Freezing Tech Support…Again!
Author: Bill Rose, Vice President of Services Research, SSPA

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Freezing Tech Support…Again!
By Bill Rose

Ever get that feeling that something really bad is about to happen? Your not quite
sure what it is but you know that it can’t be good. With all of the economic bad news
that we see everyday there is one thing we know for sure…..there will be a freeze on
tech support spending. It is true and it happens every time that there is the slightest
mention of an economic downturn. Get ready to freeze tech support spending
because here it comes again. You can be sure that there will be a hiring freeze, a
travel freeze, and an overall spending freeze in your not‐to‐distant future. So what
can we do about it? How do we continue to deliver top‐level services when we are
financially hamstrung?

First of all, we should be used to this by now. Tech support spending has been the
target of every CFO on the planet earth who is looking to make a big number a
smaller one. We have seen techniques to reduce headcount, eliminate technology
purchases, and limit our ability to get out to see customers, but, we still have to push
forward and deliver great service. My simple message is “get over it and get on with
it”. This “accordion effect” of squeezing dollars out of technology services and then
releasing the pressure until the next financial threat shows up is something that we
have seen over and over again. Managing tech support is a difficult job but doing it
with pennies is even harder and a lot less fun.

Today, based on the current financial news, we should be preparing for the worst
and putting a plan together to either down‐size or reduce our future hiring. We will
need to figure out how to do more with less but we are experts at it after all of these
years. For example, one way to manage a hiring freeze is to shift resources within
the company into tech support. Yes, I can hear you saying “sure that will
work…NOT!” But, it is an option and if you are going to maintain your service levels
you will need people and they can be found in product development, training, sales
support, and other technical departments. You can survive a hiring freeze by
looking for help within your company.

Expense freezes are a different matter. In fact, if there is one department within
your company that knows how to do more with less it is tech support. We have
been pinching pennies forever so not being able to purchase that next piece of
technology is a pain but not the end. If we can’t spend then we are going to have to
get creative and use the resources that we have in our support centers. If we can’t
buy it then we are only left with the option to build it. Using the technical expertise
of your support staff and some help from product development and IT there is
virtually nothing that we can’t build. Set up a special task force to design and
develop your technology solution that can’t be purchased due to a spending freeze.
Building any service solution is a real pain but remember, we have no choice here.
The alternative is to just do without but if you really need that web to CRM interface
or a knowledge management database or a service dashboard then build it. Don’t
get me wrong here, I don’t think that you should ever build technology solutions if
you can afford to buy them but remember that we have no money to spend.

When tech support gets frozen it is a different kind of business…a lot less fun! But,
we have all been here before and we know how vital our work is to the overall
success of the company. We can and will survive an expense freeze or a hiring
freeze or travel freezes. We just need to be creative and get busy planning out our
efforts when the knock on the door comes. And trust me, it will come.