HDI

The More the Merrier!

The 2008 HDI Practices and Salary Survey is up and collecting data!

If you have had a chance to peruse the 2007 Practices and Salary Survey results you have found that much of the survey is broken down by support center size, industry, and type of support (i.e., internal/external/blended). We have had a great response from this added benefit to the report. We have also had feedback saying you want more of it. This is great! We love to know that you are looking at and using data to drive decisions in your support centers!

In order to do this we need you! More participation in the survey gives us more options on how to analyze and report the industry’s data. We need a certain number of surveys in each demographic in order to report the results for that area. So if you would like to see the 2008 Practices and Salary data sliced and diced for your demographic we need to hear from you in two ways:

1- Respond to this blog by letting our research team know how you would like to see the data broken down. For example, is there a certain industry to which you want to be able to compare your support center? If so, on which metric(s) would you like to compare? Let us know!

2- Take the survey! Follow the link below to take the survey AND send the link on to others in your demographic categories. Maybe this year we can report the results not only for the IT support industry, but at an even more meaningful level for YOU! Complete the survey by July 21st:  www.thinkhdi.com/takethesurvey2008

Bonus – in addition to adding value to the 2008 results, all survey takers will receive a free copy of the 2008 report, AND be entered into a drawing for a Tom Tom Navigation System!

Feel free to submit any comments you may have about the HDI Practices and Salary Survey. We are always happy to hear from you! ~ Jenny Rains, Research Analyst, HDI

Strategic Advisory Board Applications

Thank you to everyone that submitted an application to participate on the HDI SAB in 2008. We received nearly 200 applications and the qualifications are impressive. It is a privilege to have the “luxury” of such a large and deep pool of talent to choose from.

I just wanted to share with you the process. I look at the current makeup of the Board to make sure we have representation that reflects the HDI Membership overall. For example, I look for a strong mix of small, medium, and large support organizations, representing internal, external, blended, in many different vertical segments, with a sprinkling of vendor, consultant, and media representation.

It’s something of a “recipe”. The idea is to make sure we get input from all of the constituencies of the HDI membership. As the current members roll off, I want to make sure I fill the slots in a way that maintains the balance needed to insure an SAB that covers all of the important trends and issues that impact our support industry.

It is an extremely difficult decision but often made easier by the type of organizations we need to represent the industry. There are so many great individuals that I would love to add to the Board even though their industry sector is already represented, but we need to keep the Board to a workable number of people. The larger it is, the more difficult to manage.

I will be contacting the people that will fill the board this year in the near future, but I wanted to take this moment to thank each and every one of you for making yourself available to our industry and HDI. Thank you so much for your support and I look forward to providing valuable information based on the recommendations of the SAB and you.

To all you do!

Regards,

Rich Hand

Executive Director of Membership

HDI Local Chapters Motivate!

I spent last week in Toronto, Ottawa, and New England speaking at Local Chapter events. My role was to speak to the professionals that attended these events. I was there to share information and help motivate them. What I found out is that I was the one motivated.

It was motivating to see the dedication of these professionals. Taking time out of their busy lives to learn, share, and network. They politely listened and provided great feedback. I had the opportunity to speak to a number of individuals about our industry, as well as better ways I could serve them here at HDI.

I had the opportunity to see a number of people that I normally see once a year at the HDI Annual Conference which added to the value. It energized my belief that it is all about the people and building lifelong relationships that matters. It is not about the technology at HDI, it’s about the people. Don’t get me wrong, we value technology, but we are about supporting the people that keep technology working.

Being out at the Local Chapters is an energizing experience. If you have never been to a meeting you need to get involved. You will meet the best of the best in our industry. I guarantee it!

Thank you to all of the Local Chapter Officers that invited me to come and speak. Thank you to all of the other presenters (and friends) that support this great HDI Local Chapter network by sharing your wisdom and experience. And thank you to everyone that shows up to a meeting of HDI professionals and shares their wisdom with this great community. You are truly what makes us tick!

Thanks for the opportunity to serve.

Regards,

Rich Hand

Change and opportunity…

Peggy Libbey, COO, President and CFO, of HDI has left the company, and she will be missed. As you would expect, out of respect for her privacy and confidentiality, I cannot provide any details. I have spoken with Peggy, and I can assure you she is fine.

I learned a lot from Peggy and we worked well as a team. She has left a strong legacy here at HDI, and many of you have had the opportunity to get to know her as I have. It will be different moving forward.

We have a great future to build here at HDI, and I am confident that my voice and the voice of you, our members, will be heard loud and clear by our new management team at Think Services. I have a seat at the senior management table, and I am confident that the new company will stay member focused as we move forward.

As we all know, change is difficult but change offers new opportunities as well. We have the opportunity to take what we have built and make it even better. Many of you know me personally, and having the opportunity to build an even stronger organization is a mission I look forward to with great enthusiasm.

