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©2007 SSPA
Shawn Santos, Senior Program Manager, SSPA
Glenn Weinstein, Principal and Co-founder, Appirio - Former V.P. of Global Support Services at webMethods and Borland Software
Naomi Karten, Speaker, Consultant, Author
Question of the Month
What percentage of your inbound customer phone calls are handled by your Voice Self-Service system with no agent involvement?
> ANSWER AND VIEW RESPONSES HERE
The collaboration will leverage the group’s combined advocacy, thought leadership and resources to maximize the business value for their respective member companies.
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A Publication of the Service & Support Professionals Association
A Publication of the Service & Support Professionals Association
A Publication of the Service & Support Professionals Association
A Publication of the Service & Support Professionals Association
March 2007
SSPA Perspective
John Ragsdale, VP of Research, SSPA
Leveraging Business Intelligence to Create Value-Added Support
By John Ragsdale, VP of Research, SSPA
Analytics and business intelligence play a significant role in moving toward Value-Added Support (VAS). In this article, John Ragsdale explains why certain aspects of VAS are intrinsically tied to the power of analytics. He also offers up 2 sure-fire techniques your support organization can use to leverage business intelligence for enhanced revenue and visibility within your enterprise.
> MORE

SSPA Programs & Events

Wharton TSSM Program | Learn More About the June 4 – 7 Session

SSPA Announces New Industry Blog | Ragsdale’s Eye On Service

SSPA Best Practices Conference May 6-8 | Conference Content
Now Available!

SSPA Support Technology Buyer's Guide | On-line Guide for Technology & Consultants

SSPA Training and Certification | Reduce Call Times, Achieve Higher Resolution Rates, Decrease Call Escalations and More…

SSPA’s Interactive Program Calendar | Custom Views & Subscriptions, Updated Daily…

Sponsored White Papers | “Redefine Customer Service with Service Intelligence”, "Implementing Knowledge Management”, More…

Member's Choice Surveys                 SSPA Special Announcement
Vote for Research in April
The SSPA Research Topic of the Month for April will be “Voice of Self-Service.” There are several sub-topics that could be covered in this category—what would you like the focus to be?
> VOTE NOW
New Members Only Research > FULL LIST OF SSPA RESEARCH
SSPA Must-Read Content                    STREAMING MEDIA SPOTLIGHT


AFSMI Joins Forces
with SSPA and TPSA!
 The Largest Technology Services Trade Associations Form One-of-a-Kind Alliance

Joe Siderowicz, President, AfterMarket Consulting Group

Service Marketing Goal Setting—A Reality Check
By Joe Siderowicz, President, AfterMarket Consulting Group
In today’s business environment, the need for short term results is epidemic. Too often, service marketing initiatives are designed to fail when compromises are made to meet the unrealistic goals of other departments. This article will show you why convincing management to invest in service marketing initiatives takes excellent planning, dedication and patience.
> MORE

The Next Big Thing in Support:
Oracle is Proving Itself in More than Just Software
By Shawn Santos, Senior Program Manager, SSPA
For customers, the upside of a value-added support experience is clear: avoiding most of what’s frustrating about using technology products. From the technology company perspective, it may seem extravagant to provide support that doesn’t fit into the mold that it has created for itself over the last 40 years. In this article, Shawn explores Oracle Support’s approach to a Superior Ownership Experience, and illuminates how the Oracle example makes a compelling business case for value-added support.
> MORE

The ABCs of SLAs
By Naomi Karten, Speaker, Consultant, Author
Establishing a service level agreement is neither a quick nor a simple process, and if it is established at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons, or in the wrong way, it can create bigger problems than those it is trying to solve. In this article, Naomi provides the SSPA community with SLA best practices—as well as practices to avoid—for establishing effective service level agreements.
> MORE

Running a Technical Support Department with SaaS Solutions
By Glenn Weinstein, Principal and Co-founder, Appirio
Former V.P. of Global Support Services at webMethods and Borland Software
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions have already captured a big chunk of the market for sales force automation. Now SaaS solutions are coming into the technical support space with innovative, low-maintenance systems for case tracking, entitlement management, automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, and customer surveys. Someday soon, we may see server-less technical support operations where managers can drive innovation instead of dealing with IT hassles.
> MORE