Crow Canyon Bolsters Help Desk Tools for SharePoint

Crow Canyon Software, which develops SharePoint applications, has introduced new reporting tools that enhance service desk, customer support and asset tracking capabilities, the company claims. The offerings come only a few weeks before SharePoint Conference 2014 -- where dozens of new tools and technologies are expected to launch. The big question: Can SharePoint help desk tools stand tall even as cloud options like ServiceNow and ZenDesk proliferate?

The new Crow Canyon tools support both SharePoint 2010 and 2013. The offerings include:

The Crow Canyon offerings could appeal to both corporate IT managers and external managed services providers -- which lean heavily on help desk tools for SLA compliance.

Founded in 1999, Crow Canyon claims to support more than 2,000 organizations worldwide. I don't know if the company is profitable or how the business is funded, but the market for SharePoint-based help desks seems strong. Key options include:

Despite the popularity of SharePoint-driven help desks, plenty of market alternatives are in rapid-growth mode. For instance, Zendesk, a cloud-based help desk platform, now has more than 40,000 customers. And ServiceNow ranks among the world's largerst cloud compamnies. Now doubt, the simplicity of cloud-based options will provide plenty of competition for more traditional SharePoint options.