We have always collaborated as a team here at HDI to deliver a valuable membership experience, and we see that same culture at Think Services. The goal of Think Services is to grow communities of interest for many business sectors, and this is great news for us here in the HDI community. What you have built will be a model for Think Services moving forward. That is a great testament for all of the hard work we have done together over the years.

I am an optimist, and believe that we each have a special place in this life. Each change brings a new path, each path creates the opportunity for a new legacy, and every legacy makes a difference in this world. We are all part of a great community, and I believe we will have the opportunity to make it even better as we move forward.

Your participation is the key to our success. I look forward to each and every opportunity to serve this great community, listen to your suggestions, and continue to meet each and every one of you in person. Thank you for your membership!

Regards,

Rich 

Executive Director of Membership

Sailing the Seven Cs of the HDI Blog

You're probably wondering what you can expect from the HDI Blog. With the retirement of the Muns Report we are sailing on to a new journey! As a former Navy guy, I have been asked by HDI to take the helm to help you navigate through these new and “murky” waters. I would like to set sail by sharing the Seven Cs of the HDI blog with you, and explain how we plan to implement each one, with much help from YOU, of course.

First I better tell you who I am. I'm Phil Gerbyshak, and I've been blogging for 3 years now, currently at Slacker Manager and at Make It Great! I serve HDI as the newly elected Midwest Regional Director, as the President of Brew City (Milwaukee) HDI, and as your Community Leader here at the HDI Blog. If you remember Love Boat, I'll be like Julie, your Cruise Director, making sure you have everything you need for your time here to be worthwhile AND fun!

And what can you expect from the new HDI Blog?

Expect GREAT things, because we'll be sailing the seven Cs together.

Content - With the number of experts we have on board, you should expect at least a post a day on a variety of topics, so the content will be relevant and timely.

Community - Exactly what you've come to expect from HDI, only online in blog form. Whether you're brand new to HDI or have been around for a hundred years, never fear, the blog will have something for everybody! We're building upon the great offline community to build a strong online community.

Connection - You'll get to know the authors, the staff at HDI, and all the rest of the folks that you may have read about in Support World or seen present at Conference, in a whole new light!

Collaboration - Tell us what you want to hear about, and we'll find the best in the industry to share their insights with you.

Coordination - We'll make sure you don't get too much of any one topic, and coordinate our efforts so you get fresh content, all the time.

Celebration of Successes - If we see something that anyone does in our HDI family, we're going to share it on the blog. You'll see interviews with the HDI Analyst of the Year, pictures from the HDI Annual Conference,  and so much more! If you've got something great going on in your ocean, send it to us so we can celebrate with you!

Constant Improvement - You wouldn't expect that we'd stand still, would you? We're going to work hard to keep improving the blog, keep asking for your feedback, keep adding easier ways for you to stay on top of the latest industry trends and to stay in tune with all your HDI friends.

If there's anything missing that you want to see, please send an e-mail to blog@thinkhdi.com and we'll definitely consider it!

Welcome aboard the SS HDI Blog! It's going to be a fun ride, so pull up a chair on the sun deck and get ready for us to head full speed into uncharted territories!

[Phil Gerbyshak is the HDI Midwest Regional Director (elect), the President of Brew City (Milwaukee) HDI and the Community Leader here at the HDI Blog. If you'd like to contact Phil, please send an e-mail to blog@thinkhdi.com and he'll get right back to you or find someone else who can faster and better!]

Ron’s farewell…

For those of you that have just clicked here from the Muns Report, welcome. It is both a sad and exciting time here at HDI. It is sad because Ron has chosen to “retire” (I don’t believe he will be able to sit for very long on the sidelines, it’s not in his character, but that’s a story for another day!) but it is exciting that we have launched the HDI Blog as an attempt to get YOU involved!

Ron has always communicated the value of community, and the importance of sharing thoughts and ideas. In honor of Ron’s vision we are asking you to get involved: every day, every week, every month, or as much as you can. We want you to take this page and make it your own. We are asking you to visit often, read, and respond to this blog. It would be great if you commented on the subjects we post. We are also inviting you to become a guest blogger and write about topics in our industry. By doing so, we will be keeping in line with Ron’s vision and, just as important; we will continue to build on this great tradition that has become HDI.

The “rules” here are easy: Please be professional when you comment or post. If you would like to guest blog, contact me or Phil Gerbyshak to get a sign-in. Guest bloggers must be HDI members, but the rest of the blog is open to our entire industry.

To get us started, please share your favorite memory about Ron. Ron has left an impressive footprint on this industry and me personally. Here is my comment about Ron:

“Ron, because of your vision and generosity, I have had the blessing of the best “job” I could have ever imagined. I have had so many great experiences with you it is hard to name one. I will always treasure having had the opportunity of sharing the vision and strategy of HDI with you. It is not often you fine a CEO that understands that all human beings deserve a voice. I have found mine because of you. You will be missed…” (Now you know it wasn’t sucking up all these years. I really meant it!)

I hope all of you out there share with Ron. I know he will appreciate it!!

