Tuesday 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM — PS Speed Networking
Tuesday 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM — Customer Service for Profitability
Tuesday 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM — Providing World-Class Support in an SaaS Model
Tuesday 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM — The SMB Services "Hot Seat"
Wednesday 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM — The Forest Through the Trees: The Impact of the Cloud
Tuesday 11:30 AM - 12:30 PMLocation: Montego A
- What challenges your peers are facing in their PS organizations
- Which one of your industry peers can potentially help you
- As many new names as possible!
Why You Need to Attend This Session:
This is a unique opportunity to rapidly meet many of your industry peers and quickly understand who has similar challenges and who has prior experience with challenges you are facing.
Presentation Abstract:
Our PS speed networking sessions work like "speed dating," but for making professional connections. You’ll make fast first contacts with conference participants to discover colleagues who have experience with problems you are trying to solve. Session attendees will talk with each other for six minutes and then rotate. During each six-minute session, the two attendees will exchange a PS problem they have and will determine if the other person has experience with that problem. At the end of the session, the moderator will reward the attendee who had the most "experience matches." That winner will receive a gift certificate and honorable mention at the awards banquet. Come to this session armed with a list of your current challenges—tightly summarized.
About Thomas Lah:
Since 1996, Thomas Lah has helped a broad range of companies establish or improve their professional services organizations. Prior to TPSA, he was founder and principal of Thomas Lah, Ltd., during which time he became recognized worldwide for his incisive analysis, strategic thinking, and creative solutions. Thomas' recent books include Mastering Professional Services and Building Professional Services: The Sirens' Song, which has been adopted by technology companies throughout the world, including China's Lenovo, which acquired IBM's PC business in early 2005. In 2004, Thomas was invited to Zhejiang University in China to lecture on the topic of building professional services. In his earlier career, he was director of solutions engineering at Silicon Graphics. Thomas received an undergraduate degree in information systems and holds an MBA from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.
Tuesday 2:30 PM - 3:30 PMLocation: Montego B
- Service is a process
- Service starts at product conception and follows until the product is no longer used
- How to think of service in terms of profits not costs
Why You Need to Attend This Session:
In today’s economy, old ways of doing business must be changed, and there is no area more vital to focus on than customer service. Customer service is a strategic system; it is not a cost center. The strategy starts as the product is being developed and continues until the product is no longer used. The profitability of the product will be negatively impacted if any part of the “total system” is omitted, or if it is not understood that service is a profit center and should be added or subtracted from the business profit center.
Presentation Abstract:
Customer Service starts at product concept and continues trough development, production, delivery, customer training, use - until it is no longer used. Profits are effected if the process is not followed. This is a great chess game!! Those who play the best game will satisfy the customer, have greatest profits, have happy customers and will truly enjoy the game.
About Larry Swaton:
Larry Swaton is the owner of Swaton and Associates. He has worked in the Automotive, Defense, Aerospace and Healthcare industries. He has also consulted for many fortune 500 companies. He is an ASQ Fellow, was professional service manager of the year for AFSMI, as well as received their lifetime achievement award. He has run a world wide service organization and served on several boards. Larry has a B.S Degree and an MBA.
Tuesday 2:30 PM - 3:30 PMLocation: Montego A
- How leading SaaS organizations are creating the kind of culture required to attract and retain world-class support talent
- What’s different in SaaS support
- Which best practices and technologies are critical in enabling SaaS support
Why You Need to Attend This Session:
Why attend the SaaS panel session? This is the best place to come and hear from, and interact directly with, leading SaaS support executives on how to deliver world-class support in an SaaS environment. This panel will address any topic on the minds of the broader community.
Presentation Abstract:
Stephen will be leading a panel discussion with support executives from a number of leading SaaS organizations. They will discuss a wide variety of SaaS support related topics including how to attract and retain the best people to work in an SaaS environment, what technologies are really being used in SaaS organizations today (e.g. what are they using for knowledge management, what have they learned around best practices, what tools you use to engage directly with customers), how do they see support changing over the next few years and what that will mean to your organizations and business. This is always a very interactive session with the audience, so please join to engage with this community.
