Microsoft Consumer Support Best Practices Shared at Service and Support Professionals...

Microsoft Consumer Support Best Practices Shared at Service and Support Professionals Association Conference

Awards Given for Technologies that Enable the Essential Elements
of Support
SAN DIEGO--(Business Wire)--
The Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the
largest and most influential association for technology services and
support professionals, today named the winners and finalists of the
Spring 2008 SSPA Recognized Innovator program. Technology and services
vendors were recognized for improving the way companies provide
service and support to their customers in categories representing
three of today's most relevant concerns for services organizations -
Root Cause Analysis, Voice of the Customer, and Usability.

The Spring 2008 SSPA Recognized Innovators are:

Innovation in Root Cause Analysis

-- Winner: InQuira

-- Finalist: NextNine

Innovation in Voice of the Customer

-- Winner: IBM

-- Finalist: Clarabridge

Innovation in Usability

-- Winner: Microsoft

-- Finalist: InQuira

The honorees were selected by a panel of judges that included
industry experts, SSPA members and SSPA Vice President of Technology
Research John Ragsdale, and were honored today at the SSPA Best
Practices 2008 Conference in Santa Clara, California.

"While all of the nominees were stellar, we ultimately identified
these six solutions as the embodiment of innovation and for uniquely
and successfully advancing services delivery in each of the three
categories that reflect areas in which our members are looking for new
approaches," said Ragsdale.

"It is a pleasure to honor organizations that are creating
innovative solutions for customer service and support. With such focus
in our industry today on consolidation, examples of true innovation
are few and far between," he added.

The SSPA Spring 2008 Recognized Innovator Awards were evaluated on
the following categories:

Innovation in Root Cause Analysis - Identifying the root cause of
a hardware or software problem not only shortcuts downtime for the
customer, but can eliminate reoccurrences of the problem.
Historically, root cause analysis required manual detective work on
the part of agents and support management, and often happened only
after multiple reoccurrences in order for enough information to be
available for analysis. Today, with more structured and unstructured
data captured, and more intelligent analytic tools available,
companies can identify patterns in customer incidents faster and
streamline root cause analysis. This award recognizes an SSPA partner
that helps member companies more quickly identify the true failing
component at the heart of one or a series of support incidents so a
fix or workaround can be crafted.

Innovation in Voice of the Customer - Customer-focused
organizations succeed by listening to customer input at every stage of
the customer life cycle, producing products, services and support
offerings that exactly fit the needs of consumer or business
customers. Many SSPA members have Voice of the Customer initiatives
underway, to proactively capture customer feedback and integrate the
input into product planning and creation of support and training
programs. This award recognizes an SSPA partner that enables member
companies to better solicit, capture and analyze customer feedback,
ideas and experiences, and present the findings in an actionable way
to the support organization, as well as across the enterprise.

Innovation in Usability - One of the primary reasons new
technology implementations fail to achieve the desired return on
investment is lack of employee or customer adoption, and application
usability is key to high user adoption. As support applications have
evolved from green screens to client/server to Web applications,
usability often appears to be an afterthought. The best support
applications are highly intuitive, so little training is required to
master the software, with visual cues provided so agents, or customers
performing self-service, can quickly complete a process without having
to think about the next sequential step. This award recognizes an SSPA
partner who consistently delivers extremely usable applications,
leveraging innovative technology and controls to offer a
differentiating user experience.

The honorees are being showcased today at the SSPA Best Practices
2008 Conference, with an awards ceremony as well as tours of the
winners' booths in the SSPA's Technology Services Expo, led by
Ragsdale. More information on the conference and previous Recognized
Innovator Awards can be found at www.thesspa.com.

About the SSPA

As the industry's foremost professionals association, the Service
& Support Professionals Association (SSPA) is a key resource for the
information and best practices needed to make better business
decisions. It brings together the best minds from across the industry
spectrum - from established companies with successful track records to
the pioneering newcomers with out-of-the-box ideas. The SSPA also
partners with thought leaders such as J.D. Power and Associates and
the Wharton School to create programs that benefit the industry. The
SSPA is a member of a global network of associations that includes the
Technology Professional Services Association (TPSA) and the
Association for Services Management International (AFSMI). For more
information, visit www.thesspa.com.

SSPA
Diane Brundage, SVP Marketing
408-354-7136 x212
dbrundage@thesspa.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008