Thursday, 1 November 2018
Rafal Modrzewski to talk about launching microsatellites at Disrupt Berlin
ICEYE CEO Rafal Modrzewski is obsessed with SAR satellites. He’s so obsessed that his company plans to launch dozens of satellites into space. According to him, ICEYE satellites should be much better than existing SAR satellites — call it the Tesla or satellites if you want. That’s why I’m excited to announce that Modrzewski is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin to speak.
SAR stands for synthetic-aperture radar. There are already many SAR satellites around the earth, observing the surface of the planet. But they weigh hundreds of kilograms and cost a small fortune to put into space.
While consumer electronics have greatly benefited from miniaturization, the same can’t be said about space. But ICEYE thinks it’s time to make satellites smaller.
The company’s SAR satellites only weigh around 70 to 80 kilograms. It’s a cost-effective solution, which means it’s much cheaper to build a complete constellation. The company is aiming for 18 fully operational satellites around the planet.
In many ways, ICEYE is a tech achievement. And the fact that the company operates like a startup makes the venture even more interesting.
If you want to hear Modrzewski tell you more about what they’ve been working on, you should come to Disrupt Berlin. The conference will take place on November 29-30 and you can buy your ticket right now.
In addition to fireside chats and panels, like this one, new startups will participate in the Startup Battlefield Europe to win the highly coveted Battlefield cup.
Rafal Modrzewski
Co-founder & CEO, ICEYE
Rafal Modrzewski is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of ICEYE. ICEYE aims to launch and operate a constellation of micro-SAR satellites providing access to timely and reliable Earth observation data. ICEYE is the first company that has successfully miniaturized a SAR satellite, creating a unit that is 100x more cost-effective than traditional counterparts. With its 18 satellite constellation, ICEYE offers its partners a set of unprecedented satellite imaging capabilities, accessing any area of interest faster, more frequently and at lower cost.
Since co-founding the project in 2012, which became the company in 2014, with Pekka Laurila, Modrzewski is responsible for overseeing the organization’s growth and implementing ICEYE’s overall vision. Modrzewski brings with him deep domain expertise in SAR engineering, and he has received the 2018 Forbes 30 under 30 Technology award based on the world-first achievements of ICEYE.
Prior to co-founding ICEYE, Modrzewski researched innovative products at VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) in the RFID and wireless sensing group. He attended Warsaw University of Technology in Poland, where he studied Electrical Engineering and co-founded the Multimedia Technologies Science Group. Modrzewski continued his studies in Radio Science and Engineering at Aalto University where he led the on-board data handling team working on Aalto-1, Finland’s flagship satellite project.
https://ift.tt/2EUJE9FHow to Choose the Right Customer Service Software
When you’ve made the decision to use a customer service software, you might be overwhelmed by the number of apps in this category and choosing the right one.
The first thing you should do is talk to your support team and come up with a list of features you believe you and your agents need to ensure that you can handle customer service efficiently. Also factor in additional features that you would ideally like, but aren’t a must.
You should ask yourself a few questions to decide which software is the most suitable:
- How steep is the learning curve for using the software?
- How long it will take to incorporate the software?
- Does the software falls within your budget?
- How many users can it accommodate?
- The quantity of data it can store.
Once you have this list ready, you can compare it with the options available on the market and choose a helpdesk solution you believe checks most of the boxes. Many helpdesk solutions offer a free trial period where you can use most of the features and understand how the user interface works and you should definitely request that. If you and your support team are comfortable after evaluating it, you know that your decision is correct.
Features Of A Customer service Software
Every customer service software comes with a set of must-have features. These are what makes them so efficient. Here is a list of the various features which a good helpdesk software should have to make your life easier.
1. Ticket Automation
This is one of the key features of a helpdesk software. This helps you to automatically route tickets to your agents, reminds you about tickets which are overdue, and sends auto reply emails to customers who have raised a ticket.
2. Status of Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
SLAs are used to showcase the priority of your tickets. A good helpdesk should let you set up SLA information within it to ensure that high priority tickets are automatically flagged and given the consideration they deserve.
3. Customizable Tags
You need to be able to sort through the tickets you receive in a quick and efficient way. This is best done by attaching tags to them, such as the type of issue, the urgency, or whatever other filters your company prefers. For instance, if a ticket concerns a common problem, it can quickly be tagged as such and resolved.
4. Canned Responses
A good helpdesk software can help you customize your responses and save them as templates which can be stored and re-used. These responses can be loaded, edited, and even combined as the need might be. It makes the life of the agent responding to the tickets much easier.
5. Ticket Status
This is a simple yet handy indicator of what stage a ticket is in. It will help your agent in figuring out what they need to do next. A great helpdesk software will let you customize this and depending on the status, will trigger reminders for agents. It will also send emails to your customers if and when needed, or ensure you reply to them on time.
6. Ticket Queuing:
A helpdesk software can help organize support queues where all your tickets line up. You can even create individual queues for your various agents, which will help them organize their tickets and handle them with more efficiency.
7. Filling In Background Information
A helpdesk software can help by storing and pulling up all relevant customer information related to a particular case. This can help an agent treat a customer more efficiently and politely.
8. Associate Related Tickets
A good helpdesk can let you sort the many tickets that queue up in an agent’s inbox. Whether it is a collection of requests for one particular customer or a combination of similar cases, you can club related requests together and answer them in one shot. Many times, you customers might face an identical fundamental issue and instead of letting such tickets crowd your inbox, you can create a parent ticket dealing with the main issue.
9. Audit Ticket Trails
It is important for an agent to be able to track the thread of communication between themselves and the customer. The ticket responses should be time-stamped and have a note of the agent they were assigned to. A good helpdesk will aid you in following up with these trails as well as keeping track of the replies on them.
10. Integrations
With the increased number of applications we use in our daily lives, it is important that your helpdesk is flexible enough to support new apps. Ideally, the software should also have a marketplace for applications and tools that can be integrated with a single click.
11. Multi-channel Support:
When it comes to receiving communication from customers, an organization usually offers multiple channels, ranging from email to social media. Using separate applications for each channel can make your agent’s life chaotic. A helpdesk software should streamline all these queries into a single platform. This ensures that your support team can respond to every single request from one place.
12. Reports and Tracking:
A helpdesk should be able to provide you with reports that offers a clear measurement of your company’s performance. This could be in multiple arenas. Here are the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) which your helpdesk needs to be able to track.
1. Ticket Volume
2. Ticket Backlog
3. Resolution Rate
4. Average Reply Time
5. Average First Response Time
6. Customer Satisfaction
7. Average Handle Time
8. First Contact Resolution Rate (FCRR)
9. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
10. Replies Per Ticket
These metrics are extremely useful in tracking your support team’s performance as well as the type of tickets you get. They can provide valuable insights into how you can make your working process more effective. For instance, if your Average First Response Time for a particular agent is lackluster, it might be because they lack knowledge of the product. Additional training can be provided to help the agent reach the peak of their ability. This also improves the overall functioning of the team.
To conclude, there are a great of helpdesk solutions, each their own collection of pros and cons. Depending on the needs of your support team using the guide mentioned above, you should be able to choose the best software for your customer support needs.
Lastly, think long term. Imagine how you would want your company to grow with time, and ensure that you have picked a software that can scale with it.
If you are looking for a customer service software with the above capabilities, check out Freshdesk.
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