Parature from a user's perspective
The organization I was in was used by IT as a Helpdesk tool to capture, route and track Helpdesk tickets. I believe it was only being used …
Overview
What is Microsoft Parature (Discontinued)?
Parature was a self-service customer support platform providing a self-service knowledge base to connect with customers across multiple channels, including email, the web, chat or social media. The company was acquired by Microsoft in January 2014 and reached EOL in…
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What is Microsoft Parature (Discontinued)?
Parature was a self-service customer support platform providing a self-service knowledge base to connect with customers across multiple channels, including email, the web, chat or social media. The company was acquired by Microsoft in January 2014 and reached EOL in 2017. Former users are…
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What is Salesforce Service Cloud?
Service Cloud is a customer service platform that helps businesses manage and resolve customer inquiries and issues. It provides tools for case management, knowledge base, omni-channel support, automation, and analytics, enabling companies to deliver exceptional customer service experiences.
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What is Microsoft Parature (Discontinued)?
Parature was a self-service customer support platform providing a self-service knowledge base to connect with customers across multiple channels, including email, the web, chat or social media. The company was acquired by Microsoft in January 2014 and reached EOL in 2017. Former users are encouraged to migrate to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service.
Microsoft Parature (Discontinued) Competitors
Microsoft Parature (Discontinued) Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
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(13)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
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December 18, 2014
Flexible, Expandable, Full Featured Customer Support Portal
Parature is used primarily by the Customer Support team to support users of our Resource Manager, Analytics, and Impact solutions. It is also used by our sales engineers during evaluations, our professional services group, and engineering team. We leverage the "Download Manager" capability for software entitlement and delivery. In addition we make heavy use of the Knowledge Base module to provide customer self-service.
- Parature ia an "All-in-One" solution that does most aspects very well. For us the key differentiator was the "Download Module". We provide our software electronically and we were able to use the Parature API to integrate with our entitlement systems to provide software delivery for our customers.
- The Ticketing Module is top notch and is completely customizable. It has a very powerful workflow system which includes routing rules and time based triggers giving you a lot of flexibility when designing the process.
- While not a feature of the product, the Customer Support team at Parature is top-notch. I don't need to contact them often, but when I do the replies are swift and detailed.
- The Forums Module is minimally functional and not well thought out - it seems more like an afterthought to the solution. We do use this module, but as a broadcast-only system for product updates and other alerts. It works well in this limited capacity.
- If you make heavy use of the Download Module you will find that you cannot "link" files into different folder structure. Our software is delivered in modules, some of which are common across product lines. I have to upload the same file multiple times in order to make it available in the various folder hierarchies.
- The WYSIWYG editor is a bit cumbersome, and often inserts a lot of extraneous HTML. This is particularly difficult in the KB Module when authoring large documents.
- There is a character limitation in the Ticket Module that causes the reply (from either the CSR or the customer) to be attached as an HTML document after the limit is reached. The information is not lost or truncated, but is not viewable in the context of the ticketing module - you have to open another browser window.
- Customer Satisfaction has improved dramatically for several reasons. First, our prior solution was cumbersome and provided a very poor customer experience. It was also difficult to use from the CSR side. The Parature interface is clean and fast for both users and CSRs. In addition to creating a better customer experience, this allows us to process more tickets resulting in higher satisfaction. Overall, satisfaction is up approximately 60% since we deployed Parature and ticket throughput is up approximately 40%.
- The built in reporting - and optional advanced reporting - are extremely powerful. We do make use of the advanced reporting module, but 80% of the data I use to run my business comes from the built-in reports. The reports are indispensable and I rely on them to make adjustments based on many factors including ticket volume, response and resolution times, performance against SLA, and CSR performance. I've been able to increase team efficiency by about 15% using this information.
- Because Parature is used by Engineering, Sales, Services and Customer Support, there is a high level of collaboration that takes place resulting in better information sharing across the various organizations within Zenoss.
Before choosing Parature we reviewed many of the currently available solutions before building our short list of Parature, SugarCRM, Zendesk, Salesforce, and NetSuite. In the end, the licensing models for Salesforce and Netsuite eliminated them from consideration. The SugarCRM solution was our current solution, and didn't appear to be a key area of focus for Sugar (though we continue to use SugarCRM for everything except the Ticketing feature). Zendesk lacked the Download Module feature which is a critical element of our deployment.
In the end, it was Parature that addressed all of the needs we identified and did so in a single, hosted solution. It was also one of the least expensive to deploy and maintain.
In the end, it was Parature that addressed all of the needs we identified and did so in a single, hosted solution. It was also one of the least expensive to deploy and maintain.
August 23, 2014
UCSC Conduct Office Review
Parature is being used by my department and by a few on campus. Parature is fairly new, but many other departments are gaining an interest in its uses and the multi-use products that Simplicity offers.
- Parature is excellent at housing information and making it accessible.
- Parature is excellent for anonymous and detailed communication with students.
- Parature needs to desperately make viewing student files and incident reports more seamless. Getting bounced between areas makes it very hard to manage where you are at at any given time.
- Parature really needs to bring back to sanctions tab at the top of each incident report. Hiding it under the incidents tab is inconvenient and not as user-friendly.
- It would be really great if Parature could have a retract button. In case a Summons or a VRA goes out and is wrong. Or at least a feature that allows the letter to be altered after it is sent out, Like housed on the Parature system and then the student sees the most up-to-date letter, and we cut down on re-sending and retracting statements made in the letter during the summons meeting.
- Positive: everything is housed in one place, we are paperless and we are efficient.
- Negative: the bugs of this product make the above equally as frustrating. Also, some people don't use it correctly and going back and fixing their mistake is time-consuming. The reporting feature are also pretty flawed.
- N/A
I have not used any other products, but my colleagues have and Parature is a blessing in comparison.