Best
Practices for Calculating the ROI of Remote Support
According
to the Service and Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the difference
between resolving Tier 1 and Tier 3 support incidents can translate into
hundreds of dollars. That's why implementing an efficient remote-support
solution is mission critical -- an organization's bottom line is at stake.
In this new SSPA Insight, VP of research John Ragsdale details the steps
necessary for building a business case for remote support.
Click here to download the white paper.
 |
|
| |
|
Dell's New Premium Support and Integration Services Build on Existing Tools and Improvements for Consumers
Dell has announced forthcoming expansion of its consumer services offerings aimed at delighting customers and helping them get more out of their digital lifestyle. Dell’s new premium support service is to provide a dedicated team of technical professionals who customers can contact directly for support of any Dell-branded product. This new fee-based offering is designed specifically for those customers who want to engage with the same dedicated team each time they have an issue with any of their in-warranty Dell-branded products. The premium service offer provides household support by an advanced support team in North America for one year. The technicians are empowered to address a comprehensive range of issues across the breadth of Dell’s product line.
Microsoft enhances hosted customer service platform
With its Automated Service Agent platform Microsoft is looking to change
the face of Web-based customer service by providing more intuitive interaction
between online merchants and people doing business. Automated Service
Agent (ASA) "is a product that uses natural language to be able to
interact and converse with people in a way that we normally talk,"
said Clinton Dickey, Microsoft director of program management, during
a presentation at the Web 2.0 Expo conference in San Francisco last Wednesday.
Microsoft's platform is based on technology gained through the company's
2006 acquisition of natural language processing provider Colloquis.
Source: InformationWeek
ClickSoftware to Automate Scheduling and
Mobile Workforce Management for Rogers Cable Communications Inc.
ClickSoftware Technologies, Ltd., a provider of mobile workforce management
and service optimization solutions, announced that Rogers Cable Communications
Inc. has selected ClickSoftware's ClickSchedule workforce optimization
software to automate scheduling and dispatching for its field technicians
in order to better match field service capabilities with customer needs.
ClickSchedule's automated in-day scheduling and re-optimization provides
the ability to adjust quickly to changing conditions, ensuring the right
technician with the right skill level goes to the right job at the right
time.
Parature to Present Findings of 2008 Service
& Support Metrics Survey
Parature and SupportIndustry.com recently conducted the 2008 Service &
Support Metrics Survey. Respondents shared valuable data on metrics directly
related to running their support operations, as well as providing humorous
insights about some of their most challenging customer interactions. In
this webinar, narrated with industry insight and analysis, Pete McGarahan
of McGarahan and Associates, and Gary McNeil, VP of Marketing for Parature
will deliver the results of the survey with practical advice and a recommended
course of action for all support centers. Attendees will be able to benchmark
their own organization’s performance against what others are doing
today. All participants will also receive a full copy of the survey results.
Register
today
White Paper: Turn Out of Warranty Tech Support Calls Into Revenue
Download this white paper and see how Sutherland developed an innovative program to generate revenue from out of scope tech support calls.Sutherland Global Services helped this client manage explosive growth and established a new channel to support tech support activity. This whitepaper will show you:
- How to effectively handle increasing call volumes without impacting customer satisfaction
- A unique solution to ensure that warranty support calls are routed effectively
- How to turn out of warranty calls into revenue generating activity
Global Enterprise Web 2.0 Market To Reach $4.6 Billion By 2013
Despite a long-term future marked by commoditization, enterprise spending on Web 2.0 technologies will surge over the next five years, growing 43 percent each year to reach $4.6 billion globally by 2013, according to a new report by Forrester Research, Inc.. The five-year Forrester forecast includes a breakdown of future business spending on technologies such as social networking, RSS, blogs, wikis, mashups, podcasting, and widgets, as well as an analysis of enterprise Web 2.0 spending across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
Forrester believes that Web 2.0 technologies represent a fundamentally new way to connect with customers and prospects and harness the collaborative power of employees. Large enterprises such as General Motors, McDonald’s, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, and Wells Fargo have all made heavy use of these tools, and 56 percent of North American and European enterprises consider Web 2.0 to be a priority in 2008 according to a recent Forrester survey.
The key question for software firms is who pays for Web 2.0 in the enterprise? Three challenges face vendors: IT shops are wary of what they perceive as insecure, consumer-grade technology; ad-supported Web 2.0 tools on the consumer side have set “free” as a starting point; and Web 2.0 technologies enter a crowded space dominated by legacy software investments.