Rich Hand

Dealing with perceptions…

On Friday afternoon I received a note from a colleague regarding a plea from ABC news, referencing an article they were doing on technical support. They were looking for some quotes to add to their story. I receive these requests often, sometimes I forward them to members of HDI, and sometimes I don’t.

I have had many dealings with the press, and it is common practice that the story is already written then they “plug” the quotes. What this means is the story is written, and no matter what the angle, the only quotes that will be used will be the ones supporting the premise. Even if the quote is out of context but it fits the writer’s premise, it will still be used. I was told they needed “fun” stories about technical support so I decided to forward the request to the members of our organization that are true technical professionals in our industry. I know they represent the industry in the most professional manner.

The title of the article ended up being; “Yelling at Tech Support Does More Harm than Good”. At first glance the title suggests something we all know inherently; “you catch more bees with honey than vinegar”. Harmless enough until you read the opening salvo, “There will be blood”. What happens next is an article that has little to do about technical support, and more to do about, well, I don’t know, you be the judge. All I know is it had nothing to do about the legitimate issues facing technical support today.

What are those issues? Business and consumers rely on technology now more than ever. There is very little that gets done today that is not based on technology. This level of dependency can drive people to be impatient, as the comments section points out very clearly, but I believe it is due to the general public’s lack of understanding of the skills and knowledge required to support today’s technology. These “pieces” of hardware and software that run business critical systems have developed over the years, through IT innovations and ingenuity. Behind this seemingly “simple” user face to the customer, is a vast web of ancient and infant technology, working together to form this fragile network of components, taken completely for granted by the millions of dependent users. Nowhere in business is there a more misunderstood relationship than technologies relationship with the business, users, and the public.

It is common to hear people that don’t understand technology use phrases like; “push the button”, “just make the change and turn it on”, “turn of a knob”, and ”flip of a switch”, to describe what we know to be a major database overhaul, or major configuration change that will involve three departments, two outside vendors, and a partridge in a pear tree. The general public has become so used to “plug and play” they forget what it takes to develop, and for the purposes of this article, support today’s technology. I have news for them and all of the other users out there; this is not “magic”. There is no button pushing or a snapping of fingers that gets technology up and running in your home or office. Although, many technical people make it seem that way (to a fault) because they are great at what they do. Just like how Larry Bird makes free throws look easy, technology professionals do the same for hardware and software programs. This is no different in the support industry.

Most support of technology goes unnoticed. Behind the scenes, while your e-mail packets are being routed around the globe in seconds, there are professionals monitoring the networks, routers, and servers needed to complete the transfer of the company financials, or the pictures of your latest vacation. Every day, billions of e-mails, databases, and web transactions, go on at a breath taking pace, only to be noticed when something within this complex web of technology malfunctions. That is when all heaven breaks loose, and the support analyst, teams of networking and database professionals, go to work to track down the culprit. Sometimes it is “obvious”, many times it is not.

Even with all of this reliance on technology, support professionals are asked to do “more with less”, have been asked to “outsource” their critical business functions to faraway places, solve problems faster, and listen to users complain about a brief interruption in service. Because of the IT support professional, our expectations as users has skyrocketed to unrealistic levels, and has caused this perception, that when the problem is complex and can’t be fixed immediately, support “doesn’t know what it is doing”. I will not argue that as in every profession, there are some that are new and may not be fully trained, or difficult to work with and outright rude, but that is not the “norm” in support or what we hear from customers that use technical support, as the premise for this ABC article suggests. There are stories of frustrations in every industry and we in IT support have had enough, and we will not take it anymore!

What this article should have been about was; “How is it that IT support professionals continue to function under extremely difficult circumstances?” Obviously it is more “fun” to write articles that start out “there will be blood”, than a comprehensive article on the real issues facing IT support professionals. Are support analysts frustrated, you bet! Do they want to put their face in a pillow and scream? You bet! Are some customers frustrated with the experience they have had with a support person? Yes. But that is certainly a very miniscule part of what happens in support, but unfortunately still feeds a perception, that at least this ABC writer felt was a “critical” issue to report on. Shame on them for being lazy!

We here at HDI know the real story about what goes on in technical support. We are hard working individuals working to keep the economy of the world “online”, 24/7, in every industry, country, and profession in the world. We know it’s easy to look at what we do and lampoon it, but if we stop doing what we do, it will be no laughing matter. We are professionals, we are proud to keep America productive, and we’re not going take it anymore! Now that is an article worth writing!

Rich Hand

Executive Director of Membership

HDI

Hot Jobs in 2008...

It is no surprise that technology is getting more complicated and critical no matter what business you are in. So it it seems logical that one of the hottest jobs in IT for 2008 is the IT Support professional. This is good news for our industry!

Our very own Strategic Advisory Board member, Katherine Spencer Lee is quoted in this Computer World article, and she points out what she has been telling HDI members for years; you are in a "hot" profession. You are needed, sought after, and an intricate part of the future of IT.

