SSPA  P R E S S  R E L E A S E S

SSPA Announces Winners of 2004 STAR Awards and Inducts Two into Its Hall of Fame

Prestigious Peer Awards Recognize Service and Support Excellence in Eight Categories

(San Diego, CA — Tuesday, October 5, 2004)

The Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) today announced the 2004 STAR Award winners and inductees, Aspen Technology and Mercury Interactive, into the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is special recognition awarded to companies that have won five STAR Awards since the Awards’ inception in 1990. All winners were announced during a gala dinner and award ceremony Monday evening, October 4, during the SSPA Conference @ Savannah.

“SSPA STAR Awards winners are selected by a committee of their peers for delivering world-class customer service and support and its contribution to customer satisfaction, retention, and brand loyalty,” said Bill Rose, SSPA Founder and Executive Director. “This year’s winners are all a tribute to the important role superior service and support plays in today’s technology companies.”

The 2004 STAR Awards winner by category are:

Aspen Technology for Complex Support Applications and Hall of Fame – Kerry Hastings, Director Global Customer Support Operations accepted the award for Aspen Technology.
This award was given to Aspen Technology for delivering sophisticated technical support for complex applications in mixed environments.

HP Consumer for High Call Volume – Jim Kemp, Director of Consumer Support Planning and Infrastucture, Americas accepted for HP.
This award is for support centers with hundreds of support reps supporting multiple products. Call volumes typically run in the thousands per day. High customer satisfaction is key in this category.

Oracle Corporation for Innovative Support – Alex van Dijk, Senior Director Global Operations accepted for Oracle.
This award is for support centers that have developed new, cutting-edge systems and processes for delivering exceptional customer support. Each applicant had to clearly document the innovation in their use of technology, tools, and systems in support of improved support processes and solutions.

EMC Corporation for Mission-Critical Support – Zelda Garrison, Director of Global Solutions Support Level accepted for EMC.
This award was given to EMC based on their ability to keep customers’ systems up and running 24/7.

Mercury Interactive for Sustained Performance and Hall of Fame – Patrick Saeger, Vice President, Customer Support accepted both awards for the company.
Mercury Interactive proved they have sustained outstanding software support with high customer satisfaction levels for at least three years.

Primus Knowledge Solutions for Support Technology Vendor – Michael Brochu, President and CEO accepted for Primus.
As the winner in this category, Primus is recognized for providing innovative technology products that make life easier for support managers. The key here is that they articulated uniqueness and creativity both in product development and marketing.

HP Consumer and Oracle Corporation both won WebSTAR Service Awards – Jim Kemp, HP’s Director of Consumer Support Planning and Infrastucture, Americas and Alex van Dijk, Oracle’s Senior Director Global Operations accepted from their respective companies.
Both winners proved to the selection committee that they used the Web to improve and enhance their service offerings.

Misys Heathcare Systems for Most Improved – Don Sargent, Director EMR Client Support Services accepted for Misys.
To win, Misys demonstrated the most improvement in its software support over the past year. Key measurements included customer satisfaction improvements as well as support productivity.

All SSPA member companies were eligible to nominate themselves in any of the categories. SSPA provided each applicant with an electronic application as a benchmark/guideline.

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About the SSPA
Founded in 1989, the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) was formed to focus on the specific needs of executives responsible for service and support centers and overall customer relations. Today, the SSPA represents over 24,000 service professionals at over 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 industry vendors. SSPA has become the center of support providing a reliable and comprehensive resource for conferences, news, research, benchmarking, standards and collaboration.

About the SSPA Conference @ Savannah
The SSPA Conference @ Savannah, October 3 – 6, the most comprehensive event for technology service and support VPs, directors, and managers, delivers business intelligence for the future of support demand, technology, and people. Attendees learn what the next 3 to 5 years hold and what actions to take in a fusion of high-energy, high-value sessions over an intense 4-day event. Speakers are industry visionaries and fellow service and support professionals. Attendance is expected to exceed 600. Sponsors include Kanisa, Motive, Control-F1, webex, and Talisma.