CenterBeam NewsLog

Study: Dell customer rating plunges; Apple leads pack - Computerworld

Link: Study: Dell customer rating plunges; Apple leads pack - Computerworld.

Harried IT Execs Are Being Hounded by ... - Computerworld

Link: Harried IT Execs Are Being Hounded by ... - Computerworld.

Anti-Spyware Benefits

Link: Anti-Spyware Benefits.

Computerworld, 5/2/2005: Offshore Tech Support Still Stirs Controversy

by Patrick Thibodeau

Dell Inc. last week announced a three-year contract to manage 57,000 desktop and laptop PCs in the U.S. for Honeywell International Inc., expanding a deal under which Dell already manages 16,000 Honeywell PCs in Europe.

About 18 months ago, Dell said it had stopped routing most technical support calls from U.S. corporate users to a facility in India after some customers complained about the quality of the help they received. The company didn't completely end its use of offshore help desk services for U.S.-based users. But at least in regard to Honeywell, technical support will be delivered from sites in the U.S., according to Dell.

Honeywell deferred questions on the support issue to Dell. Bob Kaufman, a Dell spokesman, said the company's help desk support plan for Honeywell is consistent with its overall goal of providing services based on customer needs and proximity.

A Sensitive Issue

For some IT managers, using offshore operations to provide telephone support remains a thorny issue. For example, when Emmanuel Ramos, CIO at Resun Corp., a modular building maker in Dulles, Va., considered outsourcing his desktop support last year, one of the first questions he asked prospective vendors was whether their help desks were located in North America. Ramos said he didn't want to risk upsetting his users.

Fremont, Calif.-based Everdream Corp., the desktop managed services provider that Ramos picked, had started offshore support operations in Costa Rica. But Everdream CEOGary Griffiths said he closed the offshore center there a year ago, after deciding that sending technical support offshore could hurt customer relations.

Curtis Helsel, vice president of data and technology management at the University of Colorado Foundation in Boulder, said his experience with offshore customer support on personal ITmatters has led him to believe that communication can be difficult. The foundation uses a managed services provider, San Jose-based CenterBeam Inc., that operates a help desk in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Regardless of such views, though, offshore outsourcing of technical support is increasing, according to Marcus Courtney, president of the Seattle-based Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, Communications Workers of America. "What I see is an expansion of companies moving their corporate help desk overseas," Courtney said.

Reports of failures in offshore support services operations are "exceptions," said B. Ramalinga Raju, founder and chairman of Hyderabad, India-based Satyam Computer Services Ltd., which provides help desk support and other ITservices. "There are many examples of this being successful."

Dell CEO Kevin Rollins said in India on Friday that the company plans to increase the number of workers at its call centers and software development operations there to 10,000 by year's end. Dell now has between 7,000 and 8,000 employees in India.

Kaufman stressed that all of Dell's support workers are trained to meet the same standards, "no matter where they sit." The location of staffers chosen to support certain customers depends on factors such as time zones, he said, adding that Dell supports U.S. business customers from facilities located in the U.S. as well as in countries such as India and Panama.

Robert Schoening, CIO at Pathmark Stores Inc., which operates 142 supermarkets in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia metro areas, said dealing with offshore help desks on personal issues "can get frustrating."

But Schoening, whose Carteret, N.J.-based company last week said it had signed a seven-year agreement to renew an outsourcing deal with IBM, added that he thinks offshore support could work. If IBM "thought it could be done efficiently and effectively, I'm not sure that I would have problems -- partly because it's hard to staff help desks," Schoening said. "It's a high burnout rate. . . . People don't like to do that job."

More cell phones, less satisfaction

Embrace of mobile phones shouldn't be confused with enthusiasm for service providers, study stresses. [CNET News.com]

EDS system drove staff to frustration, report says

A troubled child-support case management and telephony system used by the U.K.'s Child Support Agency so frustrated the workers who used it that some of them wound up in tears, according to a new report on the implementation. [Computerworld News]

WSJ.com - Waiting for Customer Service

Link: WSJ.com - Waiting for Customer Service.

Waiting for Customer Service By SAM SCHECHNER

February 8, 2005; Page D5

One of the quickest ways for a company to alienate its customers is to force them to burn a chunk of their evening waiting to talk to a customer-service representative.

As companies pour more money into automating their help lines, wait times aren't getting any shorter. And while the labyrinthine menu options may ease the burden on the sparsely staffed call centers, it can add a new layer of hassle for customers just looking for an answer to a simple question.

The average time spent slogging through automated systems and waiting on hold is 122 seconds, according to the Incoming Calls Management Institute, a consulting firm. That is up 33% from five years ago. On the average help line, more than 15% of callers will wait more than two minutes on hold, it says.

C|net, 12/9/04: Dell is swell, customers say

By John G. Spooner
Reversing a recent slide in satisfaction rankings among its business customers, Dell beat out Hewlett-Packard and IBM in a measure that's closely watched for potential insights into future PC sales trends.
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