Cisco Profit Climbs 4.4% on Sales Growth
Cisco Systems Inc. posted a 4.4% increase in profit on sales growth of nearly 10%, bucking worries that the slowing economy would hold down demand for high-tech products. The company, the world's biggest maker of networking hardware, indicated sales growth is likely to slow in the next two quarters. Analysts have been waiting for Cisco's numbers for signs that economic woes are spreading. In the past few years, when corporate customers have reduced spending on networking gear, the impact on Cisco has tended to be offset by rising Internet traffic that prompted cable and telephone companies to buy more hardware.
Source: WSJ

Forrester Acquires JupiterResearch
Forrester Research, Inc. announced that it has acquired JupiterResearch, LLC, and its parent company, JUPR Holdings, Inc., from MCG Capital Corporation for $23 million in cash plus assumed liabilities, subject to post-closing adjustments, in a strategic purchase that complements Forrester's syndicated business model.  Forrester serves marketing and strategy, IT, and technology industry leaders across 19 professional roles. The addition of JupiterResearch will fortify Forrester's existing data-driven insight, forward-looking research and analysis, objective advice, and best practices for Marketing & Strategy professionals globally.

Soffront CRM Supports Multi-Currency
Soffront Software Inc., a provider of mid-market CRM software, announced multi-currency support in version 8.7 of its popular software. This multi-currency feature increases efficiency of the sales team to conduct business using worldwide currencies. Multi-currency support is available in all Soffront modules, including sales, forecasting, quotes and invoices, and reporting. Soffront CRM supports all worldwide currencies and exchange rates. Customers can select a currency as their corporate currency to run monthly, quarterly, and annual reports for the enterprise. Yet sales teams in different countries can still manage all of their quotes and opportunities in their local currency.

Achieving Change Management from a Business Perspective  August 14, 2008 11:00 am PT

This SupportIndustry.com webinar, conducted by Pete McGarahan and FrontRange Solutions, examines IT and ITIL best practices for managing change across the entire IT infrastructure. In this webinar, you will learn:

• Why the first question during a system outage should be "What Changed?"
• Why formal and controlled IT Change Management is a high priority for the business
• The metrics that matter most for IT and the business
• Positioning IT Change Management on your ITSM Roadmap
• Changing the IT Culture to adopt and adapt to this formalized process for implementing change
• The business speaks -- real life stories regarding change gone badly!

Register today!

Worldwide IT Services Market On Track to Grow 9.5 Percent in 2008
Despite the uncertain economic situation, the IT services market is expected to remain strong as worldwide IT services end-user spending is forecast to exceed $819 billion in 2008, up 9.5 percent from 2007, according to Gartner, Inc. Analysts said results in the first half of 2008 have shown mixed results. Core outsourcing (IT management and process management) remains the highest growth area in the market. In 2008, core outsourcing services are on track to represent 42 percent of total worldwide IT services end-user spending.

The consulting and development and integration (D&I) segments continue to exhibit steady growth. These segments are fueled by demands such as overall cost reduction, combined with demand for projects that can improve profitability or revenue growth. The worldwide consulting and D&I segments combined are forecast to reach $327 billion in 2008, up 10.1 percent from $297 billion in 2007.
More...

Security and Privacy Risks of Telecommuting Not Effectively Being Addressed
Telecommuting and the virtual office put sensitive corporate data, including the personal information of customers, at risk of compromise, according to a report released by the Center for Democracy & Technology and Ernst & Young.

The report, "The State of Telecommuting: Privacy and Security," based on a survey of 73 organizations recommends that companies with a telecommuting workforce need to pay more attention to the unique privacy and security risks posed by remote access. The report offers practical advice to companies on securing data accessed by employees working from home or other remote locations.

According to a recent report more than 46 million people are expected to work at home at least one day a week by the end of 2011. That increase of telecommuting workers heightens the need for robust security and privacy policies. Respondents acknowledged the inherent risks of telecommuting, but admitted these risks aren't made a high priority.

Serious gaps remain between the establishment of security requirements and consistent monitoring and enforcement. Consider these findings:

• Computers used by telecommuting employees often do not contain security features that specifically address the unique threats that come from remote computing, such as inappropriate access by non-employees, use of technology for unauthorized purposes, etc.

• Portable devices, such as laptops and personal digital assistants (PDAs), commonly involved in data breaches, are widely used by telecommuters. However, few organizations have adopted thin client terminals-lightweight devices with Internet connectivity-which have little data storage capability.

• Telecommuting employees using their own personal computers or PDAs for work purposes thwart the advantages of employer supplied encryption tools.

• Allowing telecommuters to use wireless Internet connections is a common practice, but the use of wireless security measures is not widely required. The implications of this finding are compounded by the fact that telecommuters are increasingly accessing their neighbors' unsecured wireless connections when working from home.

