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February 2006 |
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Globalization in the Air If you’ve been reading the mainstream press, you know that globalization isn’t far from anyone’s lips these days. Outsourcing discussions are becoming part of the US presidential debates, Tom Friedman's The World is Flat rode the best-seller lists, BusinessWeek and other prominent magazines have done cover stories on it. It’s hard to escape this topic, and judging from the number of queries I receive from clients and prospects, it looks like it has started to hit close to home. As you can see from this newsletter's Events section, I’m also being asked to speak more on this topic, both in the US and around the world.
While she had faced difficult challenges in turning around the North American Support Services team, she quickly found out handling global support is a far more difficult task. Based on her visits to all support locations over the past two months, she unearthed 22 different tracking systems, from CRM systems to Excel to pencil and paper. There were no common processes or escalations. There was no common knowledge base. (Forget about it being modeled after KCS -- that would be too much to hope for.)
Reporting Woes Still others, meanwhile, adopted a "public acceptance/private defiance" attitude – as in "Let’s see what happens. Until then we’re going to do what we’ve always done, since we have never gotten what we needed from headquarters." But that's not all. Some support to key customers was handled not by the company directly, but by resellers (particularly in Asia Pacific and Latin America). Each reseller had their own documentation, and their own ways to set expectations with customers. Few had any kind of feedback loop which would allow them to share information with her company. Add to all this some dramatic cultural differences, and the 24x7 support her customers demanded, and you could see why she was nervous. (Note: It's fairly common to see this kind of support with conglomerates, where companies are essentially asked to operate independently. This type of non-integrated support model is also seen in cases where there have been multiple acquisitions.)
Challenges and Rewards First, from a company perspective, they are counting on her to make it happen. Services revenue is an increasingly high proportion of just about every high-technology company’s revenue mix. In fact, according to Jeff Tarter of the Association of Support Professionals, a typical B2B software company now generates more revenue and more bottom-line profit from services than from any other source, including product and license sales. From a customer’s point of view, support is a spaghetti mess of different service experiences, certainly one that they could not rely on to support their global business needs. On a personal level, no doubt it would be challenging, but also incredibly rewarding. An opportunity like this can make a big difference to her career, and position her for even greater responsibilities. She is in the process of joining my mentorship program, where I will be a coach and independent sounding board for her as she sets strategy and goals for herself and her global organization. Note: If my mentorship program is of interest to you, give me a call and we can discuss it further. Due to the complex and intense nature of these engagements, I only accept a few clients at a time in this program. |
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Going Global with Support– Part I
(new article)
"When are we going to put support on-site in Asia Pacific? We anticipate huge growth in the region, and the only thing holding us back is your lack of on-the-ground support." You decide it is time to do something, but what? Sure, it's tempting to simply leap into action and come back with an impromptu proposal. But expanding customer support into a new region—with different cultures, values and attitudes—is a big step. It’s crucial to step back and examine your company's strategic objectives before you begin. In other words, figure out the what and why before you tackle the how. * * * Those are the first few paragraphs of a cover story I wrote for the latest edition of SupportWorld, the HDI magazine, which goes out to 10,000 subscribers. HDI members can read the entire article here. Part II of the article will be in the March/April 2006 edition. |
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Webcast: Cultural Dynamics of IT Service Management Last month MRO Software invited me to speak at a company-sponsored webcast, on the topic, The Cultural Dynamics of IT Service Management. Judging by the feedback, it was a great success. It yielded excellent follow-up questions and comments from people across multiple continents.
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Community Involvement and Events Judge
for ASP SSPA
Committees Can we come up with a key financial performance indicator for technology firms that conveys the total economic impact of service, support and maintenance? The second SSPA committee I’ll participate in is one I call "What Happened to the Goose that Lays Golden Eggs?" This committee will attempt to answer the key question:
You can
read more about
them here. |
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The Ultimate Customer Support Executive: Unleash the Power of the Customer continues to sell well, and is available from a variety of online book sellers. But don’t forget, you can take advantage of a special discount only for newsletter readers and workshop attendees by clicking here. |
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I'll be attending these upcoming events and I hope to see you there. February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
Other events are listed here. |
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What Do You Want to Hear About? Your ideas, insights and feedback are important to me. I want to hear from you! What topics or books would you like to see discussed? Who would you like to see interviewed? Your comments, questions, ideas, suggestions, feedback and contributions are welcome. Send them to the editor here. We invite you to forward this to colleagues, co-workers and anyone you think might be interested in improving the quality of their customer service. To subscribe, visit our website and click the "Subscribe Now" button. Privacy Policy: Your email address and personal information will never be sold or shared with any third party. Previous
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About The
Verghis Group We are vendor-neutral. Our mentorship and facilitation based model emphasizes the speedy transfer of knowledge to your internal teams. For more information or a no-obligation initial consultation, contact:
This publication is a presentation
of The Verghis Group, which is solely responsible for its
contents.
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Going
Global 
