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Demand for Automated Service and Support Solutions on the Rise, Despite Cautious Information Technology Spending-- Role of Support Automation is Expanding, Reveals Aberdeen Group at SupportSoft Executive Consortium --Redwood City, Calif. - August 19, 2002 - SupportSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPRT), today shared recent industry insights revealing that the use of automated support is expanding, and is viewed as a critical component to effectively managing information technology (IT) budgets, while still providing a high quality of service and support to employees, customers and partners. This conclusion was echoed as a key theme during SupportSoft's recent Executive Consortium, as senior executives from Accenture, Bank of America, BellSouth, Charter Communications, Dimension Data, IBM and Siebel Systems presented results regarding the benefits of support automation. Aberdeen Group, a leading IT market analysis firm which attended the event, also indicated that despite a global slowdown in IT spending, support automation in the enterprise continues to gain momentum, due in part to its ability to deliver significant operational economies."Service management and support automation technologies can offer a beam of light in this down economy. When these applications are deployed effectively they can help enterprises negotiate the daunting challenges associated with operating efficiently, and still meet stockholder and market pressures to surrender to a shrinking IT budget," noted Karen Smith, research director for Aberdeen Group. "Technologies such as SupportSoft's help enterprise customers address their most relevant and timely business pains while generating a lasting and measurable impact on productivity and the bottom line." Aberdeen Group concludes that by 2005, about 68% of software support incidents within enterprises will be resolved using support automation tools, as noted in a recent whitepaper authored by Smith, titled "Support Automation: Redefining Technical Support for Problem Resolution". Aberdeen Group defines support automation as the technology, solutions, methodologies and procedures that allow organizations to address customers', employees' and partners' questions, problems and service and support issues. Presentations throughout the Consortium event mirrored Aberdeen's conclusion that an organization's capacity to penetrate new markets, deliver operational economies, leverage product and service initiatives, and parry the thrust of competitors depends on its capacity to assemble and effectively support a multitude of IT systems and their users. According to Smith, "Aberdeen research shows that IT budgets are down and service and support staffs are being spread thinner and thinner. Yet, expectations that IT support and infrastructure systems stay up and running are higher, particularly given today's round-the-clock, 24x7 business demands. These conflicting pressures are boosting the need for new approaches that can help alleviate some of the pressure put on IT support staff - and their budgets." About SupportSoft* SupportSoft (Nasdaq: SPRT) is the world's leading provider of support automation software. SupportSoft's patented software platform allows businesses to automate and personalize the support they provide to their customers, partners and employees, helping them reduce costs and drive user satisfaction. Global 2000 companies using SupportSoft's software include corporate enterprises like GE, Cisco Systems, BT and Schlumberger, plus OEMs and service providers like IBM, Sony, CSC, Comcast and BellSouth. SupportSoft has offices worldwide, and more information is available at www.supportsoft.com. Editorial Contact: Joi Deaser SupportSoft 650.556-8930 joi@support.com top of page |
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