A Publication of the Service & Support Professionals Association
May 2007
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SSPA PERSPECTIVE  |
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The Place to Be: Support Industry Converges on Best Practices By Shawn Santos, Director of Member Programs, SSPA When you assemble over 600 of the support industry’s most innovative, experienced and engaging professionals in one place, best practices are defined and networks are forged. This article provides an in-depth look at the sessions, content and people that made SSPA’s recent 2007 Best Practices Conference a smashing success for all involved. |
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| FEATURED ARTICLES |
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Attracting, Developing, and Retaining Top Talent By Vicky Ford, Senior Director, People Strategy, Microsoft Acknowledging the importance of attracting, developing and retaining technical support staff as a competitive differentiator, Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) created several innovative programs to ensure it identified and trained high potential leadership candidates from a vast pool of global employees. This article is a summary of presenter Vicky Ford’s SSPA conference breakout session. In it, you will learn how Microsoft has succeeded in building a strategy that helps high-potential candidates realize their full potential. |
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Knowledge Management 2.0: SSPA Member’s Choice Topic By John Ragsdale, VP of Research, SSPA KM 2.0 is industry “buzz” for the next generation of knowledge management technology and processes: knowledge management for a Web 2.0 world. With online communities bringing together experts on any given topic to deliver ‘best practice’ content on products and technical support guidelines, valuable content is being amassed outside of corporate knowledgebases. In this article, you will learn how content from communities of experts can be leveraged to help customers in the future. |
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Becoming a True Knowledge Organization: Best Practices for SMBs By Robert Rose & Tom Fuhriman, Altiris (a business unit of Symantec) Many companies have struggled to implement a successful knowledge initiative (KI), where the process of capturing, structuring, and reusing knowledge becomes an integral part of everyone’s daily work habits. This article—a summary of the presenters’ recent SSPA conference breakout session—outlines many of the challenges and considerations inherent in any knowledge initiative, as well as the best practices that have been successfully implemented by the Altiris KI team. |
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Avoiding Costs Through Web Self-Service By Lori Harmon Vice President, Global Customer Support, VeriSign Maximizing the financial benefits of web self-service happens only when an organization decides to make it the primary support channel. To be successful in this endeavor, three key factors are necessary: 1) get and maintain senior management support, 2) include specific goals for increases in web site usage, and 3) involve customers in the support web site design process. This article—a summary of Lori’s SSPA conference breakout session—illustrates her cost-saving, customer-satisfying approach to service. |
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Moving from Product Resolution to Service Solutions By Robert Bell, Director, Product Support Services, Eclipsys Corporation Customer support is all about serving the customer – as best and as little as possible. But what if a cost effective way existed to do what you do best more often? And instead of just minimizing costs, you could actually increase revenue? In this article, a summary of Robert’s SSPA conference breakout session, Robert discusses how Eclipsys has been able to successfully turn customer support from a resolution-oriented cost-center to a revenue-generating service organization. |
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