Past Winners:
STAR Award for Service Excellence

Service Excellence STAR Award:  Outstanding Improvement (New for 2007)
2007 Winner: Symantec Corporation

 This award is presented to the company that effectively demonstrates the greatest increase in support quality within an underperforming operation. Key supporting data include multi-quarter improvement in customer satisfaction scores and support productivity performance metrics.

Service Excellence STAR Award:  Partner Management (New for 2007)
2007 Winners:
Consumer Support: Hewlett Packard
Enterprise Support: Cisco Systems, Inc.

Many companies outsource service delivery to qualified partners, including outsourcers and channel partners, to reduce costs and extend or augment their own direct service delivery operations.  This award is presented to a company who excels at leveraging third party providers for the delivery of service and support.  This could apply to onshore or offshore outsourced partners, or a combination therein.  In all cases, partners must be comprised of non-badged/indirect company employees.

Service Excellence STAR Award:  Consumer Support (New for 2007)
2007 Winner: StoresOnline

Presented to a company whose consumer-facing contact center or technical support operation effectively handles high volumes of inbound and outbound customer interactions, with an emphasis on problem avoidance, Web and voice self-service, and streamlined incident handling.

Service Excellence STAR Award:  Continual Improvement (New for 2007)
2007 Winner: IBM System X, Blade Center & Intellistation (xBCI) Client Support

Presented to a company that has demonstrated exceptional service levels and customer satisfaction for three or more years, with year over year improvements and a plan in place for continual improvement in the future.

Service Excellence STAR Award:  Integrated Services (New for 2007)
2007 Winner: Xerox Corporation

The Integrated Services category recognizes support organizations that have effectively teamed with the Education Services (Training) and Professional Services Organizations to deliver seamless integrated support to their customers.  They offer blended services programs that ensure a positive customer experience with the adoption, implementation and usage of the company’s products

Service Excellence STAR Award: Emerging Business Support (New for 2007)
2007 Winner: Approva Corporation

Applicants in this category provide technical support within emerging businesses (defined as companies with under $500M in total annual revenue) for which exemplary customer support is important for company growth and is typically provided with constrained resources.   Applicants should demonstrate how their technical support effectively maintains their customers’ satisfaction and loyalty, and helps drive new business.
For software companies these would typically be application implementations, or core systems infrastructure offerings.  For hardware companies these would typically be servers, network components, etc.

Service Excellence STAR Award: Complex Application Support
2007 Winner: Tektronix, Inc.

This category recognizes support organizations that deliver sophisticated technical support for complex applications in mixed or otherwise complex environments. An applicant in this category is typically identified as having senior level technical support representatives with advanced degrees. These reps interface with senior level customers typically in engineering and/or scientific fields.
For software companies these would typically be product design application implementations, or complex medical or process monitoring/automation offerings.  For hardware companies these would typically be measurement and monitoring equipment, or complex medical diagnostic equipment.

     
Service Excellence STAR Award:  Innovative Support
2007 Winner: Xerox Corporation

Presented to a company who has embraced innovation in people, process and technology to increase agent productivity, service levels and customer satisfaction; increase problem avoidance, and effectively handle more interactions using unassisted channels.

Service Excellence STAR Award: Mission Critical Support – Hardware
Service Excellence STAR Award: Mission Critical Support – Software
2007 Winners:
Software: SAP AG
Hardware: Dell, Inc.

Applicants in this category provide technical support in mission-critical environments where “system up-time” is imperative, typically for enterprise customers.  Technical support from these support organizations is a critical part of keeping customers “up and running” 24/7.  Applicants should demonstrate how their technical support effectively maintains their customers’ mission critical systems in continuous operation.
For software companies these would typically be large ERP/CRM application implementations, or core systems infrastructure offerings.  For hardware companies these would typically be servers, network components, etc.

Service Excellence: High Case Volume (Discontinued in 2006)

Presented to the company that demonstrates unmatched excellence at a support center with hundreds of support reps fielding thousands of technical assistance/customer support requests per day. Award-winning companies in this area generally support a wide range of products.

2006 Winners:  
Enterprise Support - IBM, System X, BladeCenter and Intellistation Support
Consumer Support - Microsoft

Service Excellence: Most Improved (Discontinued in 2006)

Presented to the company that demonstrates the greatest increase in support quality over the past year. Key measurements include customer satisfaction improvements as well as support productivity.

2006 Winner: Intuit

Service Excellence: Sustained Performance (Discontinued in 2006)

Presented to the company that has sustained outstanding service and support with high customer satisfaction levels for at least three consecutive years.

2006 Winners:  
Enterprise Support - IBM Rochester Support Center
Consumer Support - HP

The WebSTAR Service Award (Discontinued in 2006)

Presented to the company that delivers exceptional customer service and technical support via the web. Award-winning companies in this area have helped to set benchmarks other organizations can use to measure their level of online technical support.

2006 Winners:  
Enterprise Support - Oracle Corporation
Consumer Support - HP

DISCONTINUED CATEGORY:

Service Excellence: Outsource Support Provider

Competitors in this category successfully delivered superior technical support as their primary business. To compete, business units had to be able to demonstrate high levels of ongoing customer satisfaction, world-class service offerings, effective customer relationship management, performance measurements, and staff retention programs resulting in an outstanding service operation.