• Policies on downloading software and using peer-to-peer file-sharing applications are common but the enforcement approach varies. While half of the organizations use technical controls to block peer-to-peer file sharing applications, and a third of organizations block telecommuters from using instant messaging applications, others lack technical controls, relying instead on software use policies.

More...

90 Percent of E-Commerce Sites Will Use At Least One SaaS-Based Service by 2013
Although uptake of software-as-a-service (SaaS) e-commerce solutions is slow, more organizations will begin to utilize these services during the next few years, according to Gartner, Inc. By 2013, 40 percent of e-commerce deployments will use a complete SaaS e-commerce solution and 90 percent of e-commerce sites will subscribe to at least one SaaS-based service, such as product reviews, product recommendations or social sales capabilities.

Even with the benefits from e-commerce SaaS solutions, commitment to upgrading e-commerce Web sites appears to outpace commitment to the SaaS model for e-commerce during the next couple of years. Gartner analysts believe several factors are contributing to this trend:

• SaaS e-commerce may not be appropriate for some Web sites, and may not provide a differentiated experience — Because the SaaS model has a low barrier to entry, some organizations feel that competitors can sign up quickly and easily with the same SaaS e-commerce provider, and deliver an equal online customer experience. However, organizations that are challenged in their e-commerce IT capabilities (such as lack of budget for people, hardware and software), and organizations that can have e-commerce capabilities without having to obtain hardware and software, find SaaS e-commerce appealing.

• Current SaaS e-commerce offerings can't support business-to-business (B2B) — All SaaS e-commerce vendors support B2C online selling; however, for vendors with B2B requirements (such as quoting, proposal generation, lead management and purchase order payment processes), or for organizations that sell into a multilevel network of partners, SaaS e-commerce offerings won't be able to meet the necessary requirements.

• Concern about the impact of SaaS e-commerce on the total IT portfolio -- Organizations are often concerned about the management of a mixed-application environment (SaaS and non-SaaS applications). Many IT people fear that they'll be held responsible for site outages or performance issues when they actually have no control over the SaaS e-commerce application or its operating environment, and can control only part of the systems that contribute to the overall customer experience.

• Uncertainty of SaaS e-commerce integration with other applications -- Organizations that aren't familiar with SaaS offerings are uncertain how to integrate SaaS e-commerce with their existing applications and the stability of the integration over time. Although SaaS vendors don't operate in a stand-alone vacuum, some are able to loosely couple with an organization's applications via application programming interfaces, Web services or XML interfaces, while others have specific and tightly coupled integration requirements.

• Concern about data collection and data ownership issues in a SaaS e-commerce environment --Many vendors claim that all data associated with a client site is owned by the subscriber, but that aggregated data isn't. This belief may vary by vendor, so organizations should ensure that they cover this issue before entering into a contract.

• Some vendors have technical limitations, such a shortcomings in Web 2.0 capabilities -- In some cases, vendors focus on providing commodity e-commerce functions (enabling organizations to have basic online stores) to a large audience, while other vendors focus on providing enterpriselike e-commerce solutions for large organizations, which are more aligned with Web 2.0 capabilities.

• Organizations may need IT and non-IT resources to support the Web site -- This varies by the vendor selected, because some vendors require the organization to have some IT resources for integration support with back-end systems, and to have business users to manage the products and the site's user interface. Other vendors may provide both of these supportive services; thus, clients must understand their commitments before entering into a contract for the service.

• Various SaaS e-commerce payment models are creating confusion -- Payment for SaaS e-commerce can vary by provider, so organizations must run test models to determine what they'll be paying for SaaS e-commerce in the short term (less than three years) and the long term (greater than five years).

More... 

2008 IT Market Compensation Study Projects a Decline in IT Hiring
Although the recruitment and retention of skilled IT professionals continues to be a key issue for organizations, even under the current economic conditions, IT organizations will be cautious about their hiring plans in 2008 and 2009 in response to potential IT budget cuts, according to an annual survey by Gartner, Inc.

According to a survey of 285 U.S.-based IT organizations, 57.9 percent projected an increase in IT staff levels (including full-time employees and contractors as supplementary staff) during the survey time period (March 1, 2008 through February 28, 2009). However, this is a notable drop from 66.3 percent reported in the 2007 study. At the same time, the survey also showed the percentage of organizations projecting a greater than 10% increase in head count also dropped from 15.7 percent in 2007 to 12.1 percent in 2008.

The survey showed that the median employee-initiated turnover rate with retirements was 7.1 percent, down from 7.2 percent in 2007. The median voluntary turnover rate without retirements was 7 percent. IT organizations in other services, public, nonprofit and manufacturing experienced more retirement-related turnover than other industries over the past 12 months.

The survey showed that current economic conditions have yet to have a material impact on compensation budgets. Enterprises are continuing to budget for pay increases in 2008 at a level similar to previous years, with the reported median salary increase budget at 3.6 percent.

