Servicesoft, ServiceWare, Primus and others are all strong, and they can do things now that they couldn't just two years ago. The thing is to get everyone in the enterprise to understand the value of participating in building the knowledgebase, so that it can contribute to trend analysis. Wentink, too, has run across overflowing knowledgebases with little gained from what's stuffed in them. You've got to take it a step further and act. If you're in a help desk or call center environment, you're powerless.
Users are so annoyed because the same problems keep happening again and again.
It's amazing that the burnout isn't worse than it is. At one point in her career, Wentink worked for a company where little was done to understand why the same calls kept coming into the help desk. The company deployed what was at the time Software Artistry's Expert Advisor, with its knowledgebase. In this situation, and in any other help desk environment, finding the right way to characterize a call becomes a key element. It's just that what the customer is telling you is broken and what actually is are often two different things.