Patent ID: 7565338

Claim:
A computer implemented method for providing a combination of human expert type and database type technical support to users via a network, which comprises the steps of: a. providing a database which contains searchable technical support information, said technical support information being remotely accessible to the users, being divided into a plurality of textual support sessions, each support session being formatted as a serial dialogue of: a.1. one or more textual questions to the user for receiving failure symptoms from the user; and a.2. textual guidance for performing operations by the user in order to solve the failure, based on the failure symptoms received from the user, and report by the user stating the corresponding results of said operations; b. providing within said network at least one on-line expert terminal; c. providing to the users a remote access to said database; d. when a user who needs a technical support accesses said database in order to find a solution to a failure the user faces, performing an electronic serial dialogue between the database and the user which includes said introduction of questions and providing of guidance as in steps a.1 and a.2; e. if in response to said serial dialogue a solution to the failure is obtained, terminating by the user the dialogue; f. if, however, no solution to the failure is obtained at the end of said serial dialogue between the user and the database, immediately transferring a display of the dialogue as so far conducted to selected one or more of said on-line expert terminals; g. continuing by the one or more experts by means of said terminals said serial supporting dialogue with the user, while using a same textual format as in steps a.1 and a.2; and h. when a solution to the failure is obtained based on the textual dialogue between the one or more experts and the user, adding said formatted textual dialogue between the expert and the user to the database, thereby expanding the scope of support of the database.