The article breezes over the issue of outsourcing but what it does say is only "a fraction of support" will end up in India. I believe we will continue to see huge demand worldwide for support services and it will not be specific to any one area. Whoever does it the most effectively at a fair price will get the work. Customer service will end up being a huge factor!

I hope the new year is prosperous for you and your organization, and if you are looking for a new position in IT; it's out there. Go get it!

Good Luck!

Rich Hand

Executive Director of Membership, HDI

Our Strategic Advisory Board is looking out for you…

We held our annual Strategic Advisory Board (SAB) the week of September 17^th at the Hilton Antlers in Colorado Springs. The HDI SAB is an impressive group of individuals and you can visit the web site (http://www.thinkhdi.com/about/advisoryBoards/strategic) to find out more about this group of Support Industry leaders and business professionals.

It kicked off with a networking reception Monday evening, and immediately the SAB members were engaged in deep discussions of the support industry and the trends members are seeing in their circles. The reception is designed to be relaxing and social in nature, but this board went right to work discussing the agenda and enjoying an adult beverage or two. The thought that always comes to my mind when we gather the SAB, is the complete professionalism of this group and their ability to make it fun.

The agenda was designed to harvest the vast knowledge of the group and to make it easy to share and participate regarding the issues and topics to be addressed at the 3 day meeting. The major topics of the meeting were the “Footprint of Support Centers 2010”, along with the “HDI Maturity Model” and new “HDI Assessment Program”. These topics were more than enough to stimulate a productive and valuable conversation, and more importantly, to help develop recommendations that we at HDI could use to deliver to our membership and the industry.

There is a White Paper under development to deliver the details of the issues discussed, but I would like to highlight just a few of the topics here in this post. Even though this post is long, it only scratches the surface of our meeting.

Under the umbrella of “Footprint of Support Centers 2010” the SAB broke out into 3 groups to discuss 2010 in the context of People, Process, and Technology.

The People piece was discussed both from the perspective of future support professionals and the way to attract and maintain them in the workforce, and the user community that will be served, as the next generation starts entering the workforce, and start to impact society, and utilize the new technology that will need to be supported. It was discussed that if we don’t get the people right, process and technology won’t matter.

There was a lot of consideration of the “Millennial’s”, users that are used to using internet, blogs, social networking web sites, where they expect to use technology to work in very collaborative ways. They also have a heightened level of expectations because they grew up on the Internet and expect “instant” gratification. Because of this, they have already developed their own networks of support for less complex issues. The group felt there would be two categories of support for the new generation:

·         Common knowledge support:  handled via social networking. 

·         Uncommon knowledge support: complex issues handled by support centers.

My final observation here was that support of both users and the people providing support will continue to diversify as the world grows “smaller” and will need to be; multi generational, multi cultural, and multi technical.

In the area of Process, it was agreed there would be a continued need for structured process in an organization. IT processes will continue to drive toward strategic alignment with the business goals of the organization, and a knowledge management process will be critical to the ever growing complexity of the IT infrastructure and our dependence on technology. Process frameworks like ITIL, COBIT, HDI Maturity Model, and ISO 20000 will be critical to maintain this complexity as well as improving the compliance requirements of the business.

Processes will become more complex because of the mobility of the workforce being supported as well as the workforce providing support. Much of the process improvement initiatives will need to be assessed against a common maturity model, to insure organizations understand where they are before beginning on a process improvement journey. The ability of an organization to implement or improve IT processes will be highly dependent on an organizations “Maturity Level”.

The Technology impact on support organizations will continue to offer big challenges for business and IT support, specifically because of the need for technology to be more user friendly, which translates into more complexity on the back end to deliver that “simplicity”.

By 2010 support organizations will need the ability to communicate via multiple channels, have access to collaboration tools, knowledge sharing, and collaborative incident management.  “Swarming” – driving solutions to the right person, has become a new “model” of attacking complex service interruptions to bring resolution at a much more expedient pace. Tools will be needed to support “swarming” so that organizations can coordinate the resources needed from all different areas of the IT organization to resolve interruptions to business critical applications and infrastructure.

Conclusion

My brief summary here doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the topics discussed. There were 20 pages of meeting notes and I encourage you to look for the HDI White Paper that is currently being written by our Content Manager and man behind the curtain of Ask The Expert!, Bob Last, who also attended the meeting.

The SAB spent a significant amount of time updating the HDI Maturity Model , but more importantly they gave us feedback on the new HDI Support Center Maturity Assessment Service that we introduced September 10^th of this year.

This assessment is designed to help support organizations assess where they are as an organization, based on the standards developed for the HDI Support Center Certification program. It is different in its approach and outcome. The new assessment is designed to provide IT support centers with an unparalleled level of expert guidance for improving operational efficiency, service quality and value. The SAB embraced the program and gave valuable input on how to improve the service for the HDI membership and the support community overall.