Currently, large businesses are spending more on employee collaboration tools than customer-facing Web 2.0 technologies, but Forrester expects that trend to reverse by next year. By 2013, investment in customer-facing Web 2.0 technology will dwarf spending on internal collaboration software by nearly a billion dollars.
Open Source Software Grows in Importance to End-User Organizations Providing
Rising Services Opportunity for Quality Assurance and Testing
Based on findings from a recent survey, IDC foresees
that open source software and related services will continue to expand
in importance to end-user organizations. Additionally, almost 60% of the
survey respondents said their company's spending on open source increased
in 2007, in terms of relative percentage of IT spending. Quality assurance,
testing, and certification of open source systems was rated as the fastest-growing
services opportunity by respondents, who projected their spending on this
service would grow 150% between 2007 and 2008.
IDC predicts more pure service providers will be driven to forge alliances or partnerships with leading open source technology vendors or development communities to stay top-of-mind with end-user organizations. This is because pure service providers ranked lower than IT product vendors in terms of respondents' plans to use external service providers, and because pure service providers generally ranked lower on the attribute of open source-related service innovation.
Other key findings from this study include:
- Cost savings remained the number one reason for respondents to adopt open source software.
- The service opportunity around open source remains with medium-sized and larger organizations. Respondents from companies with 1,000-9,999 employees reported the highest percentages in spending for 2007 across all services categories except support.
- Respondents believe the biggest challenge vendors face in delivering open source-related services is integrating open source and proprietary software components.
- Technology vendors generally have a leg up when compared to pure service providers in terms of respondents' plans to acquire external services, and respondents’ perceptions of who provides the most innovative services related to open source software.
60 Percent of Online Consumers Consider Environmental Consciousness an
Important Company Trait
DoubleClick Performics, the performance marketing division of DoubleClick
Inc., announced the results of a survey gauging online consumer behavior
and attitudes regarding “green” marketing.
In the survey of 1,087 adults, consumers indicated the most attractive type of environmentally-conscious marketing is that which focuses on such “specific user benefits” as saving money on bills or longer product lifespan. Consumers, when choosing between two similar products, prefer environmentally friendly products; 83 percent indicated they are extremely or very likely to choose the environmentally friendly option.
Additional data from the DoubleClick Performics’ “Green Marketing Study” revealed factors reported by consumers to influence their attitudes toward online buying:
- Of all online advertising sources, search engine results pages had the highest influence, with 32 percent of consumers reporting their impact on the purchase decision
- Most consumers (65 percent) provide feedback about an online purchase at least some of the time
- Approximately three fourths of those who make online purchases say a recommendation from a friend, family member or co-worker is valuable when purchasing online
- Respondents ages 18 to 34 find recommendations to be particularly valuable compared to older respondents
Research Indicates Only 12 Percent of Companies Have Adequate IT Governance
IT Governance Limited polled opinions of almost 100 technology and compliance
professionals on a range of IT governance issues. Results found that only
12 percent of businesses take technology seriously enough to operate full
board-level oversight of their IT resources, according to new research
from IT Governance Limited. Despite increasing compliance pressures under
Sarbanes-Oxley, the UK Combined Code, HIPAA and other regulatory regimes,
boards still appear to be lagging badly in implementing appropriate IT
governance measures. IT governance frameworks also appear to be used in
less than 50 percent of organizations.
Despite the critical importance of technology to most organizations, only
12 percent said that IT governance was important in their organizations
and that board-level IT oversight committees existed. While a further
16.5 percent reported that progress was being made towards achieving this,
more than 50 percent indicated that this was far from the case.
Respondents were similarly
skeptical about the grasp that board members have of technology’s
importance. Less than 7 percent said that board members understood the
risks posed to business operations by information and IT systems. In contrast,
49 percent said this was not the case, with over 22 percent stating this
emphatically.
Over 57 percent said that directors and officers failed to understand
the age and health of the current IT portfolio and the business implications
of deferring maintenance. Meanwhile, less than 37 percent said that IT
governance frameworks were integrated with their company’s enterprise
risk management regime, with less than 7 percent saying that this was
achieved fully.
