J.D. Power to Bestow IT Service...

March 28, 2005 (Computerworld)

J.B. Wood, CEO of the San Diego-based SSPA

...and support certifications starting this fall. That means you'll be able to get some insight as to whether the cool software you want to buy has a hot IT help desk standing behind it. The deal between J.D. Power and Associates in Westlake Village, Calif., and the Service & Support Professionals Association was the big buzz at an SSPA conference in San Diego last week. And for good reason. The certifications could change IT service and support forever. According to Jonathan Brookner, a director at J.D. Power, "Typically, every industry evaluated by J.D. Power has directly or indirectly raised the overall customer satisfaction level of the industry." When all else is equal, a company with the J.D. Power stamp of approval for IT service is more likely to get a buyer's blessing than an uncertified rival is, argues Bob Furniss, president of Touchpoint Associates Inc., a service and support consultancy in Bartlett, Tenn. But, he adds, the certification could be "a double-edged sword" to companies that get one because "it raises the bar for the entire company, not just the service and support organization." J.B. Wood, CEO of the San Diego-based SSPA, agrees. "We believe it could lead to better-quality IT products," he says. Now that's something users can really cheer about.
The SSPA is creating the certification criteria with J.D. Power's help and expects to finalize them by August. The first certifications may be awarded as soon as late September. Only companies that meet 80% or more of the criteria will get certified, and the evaluation process will involve customer surveys and on-site audits of a company's service and support centers. If a vendor uses outsourcers in the U.S. or abroad, at least one of every external partner's help centers will be visited and judged by J.D. Power auditors. The help desk sites to be audited will be chosen at random by J.D. Power. Wood believes CIOs will use the J.D. Power certifications as part of their product evaluations. "You can demo a product before you buy it, but you can't demo service and support," he says. Now, maybe, you can.
Forget about tiered service models...
...in the future. Today, when most users call a vendor with a product problem, they start at the bottom tier of the service and support structure -- automated self-service systems or, at best, a barely minimum-wage wannabe techie reading scripts off a computer screen. To solve a complex problem, you typically have to wade through layers of relative ignorance until you reach the tier that has your answer. Collaborative service and support tools could soon flatten that layered structure, suggests John Cray, vice president of products at Apropos Technology Inc. in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. His company is working on such improvements to its namesake service and support application. Cray says that today's tiered approach is necessary because you can't fill a room with Tier 3 and 4 technicians, who are paid "vastly more" than Levels 1 and 2. But he claims that with collaboration technology, a Tier 1 support representative could request help on a question from a pool of experts and immediately pass along an answer to the user -- thereby "improving first-call resolution and customer satisfaction." But don't expect Tier 4 help from Tier 1 folks this year. "It's not easy to condense the tiers," Cray says.

Andrew Dunning, director of product marketing at Plumtree Software Inc.

Plumtree plots portal popularity...
...with new analysis tool. How many apps are running on your portal? How many are being used? By whom? And how often? Don't know, do you? But Plumtree Software Inc. is betting you want to know. That's why the San Francisco-based company today is releasing its new Plumtree Analytics Server, which provides usage stats on every application that's running on your Plumtree portal. With the analytics software, Plumtree customers will be able to "understand how the technology is being used," says Andrew Dunning, the vendor's director of product marketing. For example, Analytics Server can chart which software features are popular with end users and which ones are being avoided, by user type, department or other filters. That can be a huge benefit in designing applications, Dunning claims. You can even use the tool to gather real-time data on an app's usage. And Dunning thinks CIOs can use Analytics Server's hard data to support or rebuff budget requests for development work. Pricing for the analytics offering is based on usage and will average about $30,000 per site, he estimates. "Every company that sells software should provide some kind of reporting capability to demonstrate the value of the technology," Dunning says. Don't hold your breath. How many vendors want you to learn that their tools are never used?