The Strategic Advisory Board’s goal to help HDI provide direction and value to the membership was again a great success. I always learn so much and come away with a pile of to-do’s and need to prioritize the list. In the end, HDI will be delivering an improved assessment program, a white paper, a series of focus books on IT project management, an improved web site, an updated maturity model, and overall recommendations to help drive HDI in the right direction for our members and the industry.

The SAB seems to think we are headed on the right path; what do you think? Drop a comment or e-mail me at rhand@thinkhdi.com. I would love to hear from you!

Customer Service Week

Thank you for attending today's presentation! Kirk's blog reference can be found at www.kirkweisler.com/t4d/ where he has posted the Support World articles and references to Alston & Bird.

Thank you for attending and I hope to see you tomorrow!!

Rich Hand

This is what HDI is all about...

When I read articles and Blog posts like this one, I am encouraged that our mission here at HDI is the right one. In the dog eat dog world of business, I continue to Shepherd the message of our founder Ron Muns and his mission and vision of connecting people.

Our mission is simple; connect people that want to share, learn, and build relationships with others that have common interests.

One of our most active members is Phil Gerbyshak. He is an IT professional, Relationship Geek, and the author of 10 Ways To Make It Great! He is always building and nurturing relationships and his energy is second to none. He summed up our mission at HDI in this Blog post and I want to thank him for making my day great!

You should check him out. I am positive he will be glad to share his positive energy with you as well! As a matter of fact, he will be doing a webinar for the HDI community during Customer Service Week, October 1st through the 5th.

I appreciate all he does and he is a great example of why HDI is as successful as it is! Thank you Phil!

Rich Hand

Executive Director of Membership

Community...You Set the Boundaries

By Ron Muns, Founder & CEO, HDI

If you read my Muns Report on "The Art of Change," (June 6th of this year), you know that I now live in downtown Denver. Living a downtown life has reinforced the value of community. A community is a group of people with whom you have something in common. My neighborhood community includes: Angie, Julie, and Elizabeth at Ink Coffee; Doug, John, Carrie, Janine, Tommy, and Kelly at McLaughlin's Bar and Grill; Carla at Zengo's Restaurant; Zontee at Metroboom (haircut); Kim, Tara, Leighton, John, Jason, Jillian, Dawn, and others that have worked with us on construction/finishing of our new townhome; as well as Ben, Pam, Paul, Pauline, Rick, Dyan, Bill, Sheryl, and others that live nearby.

I also have a community (multiple) within the world of HDI and the IT Infrastructure Management Association, and numerous others that are personal and business focused. What are your communities? And, how can you learn and share within each? What reputation do you want to have in your communities?

You Set the Boundaries for Participation in Each of Your Communities

By boundaries, I am suggesting that you decide how you choose to participate, such as being:

   1. Active or passive—You may have some areas of interest in which you are passionate and want to become very active, while others are minor interests and so you remain passive.
   2. A contributor or consumer—In some communities you may be the expert and enjoy being a contributor. This is helpful for others, but also provides you with a sense of self-worth and value.

I hope I can help convince you of the value of communities, so you will become a more active contributor in the communities in which you have a passion.

HDI Communities

While HDI is an overall community, we have specific groups as well. Because you are reading this, you are likely a support professional wanting to become the best in your field. As such, you might be involved in one or more of HDI's communities:

    * HDI Local Chapters
    * HDI Advisory Boards and Committees
      - Strategic Advisory Board
      - Member Advisory Board
      - Certification Standards Committees (site and individual)
      - Training
      - Conference Program Committee
    * HDI Web Site and SupportWorld Content Contributors
    * HDI Industry Forums
    * HDI Online Community Forums and Content Sharing
    * HDI Research (i.e. customer satisfaction)
    * HDI Faculty

Who Benefits When You Participate?

When you participate actively, you, most of all, benefit. As you participate by contributing articles, responding to forums with your opinions, interacting on boards and committees, and contributing case studies, you open your ideas up to others. They will respond by thanking you or challenging you in a collegiate way. You improve your thinking and your skills, and solidify your beliefs. This makes you a more valuable member of the community. The benefits of actively participating are the satisfaction you receive, the knowledge you gain, and more career opportunities. So, for those of you that have more to give, the community is waiting for you. Thanks in advance for your participation!

Conclusion

In my local community I hope to be someone that people like and can call upon for an occasional favor. Come to think of it, that is what I want in my professional life as well. I am passionate about the HDI community as I hope you are. By contributing what we know individually, we all become smarter. As the saying goes, “All of us are smarter than any one of us."

Your active participation in HDI is always welcome and your contribution of content and ideas are what makes HDI your professional community. Thanks for being there.

Best of luck in your journey to support excellence!

The Rest of the Customer Satisfaction Story…

Wow! Our industry truly does care about what their users/customers think! Tomorrow is the final day to join over 400 other support organizations in this industry’s first customer satisfaction benchmarking study. I am so excited that this idea became a reality because you just never know when you embark on ground breaking ideas.