Companies that know where to invest their dollars in which reward elements based on their workforce demographic compositions, and closely align their rewards strategies with those of the business and IT, will gain a competitive advantage over their peers in the marketplace in attracting and retaining desired IT talent.
More...

Two Out of Five Executives Say Company Data Volume is Increasing in Size and Becoming Unmanageable
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended 18 months ago, requiring that companies have the ability to access quickly an inventory of various electronically stored information in the event of litigation. Yet, a recent online poll, conducted by Deloitte, found that nearly two out of every five executives (39.7 percent) felt that data volumes in the organizations they’ve worked for are increasing in size and becoming unmanageable.

In fact, 17.5 percent of executives surveyed said their companies are not ready to handle complex discovery requests.

Nearly 12 percent (11.8 percent) of companies surveyed have no policy in place to share clear guidance with the IT department and all other employees on document retention and destruction.  Another 9.4 percent have no policy in place, but distribute specific directives when litigation arises.

Executive respondents' greatest concerns about document discovery included:  the expense of going through large volumes of files, due to vendor or in-house costs (47.5 percent); damaged productions and exposure to sanctions, due to vendor or in-house error (16.3 percent); and failure to meet deadlines set by the court (12.9 percent).

Some leading practices Deloitte recommends to help companies ease the process of litigation include:

• Prepare and implement an e-discovery program
• In conjunction with counsel create records management policies, procedures and retention schedules
• Map the company's data system and data source catalog
• Manage and remediate legacy data
• In conjunction with counsel develop a legal hold strategy and process to preserve all forms of relevant information in the face of litigation
• Establish discovery protocol with regulators

More...

Nine Timeless Truths of Call Center Design
If you cram your agents into tiny little boxes, they’re going to feel like lab animals -- and will likely perform about as well. Managers need to take great care in designing the layout of the call center floor to keep the agents from feeling crammed in and underappreciated. In fact, you may be surprised at what a few small improvements can do for your bottom line.
Full Article...

Efficient and Effective Contact Center Growth
Callers expect three things from your organization: to be helped promptly, knowledgeably and passionately. Fail to deliver on these expectations, and you risk sacrificing your entire brand image in your customers' eyes. Therefore, it is imperative to keep complexity from sabotaging your ability to deliver a quality customer experience.
Full Article...

Contact Centers - Quickly Becoming Low-Hanging Fruit for Hackers
The bounty of personal information contained within a contact center can include credit card information, bank account information, records such as maiden names, birth dates – social security numbers – drivers license numbers and myriad other information that is useful in establishing fraudulent credit accounts facilitating identity theft. The theft and sale of this information has created an underground economy on today’s Internet. Popular security product vendors have unfortunately failed to keep pace with ever-changing hacker methodologies used in the theft of personal information and the workers within contact centers are in many cases simply left defenseless.
Full Article...

 
Golf and Your Career: 10 Fun Facts Every IT Pro Should Know
The common wisdom holds that the golf course is where business deals get made and that playing golf is a must for a successful corporate career. But not everyone is convinced of the relationship-building, networking and career-advancement power of the game of golf. So says CIO's golf survey. Our online survey was taken by 394 IT industry professionals who identified themselves as golfers (48 percent), non-golfers (34 percent) or those considering taking up the sport (18 percent). Here's what they had to say about enhancing their careers, their dream golf partner and destination, and just what corporate golf does and does not do for them.
Full Article...

Finding the Sigma Level of Customer Complaint
Few companies have extended Six Sigma from a manufacturing application to manage customer satisfaction or customer complaints. But it is possible to measure the sigma level of customer complaints, and this information can be valuable when making improvements to customer service processes and delivery.
Full Article...

Forrester Research: The Impact of Customer Support on Corporate Revenue
Studies continuously reveal that customer support plays a significant role in determining stock price and sales revenue -- and that's why customer support shouldn't be left out when developing a corporate revenue strategy.

This new Forrester White Paper explores the close-knit relationship between customer support and a company's revenue, and tips for transitioning from a cost center to a profit center.
Click below to download the Report...

2008 Service & Support Metrics Survey Results
Supportindustry.com has announced the release of a free white paper outlining the results of the 2008 Service & Support Metrics Survey. This annual survey explores the state of enterprise service and support -- current industry trends, future plans, technology adoption, workforce issues, benchmarking strategies, metrics and other areas.
Get your free copy of the survey results today!

White Paper: Improving Customer Service Using Web-based Support Tools
In the realm of service and support, the Web has made its mark. Since a business's Web site is the first place many customers go today when they're in need of service, it's imperative that what they find there -- the search tools, the breadth and depth of content, easy escalation paths, the tools that aid in speedy resolution -- meets their needs. Each visit presents the business with the opportunity to impress and influence existing and potential customers.

Find out more! This informative white paper from SupportIndustry.com examines the latest trends and technologies in using Web-based support tools to improve customer service.
Click Here to Download...

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.
Check it out today

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Carolyn Healey, Editor - chealey@supportindustry.com

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