Countersoft, developer of the Gemini software development project management product, released Atlas , a solution for providing self-service online customer support. Countersoft originally developed Atlas as an in-house solution for providing community-based support to Gemini users. According to Harvey Kandola, CEO and founder of Countersoft, "The driver behind Atlas was to solve the sub-standard end user experience we all see today—the person who wants support from you is forced to jump around from forums, to FAQ lists, to PDF documentation, and so on. We experienced this problem ourselves and could not find a solution off-the-shelf, and so we built Atlas."
On its Gemini Atlas page , Countersoft describes Atlas as "…Forums, Help Desk and Knowledge Management Software Providing Joined Up Support for Q & A, Knowledge Base, Documentation, Videos and Ticketing." The site provides an at-a-glance impression of how Atlas is organized, with four tabs at the top of the page linking to Questions, FAQs, Docs, and Videos, plus an "ask your question" link. Forum entries are listed under the tabs, with each entry labeled with one or more subject-area tags.
A distinctive feature of Atlas is "Relevant Replies," which allows community members to answer questions using whatever content is the most relevant, whether it's a text answer, an FAQ, a document, or a video. "'Relevant Replies' greatly eliminates the repetitive nature of support and also lowers associated costs," said Kandola.
Additional features of Atlas include integration with Windows Live Writer for creating and maintaining FAQs and documentation, integration with Gemini for bug and issue tracking, support for GitHub, Open Id authentication, smart content bookmarking, and others.
Atlas is built on .NET Framework 4 and supports SQL Server (any version) as the back-end database. Versions of Atlas available include a free download with unlimited Q&A, a free 30-day trial (download or hosted), and both cloud-hosted and installed plans .
Countersoft Atlas offers integrated online help desk, FAQs, forum, and knowledge base