Trend Micro Recognized With STAR Award From SSPA(email this article)

(Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies) (San Diego CA. October 21, 2003) – The Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the leading industry Association for IT support professionals, announced today that Trend Micro, Inc. (TSE: 4704, NASDAQ: TMIC), a leader in network antivirus and Internet content security software and services, was recognized for their customer service excellence with a SSPA STAR Award at the recently held SSPA Conference@Savannah.  Chosen as the best in what they do, Trend Micro was honored for delivering exemplary technical support to their customers and presented with a 2003 STAR Award in the Innovative Support category.

Support centers that apply in this category need to display innovation, creativity and uniqueness in the methods used to deliver technical support.  These are “cutting edge” support centers that have developed new and exciting ways to deliver exceptional technical support to their customers.  Their innovation can clearly be seen through the use of new and exciting technology, tools and systems that advance the technical support experience for all customers.

“The SSPA STAR Award winners provide a showcase of the top talent within our industry; and serves as the highest form of recognition they can receive in the service and support industry.” said Bill Rose, SSPA Founder/CEO.  “As this year’s winner in the Innovative Support category, Trend Micro has proven that they are an exceptional company that delivers world-class services.”

“We are very pleased to accept this prestigious award from SSPA -- this recognition further confirms Trend Micro’s Premium Support strategy and the value we deliver to our customers,” said Max Cheng, Trend Micro Executive VP of Global Technical Support.

All SSPA Member companies are eligible to nominate themselves in any number of the categories -- Sustained Performance; High Call Volume; Most Improved; Complex Support Applications; Outsource Support Provider; Innovative Support; Mission Critical Support: Small/Emerging Company and Support Technology Vendor. SSPA provides each Applicant with an electronic application as a benchmark/guideline.  The STAR Award Applicants take this task very seriously and spend a considerable amount of time on this arduous, but rewarding process.  Many non-winners have said that, even though they did not win an Award, the whole process was well worth the time and effort.  They indicate they learned a lot from the process and were able to discover in what areas they can use improvement.  For more information on the SSPA STAR Awards please visit www.theSSPA.com or send an email to info@theSSPA.com.

About Trend Micro
Trend Micro, Inc. is a leader in network antivirus and Internet content security software and services. The Tokyo-based corporation has business units worldwide. Trend Micro products are sold through corporate and value-added resellers and managed service providers. For additional information and evaluation copies of all Trend Micro products, visit our Web site, www.trendmicro.com.

About SSPA
Founded in 1989, the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) was formed to focus on the specific needs of service executives who are responsible for support centers and overall customer relations. Today, the SSPA represents over 22,300 service professionals at 2,500 support centers worldwide. These executives look to SSPA to provide insight into the future of support services, a road map of best practices within our industry and access to the best service and support vendors. SSPA has become the center of support providing a reliable and comprehensive resource for news, research, benchmarking, standards and collaboration.

SSPA was created for professionals, managers and executives that make their living in the IT support services community. It is not a generic, one-size-fits all website where nobody ever feels like they belong. SSPA is dynamic, interactive, living resource specifically designed for the unique needs of support professionals. This exciting virtual community creates a forum for constant interaction with peers, industry experts, technology vendors and much more. For more information regarding the SSPA and other related divisions, log on to www.thesspa.com or send an email to info@thesspa.com.