We’ve Come a Long Way Baby!
by Bill Rose, SSPA Founder/Executive Director

Yes, I know that’s cliché but with our Celebrate Support party at the SSPA Conference @ Savannah just a few days away, I can’t help but think about how far the support industry, support technology, customer expectations, and SSPA members have come.

Some of the more striking advances in technical support include support centers becoming much more critical and strategic to their companies’ success, and being recognized for that. Many support executives are finding their way into seats at the corporate table. Many of those have the responsibility of now being managed as profit centers, not cost centers.

Judging the SSPA Star Award applications gave me a look at how support success is now measured and the new processes and management techniques are working. Support operations are now much better at servicing and satisfying customers than ever before. If you want to know the 2004 finalists are, we announced them recently. See the press release on our site.

More indicators of how far we’ve come are the level of participation from our members. We formed three committees at our April 2004 Conference @ San Diego and though we had to go through the initial learning pains, the committees on Offshore Outsourcing, Support Efficiency, and Industry Standards will have white papers ready and online for members around the time of the conference. We plan to keep these committees active and working through the Savannah conference to the 2005 Conference @ San Diego. We’ve also scheduled a committee meeting the first day of the Savannah conference to help us decide what other committees we should add. If you’re interested in participating, go to the appropriate committee page and complete the application.

SSPA Research is continuing to produce the SSPA Industry Benchmark Study that helps companies measure their support operations against the rest of the support industry. SSPA Research has also produced its Top Talent for Service and Support Industry Study – a must-read if you’re responsible for hiring, motivating, and retaining support staff for your organization. Our research division will also soon be releasing a groundbreaking study: 2005 Support Demand Industry Study, which examines the key changes in customer expectations.

With 15 years almost behind us, I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead. Challenges like moving from reactive to proactive support, continued pressures to lower costs, applications that can heal themselves, greater collaboration, and issues that we haven’t yet identified. As we celebrate how far we’ve come, we should also celebrate an exciting future.

I’d like to hear what you think about the future of support and what your needs are today so the SSPA can continue to provide you with the services and benefits you need. Please send an email to me at bill.rose@thesspa.com. Thank you for a wonderful 15 years. Here’s to 15 more!

Sincerely,

Bill Rose
SSPA Founder/Executive Director