(San Diego, CA. November 5, 2003) – The Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the leading industry Association for IT support professionals, today announced that Participate Systems, a leading provider of online customer and sales support solutions, has joined the SSPA Vendor Member program, a membership dedicated to bringing IT support service buyers and sellers together online. The SSPA Vendor Membership is a community that resides at the Web address www.thesspa.com. The primary focus of this membership is to increase the visibility of vendors and suppliers within the IT service and support community.

“We are pleased to have Participate Systems as a new SSPA Member,” said Bill Rose, SSPA Founder/CEO. “They bring a valued resource to the tech support industry and are one of the leading providers of outsourced online customer self-help solutions. They are a great addition to the SSPA Vendor Member program.”

Over the last five years, Participate Systems has been powering some of high tech’s most successful customer self-help communities. Participate’s industry leading customers, like Cisco Systems, Mercury Interactive, Logitech, and Microsoft, are using customer communities to reduce support costs, increase customer satisfaction and capture critical customer insights.

“We are very pleased to be a part of the SSPA community. The SSPA is at the center of what support professionals need to know to help their organizations excel. We look forward to sharing our area of expertise by helping support professionals leverage the tremendous value that customer-to-customer interactions and advanced self help technology can yield in cost savings and customer satisfaction,” said Alan Warms, CEO and president of Participate Systems.

Participate Systems is the latest member of the SSPA Vendor program, which includes companies such as Next Nine, Inc.; iPhrase Technologies; empolis; InQuira, Inc.; UniPress; Soffront Software; Talisma Corporation; Usability Sciences Corporation; NetReflector, Inc.; Mitel Corporation; Kaidara Software; Step 9 Software Corporation; TheBrain Technologies; Astea International; Netopia, Inc.; ePeople; Lionbridge Technologies; Expertcity; Motive Communications; CustomerSat.com; Intuit; Ask Jeeves; ECE; Prometric; Kanisa; Primus; TuVox; Satmetrix Systems; Front Range Solutions; GWI Software; ICT Group; Zeacom; White Pajama; WebEx; Service Strategies Corporation; Service800 and others.

About Participate Systems
Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Chicago, Participate Systems is a leading provider of online customer support and sales effectiveness solutions. Participate Systems online customer support solution is the first to combine advanced self-help features with a comprehensive community platform. Participate customers are leveraging this solution to decrease support costs through significant call avoidance, to increase customer satisfaction, and to capture critical customer feedback. The solution combines sophisticated software, reliable hosting services and ongoing Active Management Services for a fixed monthly fee. Participate Systems' customers include Cisco Systems, Handspring, IBM, Logitech, Mercury Interactive, Microsoft and Thomson.

About SSPA
Founded in 1989, the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) was formed to focus on the specific needs of service executives who are responsible for support centers and overall customer relations. Today, the SSPA represents over 21,600 service professionals at 2,500 support centers worldwide. These executives look to SSPA to provide insight into the future of support services, a road map of best practices within our industry and access to the best service and support vendors. SSPA has become the center of support providing a reliable and comprehensive resource for news, research, benchmarking, standards and collaboration.

SSPA was created for professionals, managers and executives that make their living in the IT support services community. It is not a generic, one-size-fits all website where nobody ever feels like they belong. SSPA is dynamic, interactive, living resource specifically designed for the unique needs of support professionals. This exciting virtual community creates a forum for constant interaction with peers, industry experts, technology vendors and much more. For more information regarding the SSPA and other related divisions, log on to www.thesspa.com or send an email to info@thesspa.com.