SupportIndustry.com - Research Documents

Optimism Among Private Company CEOs Dips Slightly in the Face of Regulatory, Political, and Economic Uncertainty

This past quarter, only 45 percent of the nation's leading private company executives surveyed for PricewaterhouseCoopers' Private Company Trendsetter Barometer voiced optimism about U.S. economic growth over the next twelve months -- six points below the previous quarter's 51 percent, though 11 points higher than a year ago. Private companies with international operations remained slightly more optimistic about U.S. economic growth than their domestic-only counterparts, 46 percent and 44 percent, respectively. As for optimism about the global economy, international marketers' confidence dropped to 37 percent, down ten points from last quarter's 47 percent but above last year's 30 percent.

Despite an increased sense of uncertainty, more than three quarters (76 percent) of leading private companies expect positive revenue growth for their businesses over the next 12 months, with 38 percent anticipating double-digit growth and 38 percent expecting single-digit growth. Only 12 percent forecast negative revenue growth, while just 14 percent forecast zero growth. Trendsetter CEOs are now forecasting an average 9.1 percent growth for their own companies' revenue over the next 12 months, down a point from last quarter's 10 percent forecast.

In keeping with increased uncertainty in the market, concern about lack of demand continues to be the main potential barrier to growth -- cited by 78 percent of respondents (up four points from the previous quarter).

Concerns over increased taxation (52 percent, up seven points from the previous quarter) and legislative/regulatory pressures (50 percent, up two points from the previous quarter) were cited by more Trendsetter CEOs this quarter, in line with increased uncertainty about global and U.S. economic performance and governmental policies.

Looking ahead, 54 percent of survey panelists plan to add employees to their workforce over the next 12 months. This is similar to the previous quarter's 53 percent and well above last year's 34 percent. Only 2 percent plan to reduce their workforce, and 44 percent will keep their hiring levels relatively the same. An overall increase of 1.8 percent is planned for the panel's composite workforce, up slightly from 1.5 percent last quarter and up from 1.4 percent a year ago. Most of the increase in prospective hiring is among small private businesses, which added 5.8 percent to their composite workforce versus 1.5 percent for large private businesses.

The number of private companies planning major capital investments over the next 12 months fell to 29 percent in the second quarter of 2010, down from last quarter's 32 percent. However, marketers doing business abroad -- especially the 30 percent that are selling in China, India, and Brazil -- remain ahead of their domestic-only peers in prospective spending over the next 12 months (50 percent). Overall, 31 percent of international marketers and 26 percent of domestic-only companies plan to increase capital spending. Operational spending plans for the next 12 months remain high at 58 percent, led by new product or service introductions (25 percent) and information technology (26 percent).

[Full Article] Sep-05-2010

Gartner Highlights Four Myths Surrounding IT Self-Service

Of all service desk contact volume, as much as 40 percent could be solved through IT self-service, but only 5 percent of issues actually are solved by IT self-service, according to Gartner, Inc. By 2015, the majority of IT organizations will have less than 10 percent of the contact volume managed by IT self-service.

Following extensive client research, Gartner analysts have identified four common myths that organizations have regarding IT self-service. Gartner believes that these myths and the associated realities, in combination with low IT service desk maturity, are the factors that prevent IT organizations from successfully delivering IT self-service.

Myth: IT self-service reduces costs.
Reality: IT self-service will reduce Level 1 support.

IT self-service does have the opportunity to reduce the cost of IT service and support by moving end-user issues to a lower cost level. However, self-service works well only for specific record types (mainly how-to requests, FAQs and password resets), so organizations should understand that implementing self-service will reduce volume only for those call types. Some issues will still require a call to the IT service desk and/or the assistance of a support technician.

Myth: IT self-service is a one-time investment.
Reality: IT self-service requires constant care and feeding.

IT self-service is not a "set it and forget it" option, and IT leaders need to constantly understand how IT self-service is being leveraged, and whether end users are getting value from the offering. End users can be aware of the existence of IT self-service support and still not understand how it functions, how it can and should be leveraged, or the benefits it can provide. This requires marketing efforts, specifically to users who may not be aware or users who do not find value in the offering or prefer calling the service desk.

Ongoing efforts also include the maintenance of the knowledge base where articles need continuous updating. Articles that do not fix the problem or that are difficult to understand do not lend themselves well to the credibility that IT self-service portals need to establish. Also, the wider the range of services supported, the more difficult it becomes to keep these knowledge articles up to date.

Myth: End users will flock to self-service.
Reality: End-user acceptance varies greatly.

