So Many Benefits…
by Bill Rose, SSPA Founder and Executive Director

I’m proud that the SSPA offers so many benefits to members. We offer our members a host of informative articles (some for members only), research and industry reports, conferences, white papers, presentations, SSPA News, and a lot more. So many in fact, that in the past, when we sent invoices to members for each option, we actually impacted one of our main benefits – saving time for our members. Members save time by getting the information they need to work smarter, improve their operations, get necessary training, and more without having to do any of the research themselves.

If you’ve been an SSPA member for a while, you probably remember having to process an invoice for just about everything we offered. So, we listened to your feedback, got advice from our Advisory Board, and devised a strategy to bundle all of the core elements and benefits of SSPA membership into one package that would provide the most value to members. I think we’ve done just that. Now, with your membership, you get access to the entire web site, four industry reports (Top Talent for Service and Support, Support Demand Study, the Support Industry Benchmark Study, and a Custom Benchmark Analysis where we take your performance data and compare it against industry standard benchmarks), two conference passes, and much more, for a base price of $6,500.

With so many programs (and invoices), it was difficult for many member companies to plan and budget for coming years. We even had companies call us and ask how much they’d spent with us when it came time for them to do their budget planning for the next year. We also changed from charging per member site to member division which put us more in line with the rest of the industry. In the end, membership now costs less and is far more efficient for many companies.

For more information on membership into the SSPA community, contact John South, director of membership development or read more about membership benefits from our web site. You can also get more information about our conferences and research division on our site. There’s a good overview of the membership benefits available to tech support representatives, managers, and executives in our “Getting the Most from the SSPA” presentation. We can also set up executive meetings to help you define short- and long-term plans for your organization.

Another reason for this bundling is that we found a direct correlation between the programs and participation of members and members’ satisfaction with their SSPA membership. The more involved you are with us, the more you’ll get from your membership. The new packaging helps ensure that members and member companies take advantage of the SSPA community and get the benefits membership provides. It also saves everyone time by eliminating multiple invoices, delivering industry reports to your doorsteps, getting you to conferences, and letting you all stay focused on the job of running and driving your support operations.

Now that we’ve bundled the essence of SSPA membership into a single package, I’d like to get your feedback on the value we provide. What else could we provide? How else can we provide value to you? Please send your suggestions to me and I promise to consider them for future SSPA programs.

Sincerely,


Bill Rose
SSPA Founder/Executive Director