The Challenge

Trader Publishing Company is the nation's largest firm devoted to classified and photo-guide advertising publications. It publishes Auto Trader, Boat Trader, Harmon Homes, and Parenting magazines. It also operates Web sites such as CareerWeb.com, JobRecruiter.com, Autofind.com and Travelsavers.com. Trader is headquartered in Norfolk, VA with offices in over 100 cities. Four of those cities are designated as "hubs." Information Technology staff at the hubs handle support calls for the offices in their regions.

Trader was using help desk software to record IT service requests, but company officials were not satisfied with the program. It was overly complex, and entering issues was a cumbersome process. In addition, when the vendor released a new version, Trader had to do a lot of work to deploy the upgrade

The IssueTrak Solution

When it came time to upgrade to a new version in late 2000, Trader decided to research available alternatives. One of the packages they evaluated was IssueTrak.

Several aspects of IssueTrak appealed to Trader. For one thing, it was web technology, and that made it easier to deploy. The user interface looked simple and easy to learn. The entry of new issues looked like it would be a quick process.

Another interesting aspect of IssueTrak was that Trader had the option of running it on servers at IssueTrak, Inc., Inc., which meant that Trader IT staff would not have to install it on their servers. As in many IT departments, the IT people are busy, and it was very appealing to outsource the server side.

Trader decided to go with IssueTrak. The arrangement has worked out well. On the old system, the support staff was entering approximately 400 issues per month. With IssueTrak, over 900 issues per month are going into the system. Trader says the increase is a direct reflection of how much easier it is to enter an issue with IssueTrak's simple Web interface.

Trader is pleased with their move. Response-time is good, uptime has been excellent. Users like the system. And Trader IT staff aren't burdened with yet another application to support.