The nightmare is that you build it and no one comes. It is important to listen to your customers and this study is proof that when you do the results pay dividends. We listened to our members needs and you showed up in droves. I can’t wait to start analyzing the data and communicate the results to you. I believe we are an industry that is the bulk of much late night humor but I believe that it is not justified overall.

We always hear about the nightmare cases of bad support but I believe it is the exception not the rule, and especially with organizations that belong to HDI. We will have thousands and thousands of surveys to analyze and we will truly see what percentage of experiences are truly “bad” experiences. The data will not lie because it comes from the customers using our services.

So get ready to “rumble” we are about to tell the “rest of our story” which I believe will be one we will be proud to tell. If you have not signed up you have until tomorrow Friday March 30^th to do so. Don’t miss out on finding out what your users/customers are saying about you! And the survey says…

Rich Hand

Executive Director of Membership

HDI

Are we truly ready for a disaster or pandemic?

By Rich Hand - Executive Director of Membership

Last week I was in Washington DC with the HDI Government forum. This forum group like all of our forum groups is filled with true support professionals. I am always impressed by how much everyone knows about IT and support and how willing they are to share what they know. One of our members is the IT Operations Chief of the Joint Operations Support Center at the Pentagon, and he set up a tour for our group which, believe me, is no small task.

During the tour we were addressed by Captain Anne Westerfield, who is ultimately responsible for the support organization (and I’m sure much more). She was impressive and we were honored to have her take time out of her busy schedule to spend time with our group. The tour concluded in a highly secure area where the operations are monitored and supported by a close knit group of dedicated individuals. I would tell you more but Drew (our forum member from the Pentagon) would have to kill me.

So why did I ask the opening question; are we truly ready for a disaster or pandemic? It has nothing to do with the Pentagon but when we got on the bus at the Pentagon to go back to our hotel, we had a representative from the hotel on the bus with some “bad” news. He was able to get our attention quickly when he started the sentence with; we have an issue at the hotel and we have to move you… Hmmm!

We were told the Board of Health was combing the hotel because there were a “few” people that had become “sick” at the hotel, and as a precaution they were going to be doing a thorough cleaning and we would have to leave. We were assured that it was no big deal and we should carry on with our diner at Old Ebbits Grille (around the corner from the White House) and when we returned we could move to the hotel next door. This would be arranged by the hotel and we would have nothing to worry about.

As we arrived at the hotel it became apparent that this event was a little bigger than suggested by the hotel staff. The satellite dishes on top of the news trucks surrounding the hotel, with news people interviewing “victims” in front of cameras suggested we may have had something to worry about. But we were starving and we decided to just go to dinner anyway.

At dinner we received a call from our Events Manager and Director informing us that the hotel could not get us into the hotel next door because the news had hit the airwaves and people from our hotel became non gratis. We were “lepers”, outcasts, disease infested vermin, and our options to stay somewhere else were gone. So as our group grappled with the circumstances, while ordering another bottle of wine (this group likes wine; they actually collect the corks; like I said a great group!) we asked the most important question of all; if we stay at the hotel, will it be free? Obviously we were worried about this “pandemic”, kinda.

To make this long story shorter; the bottom line was it was simply the Norovirus. A quick moving stomach type flu with little long term consequence for otherwise healthy individuals (my wife’s a nurse which almost makes me a doctor). The media swarmed the hotel, people were panicked (besides our group of course, remember we got to stay free!), and they were trying to stir a tornado of concern over a “stomach flu”. It was on CNN, the AP news wire, every local channel, and who knows where else? Imagine if it was something real? What would we do? How would we react? Are we ready for the reaction? It was eye opening how quickly people panic. So I ask again; are we ready for a disaster or pandemic? Just a thought…

How can I tell you? I will count the ways…

By Rich Hand, Executive Director, Membership, HDI

As the Executive Director of Membership at HDI, I have the responsibility to make sure I deliver valuable and pertinent information to you as members whether it is through; publications, research, discussion forums, webinars, industry forums, and mediums like this blog. We have so much going on at HDI (which I believe is a good thing) but the dilemma is; how do I communicate everything you get with your membership without being considered a spammer?

We grappled with that question today in a meeting where the goal was to reduce the number of times we e-mail our membership but still get out the information necessary to help you to take advantage of the services we provide. We put out a bi-weekly e-newsletter, a bi-weekly Muns Report, we have monthly SPIN webinars that need to be promoted, Practice & Salary participant requests, a new Customer Satisfaction Benchmarking study, the HDI Annual Conference, The Daly Interview, to name a few of the programs we think are of value to the community.

When you add it all up; we are e-mailing at least 3 times a week sometimes more. We brain stormed how to consolidate the mailings and alternative ways to get your attention. But here’s the dilemma and here’s where I need your help. When I send a stand alone SPIN Webinar notification via e-mail I get 150 – 250 Members sign up for the event. When I include it within the Industry Insider our e-newsletter I get 3 people signed up. What is a Director to do? Do we consolidate and risk you missing valuable information? Do we continue to e-mail at the current rate? Do we send out a mailing once a month on things going on at HDI?

