Former Forrester VP to Head SSPA Research

Services Industry Expert, John Ragsdale, to Strengthen
Association’s Content and Research Agenda

SAN DIEGO, Calif., June 12, 2006 –The Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the largest and most influential association for technology services and support professionals, today announced that John Ragsdale, former vice president and director of the Enterprise Applications research group for Forrester, has joined the SSPA as vice president of research.

Ragsdale will strengthen the association’s highly regarded content and research agenda, delivering insightful, thought-leadership research and analysis on the most pressing business issues facing technology services leaders to enable them to better plan and execute their service strategies.

With his experiences ranging from frontline call center management to in-depth industry analysis, Ragsdale brings an extensive understanding of the technology and vendor landscape for IT services. He will leverage those insights to help guide SSPA members in making informed technology, business and investment decisions.

“John’s extensive background makes him the perfect person to produce a continuous stream of unique, hard-hitting and high-impact content that addresses key strategic aspects of the technology maintenance and support industry,” said Bill Rose, SSPA founder and executive director.

For the SSPA membership, Ragsdale will publish unique insights from within the SSPA Benchmark Survey, the industry's most robust source of comparative benchmarking data and statistics with over 200 companies supplying data. He will lead interactive forums for ongoing collaborative discussion and dialog around key trends and issues. In addition, he will develop and execute a 12-month rolling roadmap of research and analysis which will be delivered to membership in white papers and presentations, as well as SSPA News and Insight articles. Ragsdale will be a regular featured speaker on SSPA and partner-sponsored webcasts. He will interface with SSPA members and partners to share insights and gather information on their views, challenges, current practices and plans for the future.

“The SSPA has garnered the attention of virtually every senior technology services executive in the IT sector,” said Ragsdale. “This unique position enables me to work with the association leadership and the membership to influence and lead the collective industry thinking forward to a new future state for technology services.”

As director of the Enterprise Applications research group at Forrester, Ragsdale's area of expertise was selecting and implementing CRM applications, including needs analysis and vendor evaluation. His research area included ancillary applications for CRM, such as eService, knowledge management, and email response management systems ( ERMS). He has been involved in the design and implementation of customer service and CRM solutions for most of his career. Ragsdale came to Forrester through its acquisition of Giga Information Group.

Prior to joining Giga, Ragsdale spent four years with Clarify as director of product management and general manager of the e-service business unit. He worked for J.C. Penney for more than 10 years, managing both internal and external customer support organizations, before moving to Silicon Valley in 1995 to manage product management for Answer Systems, an early support automation vendor.

Bill Rose, SSPA founder and executive director, will introduce John Ragsdale to the SSPA membership in a Webcast on June 26, 2006 at 11:00 AM PST. Check www.thesspa.com for details.

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 like J.D. Power and Associates and the Wharton School of Business to create programs that benefit the industry. For more information, visit www.thesspa.com.

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