SSPA STAR Awards For Excellence in Service & Support
The STAR Awards are given annually to recognize excellence in eight categories of software and technical support. Competing support centers are self-nominated and undergo a rigorous evaluation process with the winners selected by SSPA's Advisory Board members. The STAR Awards have been a coveted prize since the program was established in 1989. In all categories, the SSPA will recognize the unique differences between consumer products and supporting enterprise products.
The eight categories for the 2005 STAR Awards for Service Excellence are:

MOST IMPROVED
This STAR Award goes to the support center that demonstrates the greatest increase in the quality of their software support over a minimum of a 12-month period. The winning support center must show a dramatic improvement in customer satisfaction along with overall gains in support productivity. In order to compete, you must provide support metrics and customer satisfaction results for both the current and prior years.

Past Winners - Most Improved
Misys Healthcare Systems
LEGATO Systems
McKesson Information Solutions
BEA Systems
McKesson Corporation
SchlumbergerSema
Timberline Software
Business Objects
Mitchell International
Rockwell Software
Sage Software
Mosaix
Great Plains Software
FileNet Corporation,
FTP Software
QAD, inc.
Tribute, Inc.
Xircom, Inc.
SunService NASC.
Delrina Corporation
SAGA Software
IBM AIX U.S. Customer Service Center

HIGH CASE VOLUME
This category is for support centers with hundreds of support reps fielding thousands of technical assistance/customer support requests per day. Typical support centers in this category also support a wide range of products. Most support centers in this cateogy handle more than 10,000 requests per month. To compete, you must be able to prove a high level of customer satisfaction while handling this high volume of requests.

Past Winners - High Call Volume
HP
Microsoft Customer Central
The Reynolds & Reynolds Company
Associates Commerce Solutions- Teleservices
ClientLogic
Digital - MCS Division
Sykes Enterprises .
IBM - Personal Software Products Division

Sustained Performance
The winner in this category demonstrates an ongoing level of outstanding overall software support, with high levels of customer satisfaction for at least three consecutive years. To compete you must be able to present 3 years of data, demonstrating sustained performance and how it attributed to high levels of ongoing customer satisfaction.

Winners
Mercury Interactive
Sykes Enterprises
SAGA Software
Sage Software
Hyperion Solutions
Stream International
Wonderware
Great Plains Software,
Xerox Digital Printing Customer Support Center
Corporate Software
Microsoft Corporation
Progress Software

Outsource Support Provider
Competitors in this category successfully delivers superior technical support as their primary business. To compete you must 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.

Past Winners – Outsource Support Provider
CompuCom Systems
Spectrum Contact Services
SARCOM

COMPLEX SUPPORT APPLICATIONS
This category evaluates 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 in typically engineering and scientific fields.

Mission Critical Support
Applicants in this category provide technical support in mission-critical environments where “system up time” is imperative. Technical support from these support centers is a critical part of keeping customers “up and running” 24/7. Applicants should clearly show how important their technical support is to the operation of customers’ mission critical systems or services.

Past Winners
EMC Corporation
Compaq- GCSC Asia Pacific
S.W.I.F.T. scrl

Support Technology Vendor
The winner in this category is a vendor that sells products and services into the software support community. We will recognize those vendors that have provided innovative products and services that make life easier for technical support managers. In addition, vendors will need to show their uniqueness, creativity and presence in marketing their products and creating new deliverables for service managers.

Winners
Satmetrix Systems
SupportSoft

INNOVATIVE SUPPORT
Support centers that have developed new, cutting-edge systems and processes for delivering exceptional technical support to their customers should apply in this category. Applicants must clearly demonstrate their innovation and creativity through their use of technology, tools, and systems that support solutions that advance the technical support experience for all customers.

Past Winners
Trend Micro
Oracle Corporation
Microsoft Business Solutions
Telvista

WEBSTAR SERVICE AWARD
The Internet has changed the way we all work and live. Support is no exception. This award recognizes companies who have truly delivered exceptional customer service and technical support via the Web. Companies that have received this award have helped to set benchmarks other organizations can use to measure their level of online technical support.

Past Winners
HP
Aspen Technology
Best Software
Cognos
Compaq
Control-F1
ePeople
Intellution
Made2Manage
Mercury Interactive
Network Appliance
Novell
noWonder
Oracle
pcsupport.com

SPECIAL RECOGNITION- HALL OF FAME- LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
The SSPA STAR Awards Hall of Fame, Life Time Achievement Award is awarded to companies that have won 5 STAR Awards since the inception of the Awards in 1989. Seven exemplary companies that have reached this pinnacle are: .

Seven exemplary companies have reached this pinnacle:
*Best Software
*CompuCom
*Mentor Graphics Corporation
*Reynolds & Reynolds
*Software AG
*Stream International
*Sykes Enterprises

Good luck and should you have any questions, or want to nominate, please contact Ron Johnson at rjohnson@thesspa.com.