I would value hearing your thoughts on the best way to keep you informed on all the information HDI provides to you the support professional. I am open to hear your thoughts and I will follow up in a future post to let you know what we heard. You can either leave a note here or e-mail me at rhand@thinkhdi.com.

We talked about doing more postings like this and including RSS feeds. Would you sign up for RSS? Do you know how RSS works?

When I am in doubt I instinctively turn to the Membership for advice. I look forward to the many words of wisdom you will provide.

HDI Higher Education Forum Meets at University of South Carolina

By Rich Hand, Executive Director of Membership, HDI

The members of  HDI's Higher Education Forum meeting at the University of South Carolina were welcomed today by Dr. Andrew Sorensen, USC President, and Dr. William Hogue, President for Information Technology and CIO.

Dr. Sorensen was clever and witty in his delivery and discussed some large scale IT projects under way in South Carolina that he is nurturing with his leadership and direction. Dr. Hogue, the university's CIO spent time early on in his career in the support organization and clearly understood the impact that IT support is having in the business world. He made this clear in a passionate way and highlighted how IT support has become a competitive differentiator for many organizations. His delivery was one of comfort and humor, and you could sense his affinity with the support leaders in the room. Their visit was a true reflection on the importance that IT plays in the role of both the private and public sectors, and the validation that it is important as leaders to get together to discuss strategy and best practices.

Both presenters were eloquent as they stressed the importance of continuing to learn and grow in order to build skills important to both personal development and organizational development. As a leader in IT support, you should take this message and recognition to heart.

Both speakers felt it was important to address the HDI Higher Education Forum. I would argue that their recognition of the Higher Education Forum is a clear signal to IT leaders of the value and importance of vertical forum membership. If HDI does not have a forum in your industry, drop me a line and I will make sure we consider one.

If you are in the Financial, Healthcare Provider, Government, Law, Retail, or the Support Center Leadership Forum, it is time to join. As the Executive Director of Membership at HDI, I was honored to have them stop by, but more importantly I believe their visit was a real testament to the IT leaders on this Higher Education Forum.

My sincere thanks to Doctor Sorensen and Doctor Hogue for their time, hospitality and valuable insights.

   

Are you accountable?

As we introduce the new Customer Satisfaction Index service to the market, we have encountered some great feedback! We have been getting a strong positive response on the ease of setup, benchmarking, and low to no maintenance of the service once it is implemented. We have also encountered a few areas of concern that have surprised the team here at HDI.

You may not believe this, but we have had comments regarding concerns about being held accountable. The managers that have expressed this concern generally have not been measuring customer satisfaction. There have also been a couple of managers that have had concerns about having "control" of the data. I have to be honest, I am concerned that as a support profession, we still have concerns about what our customers are going to say about our service. Isn't that the only way we can improve our performance?

I would love to hear your thoughts about being held accountable to our users/customers. Are there others out there that don't want to know what their customers/users are saying? How do we improve if we don't know how we're doing? Do you measure customer satisfaction?

If you don't know about the CSI service check it out. What concerns do you have about having HDI host your CS survey? I look forward to your response.

Rich Hand   

First Call Resolution; Fact or Fiction

First Call Resolution is a key metric being measured in many support organizations but are we measuring it in a way that we can compare with each other? Do you count every incident that comes through your support organization? If it is transferred a few times within the group and the customer/user never hangs up and the issue is eventually solved; is it counted in your FCR?

Recently we received a question from a member: 

"My question, then, is how was the number of 80-85% chosen?  This is often used as gospel, and yet nearly every manager I talk to disagrees.  Just yesterday, I was in a local HDI meeting and a very well-known expert was very adamant in stating that the 80-85% is the best practice.  I stated in reply that it depends on ones environment and many other factors.  I hear this often and I would like to know how that number was determined, and why it is not 90% or 95%."

Part of my answer:

"If you look at the Practices Survey for the last 3 years, FCR is mostly reported in the 60% range. The problem with throwing around numbers like 80%, many executives will see that and expect that of their organization, even if it is not a reality. Chasing metrics and data points can be a very distracting activity if the executive does not understand or trust their support manager."

Part of Bob Last's answer, our Content Manager:

"The origins are a bit murky; I first encountered the numbers in 1997. The 80-85% First Call Resolution Rate came from a 1997 white paper ("From Pink Slip to Internet") by the SSPA and is based on a survey they did in 1996."

"It circulated widely that year and gradually became "gospel" because it supposedly was based on statistical data. It was discussed at industry meetings and in training workshops of all types world wide.  It has taken on the aura of folk wisdom and myth; it also satisfies the need for simplicity that many people crave.  One simple set of numbers, discussion over. Your point that support environments are frequently very different from one another, is correct, but once something has achieved mythical status, it is hard to change people's minds."

