardize on one or two models and/or providers. It would make the knowledge and tutorials we provide much easier. I miss the corporate world!

Thanks for the information. I love seeing what others do with training and support of their devices. No matter how much I provide training and give support information to others, it always finds its way back to my hands. I still struggle with what else I can do.

I sent my users to discoverbb.com they have full training by device. this really helped lower basic calls...and was already created. no out of pocket for my company.

I have a complete flash presentation from RIM with interactive instructions on how to use the 8703 (our standard at time of deployment) if anyone is interested. Let me know, I can zip it up and email/attach it. We just embedded it in a webpage here and sent the link to all new users.

You sure about that website? I went to that at it's a bed & breakfast site...