Asked if their companies used standard IT governance frameworks, such
as ITIL, CoBIT, ISO17799 or PMBOK, 9 percent said yes, and 19 percent
said that good progress was being made towards this. However, over 21
percent said such frameworks were used only occasionally, and fully 30
percent indicated that they were not used at all.
Source: DMReview
Service Leadership - Dare to Care
Effective leadership comes down to one thing -- they will care when they know that you care! In recent Gallop Polls regarding the state of the US worker, it is shocking and disappointing to see how many people are truly disengaged in the workplace. In support organizations, the biggest differentiator between the organizations that excel at support, customer service and delivering business value versus the ones that consistently struggle is leadership. Leaders who wake up every day and approach their responsibility with energy, passion, caring and intelligence will make a difference in people's lives.
Full Article...
5 Tips on IT Alignment That Can Generate Profit
IT alignment, if done properly, is the CIO's primary tool for creating
value strategically in the company, that is, creating significant new
profit or increases in the size of your customer base or improvements
in your brand. Almost always, increases in value are eventually measured
in terms of increased profits. However, Most CIOs do not properly understand
the purpose or process of IT alignment and could use a little help in
better refining their understanding of what it is and what it can do for
them.
Full
Article...
Cross-Selling and Upselling: Translating Sales into Service
There are a good many practices that every call center with a cross-selling
or upselling element can put in place to succeed in generating profits
without alienating customers. Hiring practices should be revised to include
selling skills; coaching and training must take into account new selling
mindsets and technologies; incentives need to carefully selected and executed
to motivate agents; and everybody -- everybody -- needs to communicate
Full
Article...
The Top Five Things To Teach Call Center Agents
Rachel has just finished your agent orientation program and is ready to
hit the phones. She's passed the product knowledge test with flying colors
and seems to have better-than-average communications skills. She's actively
using the new soft-skills she learned in the final phase of orientation
and you're sure she's going to be one of your stars. But you have this
nagging feeling that you've forgotten to teach her something.
Full
Article...
Gadgets at Work: The Blurring Boundary between Consumer and Corporate
Technologies
Experts at Wharton agree that consumer technology has been going corporate
in recent years. Underlying this emerging trend are young and tech-savvy
workers -- called "digital natives"-- entering the workplace,
lower technology costs and the need to innovate quickly using web applications.
However, consumerization presents a conundrum to the traditional corporate
technology department. Previously, companies dictated what software and
hardware were used for work purposes. Today, choosing technology is becoming
increasingly democratic as workers get more of a say.
Full
Article...
Don't Let Tech-Savvy Business Execs Do An End Run Around IT
Some CIOs consider it a good thing to have tech-savvy colleagues with
whom they can talk turkey, but for some it's a case of a little knowledge
is a dangerous thing. Senior execs, line-of-business managers, and even
end users are trying to influence IT policy or, worse yet, attempting
end runs around the CIO to get favorite IT projects or products deployed.
Full
Article...
Wikinomics:
How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams
Today, encyclopedias, jetliners, operating systems, mutual funds, and many other items are being created by teams numbering in the thousands or even millions. While some leaders fear the heaving growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics proves this fear is folly. Smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation, growth, and success.
A brilliant guide to one of the most profound changes of our time, Wikinomics challenges our most deeply-rooted assumptions about business and will prove indispensable to anyone who wants to understand competitiveness in the twenty-first century.
Visit the SupportIndustry.com Blog
The SupportIndustry.com Blog is another way stay on top of the service and support industry. Our blog, updated at least once a week, is dedicated to covering the latest topics related to service and support, call center management, customer experience management, web-based support, help desks, workforce optimization and more.
Winning the Battle of Expectations vs. Reality in today's service desk
This webinar, conducted by SupportIndustry.com and presented by industry experts Pete McGarahan and Stephen Fenter, Director, Best Practices, SupportSoft, provides you with an insider's view of what is happening in the Service Desk today. Attendees will learn how implementing best practices and taking advantage of the latest support technologies can increase productivity and improve the performance of the Service Desk.
Manage Your e.Newsletter Subscription!
Log-on to the member's only page and you can to change newsletter formats, remove yourself from the list, or update your member profile.
Editorial
suggestions, feedback & comments:
Carolyn Healey, Editor - chealey@supportindustry.com
Advertising Information:
adinfo@supportindustry.com
Thank you for reading SupportIndustry.com's
weekly newsletter!
Copyright © 2008, supportindustry.com
