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Cognos to Acquire Applix
Cognos, a provider of business intelligence and performance management solutions, and Applix, Inc., a provider of business analytics software solutions, announced the execution of a definitive agreement for Cognos to acquire Applix. With this acquisition, Cognos expects to further extend its position as a leading independent provider of financial performance management. The planned acquisition is a cash tender offer of $17.87 per share, which equates to approximately $339 million or $306 million net of Applix cash on hand. Applix will complement Cognos flagship products -- Cognos 8 Planning, Cognos 8 Controller, and Cognos 8 Business Intelligence -- specifically in the area of financial performance management.

Customers Get More Aggressive
Customer service staff are being verbally assaulted, spat on and are receiving death threats with increasing frequency, according to new research by the Queensland University of Technology. Researcher Dominique Keeffe said aggressive customers were fast becoming the norm as people became more comfortable acting out their frustration with bad service and corporate bureaucracy.

Ms Keefe, who is interviewing staff from the health care and financial industries including nurses, doctors, financial planners and bank and insurance staff, said interviewees had reported some incredible experiences. "I have been told by service employees that they have had keys thrown at them, they have been spat on and they have even had death threats,'' she said. "One person was confronted with a customer who thrust a non-functioning gun in their face and told them they were 'lucky this time'.'' Ms Keeffe said customers had always misbehaved but there was evidence it was happening more often. She said guidelines that staff had to follow under corporate policy was a major source of discontent.

Nuance and ClickFox Help Customer Service Organizations Optimize Self-Service Performance
Nuance Communications, Inc., a supplier of speech and imaging solutions, and ClickFox, a provider of Customer Behavior Intelligence, announced a series of new customers for Nuance Consumer Insight, powered by ClickFox, the industry’s first business analytics suite designed specifically to optimize speech-enabled caller experiences. New customers include Aetna, AT&T, Bell South, Caremark, Qwest, The Hartford, and XM Radio. Since the launch of Nuance Consumer Insight in 2006, Nuance and ClickFox have developed an integrated solution that delivers dedicated dashboards and reports pertaining to Nuance speech applications. Enterprises that deployed Nuance Consumer Insight have been able to measure and analyze customer interactions to identify opportunities that optimize the customer experience.

Comcast Uses Mobile Workforce Management Solution from Amdocs and Ventyx
Comcast, a provider of cable broadband, entertainment and communications products and services, Amdocs, a provider of customer experience systems, and Ventyx, a Service Delivery Management solution provider, announced that they are working together to deploy a mobile workforce management solution that supports new handheld devices being used by Comcast technicians. The Amdocs billing, ordering and customer management platform is one of the platforms that Comcast uses to support video, high-speed Internet and voice services in about half of the markets it serves. Working with that platform, the Ventyx enterprise workforce management Service Suite 8 software leverages a scheduling engine and user-friendly dispatch systems that let workflow coordinators schedule, dispatch and route work orders via wireless mobile devices to technicians in the field. In addition, field technicians can update a customer's account history during a service visit.

"Strategies for Service Excellence"
Las Vegas, NV, November 5-7, 2007

Join us in Las Vegas for the Services Industry Summit - "Strategies for Service Excellence", at the Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, November 5-7, 2007. Network with industry leaders, who will share their strategies for delivering world-class service and support. Presentation topics include Service Excellence by Design, Mergers and Acquisitions - Strategies for Successful Integration, Strategies for Managing Staff Performance, Service Excellence and the Trusted Advisor, and more.

Don't miss this event! Click here for details.

Stressed IT Workers Use Various Coping Mechanisms to Deal With Relentless Demands of Updating Technical Skills
A new study from the Richard Ivey School of Business shows that stressed IT professionals who use a balance of problem-focused coping strategies and emotion-focused coping strategies are most successful in dealing with the stress of staying perpetually up-to-date.

Feeling stressed and harried is a normal state of affairs for many people in their workplaces. But the reality for information technology professionals is even more intense as their skills are continually depleted as opposed to accumulating over time.

Not all IT professionals view this requirement to continually re-skill themselves as a threat, but many do. With companies spending 1.5% to 7% of their gross revenue each year on IT investments and innovations; this level of investment puts substantial pressure on IT professionals to maintain and gain skills to put these technologies in place effectively.

The study highlights the importance of monitoring the stress that results from the constant demand on IT professionals to update their technical skills because the threat of technical obsolescence may result in a higher rate of absenteeism, work burnout and a desire to change careers. Managers can help by providing IT professionals with concrete resources such as research time, opportunities to attend courses, and physical facilities that facilitate trial and error.

IT professionals who deploy different combinations of coping strategies end up with different levels of distress. They fared best by using a combination of problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping.

Problem-focused coping strategies:

• Direct Action: thinking about solutions to the problem, gathering information about it, or actually doing something to try to solve it.
• Seeking Social Support: exerting conscious effort to find (1) advice, assistance, or information

Emotion-focused Coping Strategies:

• Seeking Social Support: exerting conscious effort to find (2) sympathy or moral support.
• Situation Redefinition: trying to see the problem in a different light that makes it seem more bearable.
• Acceptance: accepting that the problem had occurred but that nothing could be done about it.
• Relaxation: doing something with the implicit intention of relaxing.
• Distraction: diverting attention away from the problem by thinking about other things or engaging in some activity.
  
