DiamanteDesk (our own help-desk solution) was recognized as one of the best 18 startups out of 497 at the Startupbootcamp Commerce 2018 in Amsterdam. The Startupbootcamp Commerce Accelerator is an opportunity for startups in the market, both big and small, to receive help to better adapt to the changing environment and the evolution of customers’ needs with the help of the latest technologies.
Startupbootcamp has chosen 20 projects from all around the world and our help-desk system, DiamanteDesk, was on its list.
It’s not a secret that customer requests are more urgent than ever before. Businesses lose $62 billion USD every year because of poor customer support. Besides, customer expectations are continuously increasing.
To keep up with this, businesses need to react immediately and provide highly personalized services, and there are several help-desk solutions that can help deal with customer support like a pro. However, if your business processes differ from the ordinary, you need to customize the system. Doing this with most available applications out there will either cost you a small fortune or it will simply be impossible.
Most Open source help-desks are so clumsy that it would be better to develop a support solution from scratch than to customize it. This is actually the main reason we created DiamanteDesk.
Our solution is to use Open source software. You can play with its modules like you would with Lego bricks and implement your own business rules.
DiamanteDesk architecture is modular based. To avoid issues with duplicated and inconsistent codes in customized systems, DiamanteDesk has a set of interfaces that are defined for a module. These include data interfaces which preserve data integrity and service interfaces (these can hide business logic details from service requestors such as controllers), web services and other modules. This design principle is called “Standardized service contract”. As a result, the system is a well-defined, durable API that allows other modules and third-party extensions to be installed.
Two years ago such an approach wasn’t common for PHP based applications. Nevertheless, we’ve taken the risk and implemented it with our product. Today, several modern web-applications are designed in a similar way.
This high flexibility was possible due to modern technology stack, automated optimal architecture, deep integrations with CRM systems, eCommerce solutions, bug-tracking/project management tools, and full control of the system via API.
DiamanteDesk allows clients to support functionality where they really need it instead of conforming to existing limits. Now support departments can pay attention to building relationships with customers and finding a personal approach instead of wasting time on inefficient actions.
It wasn’t about money. It started with a desire to help people provide customer support without limits, without obeying restrictions, and to play by their own rules.
So, this is how it played out.
On Welcome Day, Startupbootcamp teamed together with David Beckett (a presentation guru) and trained attending startups to pitch their brilliant ideas in the best way. He has coached about 560 startups which have raised more than 137,000,000 euros. Beckett plays with an audience like a pro. If you need help pitching for an accelerator or need help with preparing a keynote speech, Pitch Professionals will turn you into a prominent speaker. Even great ideas need a voice.
The next two days were similar. Each day started with a one minute lecture on how you had to introduce your concept and your team. The rest of the time was for 20 minute sessions with 100+ mentors. It was the most interesting, informative and exhausting part. We had 10 meetings per day. All mentors had expertise in different areas, so you were required to have a flexible approach when presenting your project story as it had to be clear from different points of view.
We’ve met a lot of amazing people during these days: CEOs, business developers, lawyers, marketers, and sales experts from local and worldwide prominent companies, retailers, suppliers, eCommerce, IT, cosmetics, consulting industries, etc. All of them were aiming to help with advice and by sharing their own experience. We really appreciate their efforts. It was inspiring. Despite the fact that DiamanteDesk wasn’t selected into the top 10, we’ve gained experience that empowers us to move forward with our startup.
Honestly speaking, the ten startups that passed the selection into the program deserve the accelerator’s support more than DiamanteDesk since we already have a great team, a great space and are ready to use the product. Now we have a plan on how to transform our startup into a profitable project. Well, we have a lot of work to do.
Join our community, fork DiamanteDesk from Github;)
