Industry Thought Leader Jeanne Bliss and Senior Executives from SSPA, Xerox, and Network Appliance Keynote SSPA Best Practices Conference

Presentations Center on Conference Theme of “Optimizing Support to Deliver Exceptional Customer Value”

SAN DIEGO, March 14, 2007 – The Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the largest and most influential association for technology service and support professionals, has announced a stellar line-up of keynote speakers for its Best Practices Conference, May 6-8 in San Diego.

“Customer service professionals know too well that in order to deliver top-notch customer value, you must have a deep understanding of the industry best practices. The industry has come to rely on SSPA for the latest and most relevant best practices, and our May conference exemplifies that, showcasing emerging best practices from companies who are leading the industry,” said Bill Rose, SSPA founder and executive director.

To kick off the conference, Jeanne Bliss, CEO of CustomerBLISS, and the author of Chief Customer Officer: Getting Past Lip Service to Passionate Action, will provide a guide to getting commitment from the C-suite to drive accountability and what skills are required to drive the customer agenda across an organization, particularly those with a ‘silo’ management environment. As an added bonus, the first two hundred attendees that register for the SSPA Best Practices conference in San Diego will receive a complimentary copy of her book and have a chance to have it personally autographed by Bliss at the event. Bliss is a frequent keynote speaker helping companies focus on customers and making customers the asset of their business.

Rusty Walther, senior vice president of global support, Network Appliance, acknowledges that many support professionals entering new companies or new roles find themselves with the opportunity to clean up systems, processes and people that are poorly organized and lack the goals, strategies and tactics necessary to succeed. In such a situation, how does one decide when to embrace incremental changes, or whether the time is right to “Go BIG,” and make really large changes over a short time?  Walther will present the risks and rewards of both models, and how to identify the factors that signal when driving huge change is worth the risk.

Xerox Corporation’s region vice president for Xerox Services, Julie Hogan, will present “Total Alignment: Creating a Customer-Focused Culture.”  The session will examine the key requirements of front-line leadership and effective processes that ensure that the entire enterprise is aligned around the goal of delivering exceptional customer value.  Xerox Services, a two-time recipient of the J.D. Power and Associates / SSPA Certified Technology Service and SupportSM (CTSS) award, has linked individual employee objectives, performance feedback and cross-organizational alignment with company and customer goals to deliver on the customer promise.

In “Battling the Perfect Storm: New Technology Trends in Service and Support,” John Ragsdale, SSPA vice president of research, will look at the “perfect storm” of technical complexity, rising interaction volumes, and increased customer expectations – and how these elements work together to challenge the way organizations do business. Ragsdale will discuss how technology is playing an increasingly important role in maintaining and building customer value, and will present the latest trend information from the SSPA’s industry research, including results from a recent SSPA member technology adoption survey. During the session, Ragsdale will also present the SSPA's Spring 2007 Recognized Innovator Awards.

The conference also includes breakout sessions in nine tracks: Support Optimization, Best Practices for Small & Medium Companies, Knowledge Management, Web Self-Service and Online Communities, Protecting and Expanding Service and Product Revenue, Talent Management & Training, Services Sales & Marketing, Benchmarking & Metrics, and Tools & Technology.  In addition to the breakout sessions, Best Practices Sharing Sessions—facilitated peer-to-peer discussion—will be offered in these tracks.

About the SSPA
As the industry’s foremost professional association, the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) is a key resource for the information and best practices needed to make better business decisions. It brings together the best minds from across the industry spectrum – from established companies with successful track records to the pioneering newcomers with out-of-the-box ideas. The SSPA also partners with thought leaders such as J.D. Power and Associates and the Wharton School of Business to create programs that benefit the industry. The SSPA is a member of a global network of associations that includes the Technology Professional Services Association (TPSA). For more information, visit www.thesspa.com.