Stella deal as Kiwi cloud-based firm goes global

A New Zealand-developed cloud-based knowledge management and collaboration solution for IT managed services providers, called Stella, is to get a worldwide launch at the Connectwise IT Nation conference in Orlando Florida today.

Developed by New Zealand IT managed services company CodeBlue and spun off into a separate company, Stella has generated strong interest in the U.S market, with two pilot sites signed up after a single visit there.

This follows a highly successful development phase, which has culminated in Stella being used to help support more than 10,000 CodeBlue customer users around New Zealand. Stella is purpose-designed for IT managed services companies.

“Stella delivers four key things that MSPs really need,” says Ken Davis, co-founder and executive director, Stella.

"That’s site documentation with full version control, a client specific knowledge base engine, a customer self service portal, and a very sophisticated and effective reporting/BI solution for customers.

“Stella is fully operational right now. It supports more than 10,000 CodeBlue customer users and we can quantify the difference it’s made to CodeBlue’s business."

David adds that the big payoff is that the company's first call service desk resolution is now up over 80 percent.

"This is due to the speed and ease with which site documentation can be kept updated, providing a foundation for a knowledge base which is equally fast and intuitive to use," Davis adds.

"When a problem is resolved the fix is immediately available to all service desk staff and engineers in the field.

"Stella ‘captures’ knowledge and processes and empowers service desk staff and engineers by being so easy and intuitive to use that they enjoy and get satisfaction from feeding in new information and being part of an organic service development process.

“Documentation is the bane of every service business. If you can provide a good and easily accessible tool then it will be used. Because Stella is so easy and intuitive to use, uptake is strong and immediate – from customer onboarding with initial system review, quarterly update reviews, roadmaps and strategic planning based on up to date historical performance data. You name it, Stella enables it.

“All of this has had a powerful effect on the quality of service we can provide our customers.

"It has also helped us win new business because of the quality of our customer references – and by being able to demonstrate, upfront with customers, the power of Stella in delivering outstanding service against our competitors.”