(San Diego, CA February 19, 2004) – The Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the leading industry Association for IT support professionals announced today the featuring of five Best Practices Workshops at the SSPA Conference @ San Diego April 5-7, 2004. One choice for attendees will be “Unlocking the Secrets to Profitable Strategic Services: Four Paths to Greatness”. Have you ever wondered how highly successful product-centered and services companies generate margins as high as 62% and grow 30% a year for their strategic services despite the current economy? The answer is that they have learned how to break the strategic services code by designing and implementing best practices in selecting the right strategy at the right time for their services business. This presentation takes the mystery out of how to create a successful services strategy that will improve your bottom-line by maximizing the right approach to strategy and the services market place.

"If your company is considering making the move from "break-fix to strategic services" this workshop delivers,” said Mark Hordes, Partner- Alexander Consulting LLP. “Learn about the 14 best practices high performing organizations utilize to generate 62% margins and 30% growth. Hear first hand from two of the countries leading services experts (Dr. James Alexander and Mark Hordes authors of the "highly acclaimed" book "S-Business-Reinventing the Services Organization") on how to pull it all together.”

The other three-hour Best Practices Workshops on day three of the Conference will include:
“Definining & Delivering World-Class eSupport; “Professional Development Workshop”;
“Organizational Development Workshop” and "Planning and Executing a Worldwide Training
Strategy"

The Conference kicks-off with a dynamic Keynote Speaker, followed by a Power Panel- "Understanding the Pros & Cons of Offshore Outsourcing". Following the Panel will be the new Best Practices Sharing Sessions. The first day will end with the presentation of the annual SSPA WebStar Service Awards.

The Second day will commence with the Power Panel- “Best Practices in Acquisition Integration for Technical Support”. Following the panel will be 8 individual speaker presentations from which the attendees may choose. The next hour will include 8 different speaker sesssons. During lunch, the winner of the Special Prize Drawing will be announced, where he/she will have their choice of a Laptop Computer or set of Golf Clubs. After lunch attendees will have the opportunity to participate in two hours of the Best Practices Sharing Sessions. Led by an industry expert, each group will focus on and discuss specific topics and attendees may choose the group in which they wish to participate. Day two’s program will end with a keynote speaker. Between the end of the day’s program and the Networking@Night, attendees will have the opportunity to visit Optional Vendor Receptions and then join their colleagues for an enjoyable evening at the Networking@Night.

Day Three is finished off with a round of golf at a San Diego championship course. Information on other options to visit beautiful San Diego will be available for the non-golfers. To view a complete agenda, please visit http://www.thesspa.com/sandiego.

One of the highlights of the San Diego Conference will be the SSPA WebStar Service Awards that will be presented at a gala dinner on Monday evening of the Conference. The annual WebStar Service Awards are presented to companies who excel at providing exceptional customer service and technical support via the Web. For more information, please send an email to info@thesspa.com.

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 22,500 service professionals at 2,700 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.