About Stephen Smith:
Steve Smith has championed innovation and change throughout a 17-year career spanning several industries. Most recently, Steve led IBM's On Demand Business Transformation strategy globally for more than 30,000 Business Consulting Services employees. During his time at IBM, Smith also developed and launched the company's Component Business Model offering to global customers and led services strategy for IBM's Business Performance Transformation Services. Previously, he led the operational transformation for the customer care operations of one of the largest telecommunications providers in North America. In addition, Steve helped build one of the industry's largest independent Lotus Notes consulting and software businesses, which was later sold to Ernst & Young. He also was co-founder and COO of Encadia, which was sold to Mainspring, and later, to IBM. Steve holds a Wharton MBA.
About Krista Anderson:
Krista Anderson is senior vice president of Global Support and Customer Success at salesforce.com, responsible for delivering customer support for over 50,000 customers worldwide. Anderson joined salesforce in 2000, and during her nine years with the company has played a pivotal role in strengthening client relationships and managing partnerships with strategic support vendors. Krista graduated from the University of Oregon and currently serves on the advisory board of the SSPA.
About John Blakeman:
John Blakeman is the vice president of customer support for Taleo. He has led customer support organizations for JDA, eTimeCapital, Baan, Auspex, and Amdahl. John's experience in the IT services arena spans more decades than he wants to admit (think mainframes with core memory), and he has earned every gray hair left standing. John holds an MBA from Santa Clara's Leavy School of Business and a BA in management from St. Mary's College.
About Patrick Saeger:
Patrick Saeger is the global vice president of Customer Success at SuccessFactors – the global leader in Business Execution Software, and one of the largest S.a.a.S companies with more than 5 million end users. Patrick’s organization is responsible for delivery of world-wide customer support focused on helping customers achieve success and value with SuccessFactors’ solutions. Prior to joining SuccessFactors Patrick spent 12 years at Mercury Interactive leading the customer support organization. During this time his organization earned the Hall of Fame STAR award and he served on the SSPA Advisory Board for several years.
Tuesday 4:30 PM - 5:30 PMLocation: St. Thomas A
- How to get answers to your tech support management questions in real time
- How to develop contacts for the future from service managers who are experienced in your problem areas
- How to assist fellow members develop processes to improve their service delivery methods
Why You Need to Attend This Session:
This hands-on workshop provides the opportunity to bring real-world issues, problems, and concerns directly to a group of peer service mangers. Using “group think” techniques, all attendees will provide feedback to the “hot seat” participant. Why hire a consultant when you can get the collective brainpower of 50 experienced service managers by simply bringing your issues to this session?
Presentation Abstract:
Bring your current issues, problems, and questions about the challenges of servicing customers for SMB-size companies. Take your place in the front of the room in the "hot seat" as you collect feedback from all attendees that is specific to the issue that you are trying to resolve. This "group think" session will provide unique perspectives where anyone can add input.
About Bill Rose:
For almost two decades, Bill Rose has served as an energetic and articulate advocate for the service and support industry. The founder of SSPA in 1989 and its chief executive for 15 years, Rose is a global expert on best practices within the industry and a leading authority on ways to heighten efficiencies while building customer loyalty. Perhaps more than any other individual, he is responsible for service and support becoming a highly valued, mission-critical department within the structure of Global 2000 enterprises. Rose is a widely acclaimed international speaker and has authored hundreds of industry articles and a number of influential guides, including Managing Software Support, Automating Your Support Center, and Taking Charge of Your Support Center. He has been recognized as an Industry Champion by the CRM industry and as a Call Center Pioneer by Call Center magazine. Rose continues to help drive the mission of SSPA and is the force behind the recent creation of SSPA’s groundbreaking J.D. Power and Associates Certified Technology Service & Support program.
Wednesday 9:45 AM - 10:45 AMLocation: St. Thomas A
- An understanding of the impact of cloud-like infrastructures
- How we must change our support models
- How we design better products in a cloud-like world
Why You Need to Attend This Session:
In this economically challenging time, technology services providers must make decisions on how to best invest for the future while maintaining service levels today. Supporting services that are running on the cloud will be different than supporting those of the past. This session will help you balance this investment looking forward.