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Study Finds Expectations For Outstanding Customer Service is Rising
According to the second annual Customer Experience Impact Report, a Harris Interactive study sponsored by RightNow(R) Technologies, 80 percent of consumers will never go back to an organization after a bad customer experience, up from 68 percent in 2006.

The report revealed that service is a significant differentiator for companies: 51 percent of consumers cited "outstanding service" as a top reason they continue to do business with a company. Another 60 percent noted "outstanding service" as a top reason they would recommend a company.

The study found that consumers continue to feel sick and become outraged after a bad customer service experience with companies. For example:

• 74% registered a complaint or told others;
• 47% swore and/or shouted;
• 13% posted a negative online review or blog entry; and
• 29% got a headache, felt their chest tighten and/or cried.

The report also uncovered regional differences in how consumers engage with companies and react to various customer experiences. For example, compared to their counterparts across the United States:

• Midwesterners are more likely to swear, feel their chest tighten or get a headache after a bad customer experience.
• Westerners are more likely to never return to a company or post a negative blog entry/online review after a bad customer experience.
• Southerners are more likely to register a complaint or tell others about their bad customer experience and are least likely to swear.
• North-easterners are least likely to register a complaint, tell others or post a blog entry or online review after a bad customer experience.

More...

INPUT Expects $20 Billion Rush in Federal IT Spending in Q4 of Government Fiscal Year 2007
Spending on information technology in the final months of the U.S. federal government's fiscal year 2007 is expected to reach over $20 billion -- over 33% of the 2007 total federal IT spend -- continuing the trend toward a fourth quarter spending spree, according to a recent report released by INPUT, the authority on government business. The report suggests that IT spending by agencies has been steadily shifting from other fiscal quarters to the fourth quarter over the last ten years.

The federal government fiscal year ends September 30th, and is often marked among vendors receiving a flurry of orders as agencies use up remaining funds. According to the report, this trend appears to be fueled in part by the nature of the appropriations process. The report also suggests that the increased purchasing activity in the fourth quarter favors established vendors who have put in the up-front work of relationship building and establishing their value.

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Ratio of IT Support Staff to Employees Falls Short
According to a new survey by Robert Half Technology of 1,400 CIOs, those polled said their companies’ technical support teams are, on average, 40 percent smaller than they optimally should be. CIOs were asked, “What is the ratio of internal end-users to technical support employees at your company?” The mean response was 136:1. CIOs also were asked, “What would be the ideal ratio of internal end-users to technical support employees at your company?” The mean response was 82:1.

Survey results also indicated that CIOs from the largest companies (greater than 1,000 employees) were closest to their ideal level of technical support, with a ratio of end-users to IT staff of 118:1 versus an ideal of 82:1. Farthest from their ideal were CIOs from midsize firms (250-499 employees), who said that their ratio of end-users to IT support staff is 131:1, when in a perfect world it would be 64:1.

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The Cold, Green Facts
Buying energy-efficient technology isn't the only--or even the best--way to cut down on energy consumption in the data center. Rethinking the way you use the technology you already have can make a bigger impact.
Full Article...

The Desktop Takes Center Stage Again
Rumors of the demise of the desktop have been greatly exaggerated. In recent years, bloggers, reporters, company executives, and others have exulted in the apparent obsolescence of the vast space on computers set aside for software. Why clutter a desktop with pricey programs for word processing, spreadsheet creation, and the like when many of those tools are becoming available, often at no cost, over the Web -- or so the argument ran. That view is being challenged lately, though, as a number of companies, including well-trafficked online destinations such as eBay, are finding ways to take their services outside the confines of the Web browser and place them squarely within the domain of --you guessed it -- the desktop.
Full Article...

Six Keys for Creating an Innovative IT Team
Before IT can innovate, it needs to build a solid infrastructure and demonstrate business-savvy. This article presents six keys for creating an innovative IT team.
Full Article...

Avoiding Failure in Technology Partnerships
Today, the truth is that few technology partnerships are as successful as their participants wish. Most failures result from poor alignment between parties on key objectives and metrics. Forrester Research suggests 21 questions to drive that alignment across four core competencies: building technology and product strategy, aligning go-to-market (GTM) activities, investing in a support ecosystem, and executing the action plan. This article looks at the most common causes of partnership failure, and recommends areas of focus for software vendors aiming to ensure the long-term success of their partnerships.
Full Article...

Spectacular Support Centers
by Kristin E. Robertson

As a manager or supervisor of a smaller support center, you feel the pain of constantly pushing your help desk toward excellence. You must be concerned with metrics, customer service, personnel issues, and quality assurance, not to mention which tools to implement! You feel the weight of budget constraints more acutely than a larger center. You juggle priorities, making do with less. You must think strategically, devising a plan for the future of your center, while still handling the tactical tasks and keeping management and employees happy. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some guidance and assistance along the way?

It's here! The reference guide for every small to mid-sized help desk and technical support center! Whether you are managing a new or a maturing support center, this book covers all aspects of the complicated art of running a spectacular support center.

More Info...

White Paper: Using Web-based Support Tools to Improve Customer Service
This informative white paper examines the latest trends and technologies in using Web-based support tools to improve customer service. Get your copy today!

Multichannel Service & Support Survey of Executives: Report of Findings
To get a complimentary copy of the report, click here.

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Carolyn Healey, Editor - chealey@supportindustry.com

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