The Swisscom Inc. department FX-CUC-IAS-SVA processes queries from customers of the internet provider Bluewin Inc. During the support calls the agents often have to offer 'blind' support because of the missing operation systems. Do to numerous operating systems and different languages it is not possible for the agent to know all the names and labels of the operation system settings. Over the entire call the customer could gain the feeling that the agent has either not the required knowledge or not the sufficient IT equipment and an indeed uncertainty might rise. In extreme cases the agent has to hang on the customer, leave his place and check the needed expressions and ways on specified testing computer where different operating systems and languages are installed. As another disadvantage every break costs the corporation money.

The demands the software has to fulfil are an enhancement of quality and a saving of call time. The agents will be more independent and probably be able to provide support in a language in which they otherwise do not have the necessary vocabulary.

To complete the above mentioned demands Virtual PC 2004 from Microsoft is to be implemented. On this software four different operating systems will be installed, everyone in four different languages. Through a handy navigation the virtual operating systems can easily be loaded within seconds from an image file located on the hard drive. Within this virtual machines the agent can now proceed as if he had a computer with this operating system installed on it. Especially for inexperienced agents and for support in another than their native language this tool offers great help. But also in more complex problems this tool can provide assistance with guiding the customer to the right place.

For the annual rate of return we calculate depending from the licencing costs for the virtual operating systems a Net Present Value between 0.08 CHF and 0.33 CHF and an IRR between 34% and 141%.