Presentation Abstract:
This session will discuss how dynamic infrastructure, cloud computing, and the increasing use of virtualization and automation impact support, monitoring, operations, and general serviceability of cloud-like infrastructure. As data centers continue to grow larger and become more complicated, what techniques can and should be used to see the important events and issues that impact service levels? Is that server going down "architecturally" significant or should it fail in place? How does this impact organizational issues and operations? What are some of the patterns being used to support large-scale dynamic systems and how can you implement them in your data center or support organization? How do we develop better products and services to help us see the "forest through the trees?"
About Jason Carolan:
Jason Carolan is a distinguished engineer for Sun's Global Sales and Services Division and director of Technical Initiatives. He defines and manages Sun's go-to-market for cloud computing and has helped Sun define its data center computing and automation strategy over the last 10 years. Jason has patents or patents pending in several areas including resource management, security, and networking.
Wednesday 11:00 AM - 12:00 PMLocation: St. Thomas A
- How the AFSMI and SSPA plan to support and help advance the medical device community’s maintenance and customer support organizations
- What plans the AFSMI has for gathering financial and operational benchmark data that is specifically relevant to the medical device industry
- What key performance indicators and trends top executives in the medical device community are most concerned about
Why You Need to Attend This Session:
This roundtable event provides attendees with an opportunity to interact with fellow med tech services executives and AFSMI experts to learn about common challenges and discuss possible solutions. In this working session, attendees will help develop the upcoming AFSMI research agenda so that timely, comprehensive, and actionable information is made available for med tech services members.
Presentation Abstract:
This important session is for the growing community of medical device manufacturers and software member companies within AFSMI. The goals of this critical session are:
- Set the AFSMI med services research priorities for 2010 by discussing key issues for management.
- Review planned upgrades to the 2010 Benchmark and ensure they map to key performance data requirements.
- Discuss the objectives, mode and frequency of meetings for the AFSMI Medical Industry Group for the next 12 months.
- Review target companies for inclusion in the Group.
Agenda
11:00 – 11:05 Welcome and Introductions - J.B. Wood
11:05 – 11:25 Management discussion of top industry issues - Michael Israel
11:25 – 11:35 Review and input on 2010 Benchmark Data changes - Michael Israel
11:35 – 11:55 Meeting and activity strategy for 2009-2010 - Michael Israel
11:55 – 12:00 Identify target companies - Mark Kasperowicz, John South
About J.B. Wood:
J.B. Wood is the president and CEO of the technology service industry's three largest trade associations— the Association for Services Management International (AFSMI), the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), and the Technology Professional Services Association (TPSA). Over the course of his career, Wood has counseled hundreds of leading companies, including Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM, on leveraging quantitative, verifiable metrics and improving products and services through a more concise understanding of their customer bases. A frequent speaker at key industry events, J.B. has been quoted in the business and technology press, including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Business Week, CNET, Computerworld, and CRM Magazine. Previously, Wood was a co-founder of InsightExpress, which pioneered the use of the Internet in market research applications. Prior to InsightExpress, he was president and CEO of Prognostics, one of the largest research and consulting companies in the IT industry.
About Michael Israel:
Michael Israel is senior director of research and advisory services for AFSMI and SSPA. In this role, Michael is responsible for expanding the research portfolio in the area of field and support services. He works closely with both AFMSI and SSPA members to provide the industry data they need to optimize their services organizations. Michael previously founded igniteService, Inc. and has worked in customer support, field service, and repair operations for more than 30 years. He has significant service operational experience, having spent 15 years—including 12 years with IBM—managing field service, service parts, and technical support operations. He also spent more than 15 years selling and marketing customer service, service management, and service parts management software solutions to manufacturers and service providers in a wide variety of industries. His sales and marketing roles include management and executive-level positions with Oracle, SAP, and other leading software organizations. In addition, Michael was a widely respected research director in the service chain practice at Aberdeen Group, where he researched and reported on customer support, field service, maintenance, and repair topics.
