Collaborative Support in a Multi-Vendor World
Moderator- Bill Rose, SSPA Founder/Executive Director
Panelists Mark Perry, Senior Director, Windows Engineering Services Group - Microsoft Corporation;
Jill Scola, Global Services Alliance Manager - EMC Corporation;
Steve Sigler, Senior Director, Business Development - Motive Communications;
Anthony Lye, President/CEO - ePeople, Inc.;
Peggy Renshaw, Director of Worldwide Support Services - Novell;
Griff Williams, Program Director Technical Support Services - Citrix Systems

Today’s computing environment is marked by increasing complexity due to the heterogeneous nature of a customer’s IT infrastructure. Customers are looking for best-of-breed solutions for their business problems and these solutions are not the sole domain of any single vendor. Interoperability of hardware and software products is a key factor in selecting vendors; however, this is not enough. Customers are also looking at the interoperability of vendor support processes to ensure the maximum availability of their enterprise and reduce potential finger-pointing scenarios. Multi-vendor support capabilities and the ability to interact seamlessly with other vendors will be perceived as a service differentiator by customers.