I'm spending part of this week at the 11th Annual ESCA (Electronics Supply Chain Association) Convention--a sister association of the SSPA. But don't think I'm ignoring customer service and support. I spoke at the conference opening about my take on the supply chain industry and how it plays a key role in the Customer Loyalty Cycle.
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Tomorrow I'm leading a round of Innovation Tours at the 11th Annual Conference of our sister assocation, Electronics Supply Chain Association (ESCA), and I spent time this weekend finalizing the tour sheet of participating partners. All the big names in SCM (supply chain management) are there, including i2, IBM, Oracle and SAP, as well as a cool new offering from FreeFlow and eBay Private Marketplaces. Luckily I know enough about supply chain to be conversant, thanks to editing lots of SCM reports during my Forrester days by talented analysts like Noha Tohamy, now at AMR.
Deloitte & Touche just announced their "Technology Fast 500" companies for 2007, and SSPA Partners Bomgar and LogMeIn not only made the list, but they were named "Rising Stars," a special designation for 20 companies with tremendous revenue growth. The Technology Fast 500 recognizes the 500 fastest-growing technology, media and entertainment, telecommunications and life sciences companies in the United States and Canada.
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When shopping for customer support or customer relationship management (CRM) software, talking to each vendor?s customer references is a critical step in making the right decision. During the sales cycle, it is very easy to get drawn into marketing messages and swayed by demonstrations of prototype products, customized for each demonstration. Customer references are the only way to determine what functionality actually exists, how easy it is to implement, how the vendor supports its customer base and how well it manages the overall relationship.
I was forwarded a copy of the press release "Oracle?s Siebel CRM On Demand to Be Offered Through to WebEx Connect Mashup Platform" and asked for my thoughts, and my initial thought was that this is a "Barney" partnership. You know what I mean, one of those "I love you, you love me" announcements that doesn't mean much, it is just intended to provide visibility for both companies. But then someone else asked me what I thought of the announcement, and I've since spent some time thinking why this announcement is sticking in people's collective craw.
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The 2007 KANA Customer Summit kicked off yesterday in my backyard (Downtown San Jose), with over 100 customers in attendance. The mood here is great, particularly with the event following on the heels of KANA's pre-announcement last week of a tremendous Q3--21% revenue increase over Q2, and 23% over Q3 05. The conference content is exceptional. While there are plenty of breakouts on best practices, the keynotes so far have been very forward looking, with a focus on innovation in support processes and technology, Web 2.0, and Generation Y.
It is conference season, and after a few days at home recovering from the SSPA Services Leadership Conference in New Orleans, I was back in the Southeast this week for the 2007 Numara Software User Conference in Orlando. Numara Software has been growing by leaps and bounds, and with the acquisition of Unipress last year they are also working with larger companies. Numara Software has two main product lines, Numara Track-It! and Numara FootPrints, and there were over 300 customers in attendance today, evenly divided across the two product lines.
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New Orleans is back, and as wild and wonderful as ever! The Big Easy is playing host this week to over 400 service and support executives at the 2007 SSPA Fall Leadership Conference, and from what I can tell (through slightly hungover eyes I must admit) everyone is having one hell of a good time.
Things kicked off on Sunday with full day workshops, including my Web 2.0 Workshop. 15 people joined me for a trek through Web 2.0 definitions, functionality, generational attitudes, etc. I was joined by a bevy of Web 2.0 experts who gave excellent presentations...including a few big differences of opinion along the way....illustrating how nascent this concept remains. Guest speakers were John Chmaj, VP, Chief KM Strategist, eVergance; Joe Cothrel, VP of Community Management, Lithium; Todd Abney, Field Service Director, Novell; and Tony Baggio, Practice Leader?Support Solutions, SocialText. I'd also like to thank Regina A. Estes, Manager, Remote Services & Knowledge Programs, Xerox Corporation, who provided some great information about internal collaborative communities.
Continue reading "Live from the 2007 SSPA Fall Leadership Conference"