Understanding the adoption of IT self-service by end users is critical in developing a successful IT self-service strategy, and most organizations will find that the first-year adoption rate can be very low. End-user utilization is the primary objective, so the time and cost investments that are tied to building a world-class self-service portal will not yield favorable returns if end users are not inclined to log their own tickets or attempt to solve their own problems.

Factors that can provide insight into this include an organization's demographics; groups like engineers or young people may be able and willing to leverage self-service, but end users who are stuck in their ways or who are not sophisticated computer users may not be as willing.

Myth: IT self-service is easy to implement.
Reality: The right "companion" tools and processes are prerequisites for a successful implementation.

End users want an IT self-service portal where knowledge is readily available, where passwords are easy to reset, and that is very intuitive to use. It is not the responsibility of the end user to dig through knowledge if it is not stored correctly, or care about any processes or roadblock issues that prevent the support organization from keeping the site fresh and up to date.

The two most frequent call types are how-to requests (how to access or operate IT resources) and password reset (establishing or regaining the privilege to access IT resources). Because password problems make up 20 percent to 30 percent of all IT service desk volume, with most of those issues resolvable by password reset tools, automating this function can save organizations the costs of supporting this type of request.

[Full Article] Sep-05-2010

Unisys Poll Shows Information Workers Ready and Willing to Purchase their Own Technology for Work

Nearly three-quarters of the 141 information workers (iWorkers) responding to a recent Unisys Corporation online poll indicated that they would be willing to pay at least part of the cost for productivity-enhancing technology for work if they could choose it themselves.

The respondents were answering the question, "What percentage of the cost of your job's IT tools would you be willing to fund if you had freedom to choose what you could use?"

Nearly one-third (32 percent) of the iWorkers said that they would be willing to pick up the full cost. Twenty-one percent said that they would pay up to half of the cost, and another 21 percent said that they would fund up to 30 percent of the cost.

This indication of a groundswell of iWorker interest in using self-purchased technology for work reinforces the findings from recent "Consumerization of IT" research sponsored by Unisys and conducted by International Data Corp. (IDC)(1). The first part of the two-phase research - a study of 2,820 iWorkers in 10 countries - showed that enterprise employees are overwhelmingly willing to buy their own consumer technologies for use at work. In fact, 95 percent of respondents to that study reported that they use at least one self-purchased device for work.

About one-quarter (26 percent) of the respondents to the recent online poll said that they wouldn't pay anything toward purchase of their own IT equipment. They said that they viewed such purchases as being the responsibility of their employers.

In the second phase of the Unisys-sponsored "Consumerization of IT" research - a survey of nearly 650 global IT decision-makers - 70 percent of the employer respondents indicated that they intended to continue taking on that responsibility through traditional models for purchasing employees' devices and covering business-related charges.

[Full Article] Aug-14-2010

Gartner says Worldwide Enterprise IT Spending on Pace to Grow 2.9 Percent in 2010

Worldwide enterprise IT spending across all industry markets will grow 2.9 percent in 2010 and surpass $2.4 trillion, according to Gartner, Inc. Analysts said that all industries are continuing to return to growth after a challenging year in 2009, when IT spending by vertical market totaled $2.3 trillion, a 5.9 percent decline from 2008.

"The enterprise IT market will certainly return to growth in 2010, but we now expect it will grow by only 2.9 percent globally, down from 4.1 percent growth we had forecast earlier this year," said Kenneth Brant, research director at Gartner. "Utilities and the national and international government sectors will experience the strongest growth rates in 2010, with IT spending growing 4.7 and 4 percent respectively in 2010."

Gartner recommends that technology and service providers target high-growth industry segments through 2014, as well as undertaking further analysis of large, slow-growth segments for unusual growth opportunities at the subindustry segment level. However, Gartner advised technology providers to exercise caution with regard to the economy and its impacts on enterprise IT markets.

[Full Article] Aug-14-2010

HyperQuality 2010 Contact Center Quality Initiatives Survey Shows Disparity between Corporate Strategy and Execution

In a new survey of contact center managers, directors and supervisors, HyperQuality found a material gap between the majority of current corporate strategies and their implementation. Approximately 70 percent of those surveyed indicated their company is increasing its emphasis on customer service, primarily to differentiate in a competitive environment, yet less than half of all companies were conducting a sufficient number of quality evaluations within their contact center to increase customer satisfaction.

The survey confirms that those responsible for customer service within a company's front-line call center believe regular quality evaluations to be one of the most effective ways to improve customer service.

According to the survey results, contact center managers desire additional knowledge-sharing across the industry so they can leverage best practices to improve center efficiency. Additionally, there is a need for more sophisticated software tools to analyze customer data across multiple centers in a simple, cohesive way.

[Full Article] Aug-14-2010

	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80	Next >>
Page: 1/80 Articles: 400