It is a question we receive and discuss often. Our next Metric Guide will attempt to clarify the issue and give managers a baseline to work from. What are your thoughts? We believe it is one of the most important metrics when measuring customer satisfaction. I would like to hear how you measure FCR and what you consider FCR. I look forward to hearing from you.

Rich Hand 

Information or Sales...

When is it sales and when is it information? It is my job as Director of Membership to make sure you have the information and tools you need to make your job easier and hopefully more rewarding. Whether it is a new publication, SPIN webinar, HDI Conference & Expo, Vertical Forums, or the new Customer Satisfaction Index tool, I need to inform you of what's available to you or I am failing in my job. So when I mention a program or product on a webinar, at a local chapter meeting, in the HDI booth at the conference, or on the CSI tour, where is the line between sales and information? Is it selling to say that the new CSI tool is a one of a kind product that I think is going to help transform our industry? I find myself so excited about the product that I want to shout from the rooftops! But in order for it to help you and add value to your support organization, and the industry, you have to buy it. Am I selling or providing information? I truly believe, and the evidence is out there, that certified, HDI members, that are investing in their own career, are more productive and valuable to an organization. Many organizations know this and invest in their people to become HDI certified and keep them connected through a membership. I am proud and excited to shout that out as well, but you need to purchase some training and a membership. So is it information or selling? We believe that our members need to know what is available to them to help them to improve their career. Is it information or selling? I want you to know that I am sure that HDI members are the most valuable asset to the support industry hands down! I also know this is the largest group of dedicated support professionals in the world, willing to share information, and always looking to improve themselves and the organizations they work for! You guys are the best! Information or selling? Let me know what you think?

Rich Hand 

We're Listening...

We have redesigned the Practices Survey based on the feedback we received from you, our members and participants. Taking the new survey is now fast and easy with an eye on saving you time, but still producing the valuable information you have come to expect from the survey.

If you haven't already seen it, the first survey, Tools & Technology, is available and we have already had a good response. This survey is designed to take 15 minutes or less. I would love to hear from you on the new format as well as feedback on the length of time it took you to fill out the survey.

We have so many new features we continue to roll out like our Interactive Library, Job Board, and CSI tool.

We are listening and we hope you continue to let us know what we can do to better serve you...

Rich Hand

Meet HDI's Founder and CEO on tour...

Our Founder and CEO, Ron Muns, is about to embark on a tour of HDI Local Chapters to discuss the importance of customer satisfaction and the benefits of knowing what your customers and users are saying about your support organization. We are excited that Ron is hitting the road because there is no better way to connect with our membership than getting out there, face to face. If you have never met Ron, this will be a great opportunity to ask about our industry or share some thoughts with Ron on what is happening at your organization. While he is out there, he will discuss why measuring your customer satisfaction is paramount to success, and he will not be shy in stating that being connected with others in our industry through HDI Membership is a sure way of adding value to your career and organization. We create value by participating and sharing at events like the ones Ron will be hosting this year. Don't miss out! Here are some of the dates and locations where Ron will be speaking. So get in touch with the local chapter nearest to you and find out how you can participate and share in this world wind tour with Ron Muns:

April 18th Seattle, WA - April 19th San Francisco, CA - May 9th New England MA - May 10th Delaware Valley, PA - May 11th Ottawa, ON - June 7th Toronto - June 8th Motown, MI - June 20th Vancouver, BC - June 21st Calgary - June 22nd Regina, SK - June 23rd Winnipeg, MB - July 20th Sacramento, CA

I hope you take advantage of this opportunity! Thanks.

Rich Hand

HDI Conference Buzz...

Many of you joined us at last weeks HDI Annual Conference & Expo in Nashville and the community is still buzzing! I had the pleasure of meeting so many of you and it was amazing to see so many Support Professionals connecting. From the convention center hallways, session rooms, bars, restaurants, and general sessions, people were sharing ideas and laughs throughout the week. Now comes the hard work. I'm sure most of you brought back a huge list of things to do and now it is a question of where to begin. As Membership Director, I hope you choose to stay connected through the many avenues that HDI membership provides. Stay connected through the on-line forums, Ask The Expert, HDI Connect, or attend an HDI Local Chapter meeting in your area. Don't let the energy from the conference get gobbled up in the day to day at the office. Take a moment and call or e-mail one of your colleagues from the conference. Don't forget to check out the Event web site for a wrap up of the event and check out the highlights video for a chuckle or two. All I can hope for is you stay connected! I will...

Rich Hand 

Podcasting

I recently attended a conference in California, sponsored by the New Communications Forum, to learn and improve the usage of Podcasting for our membership. It was very interesting to see the explosion of podcasts by both individuals and companies. We here at HDI have done a few "test" podcasts and I believe we have a great opportunity to distribute interesting, valuable, and fun information through this "new" channel. Now, just because I think it's an interesting medium doesn't mean you will. I would love to get your feedback and thoughts about this new distribution channel. Will it work for you? Is it more convenient? Do you currently listen to podcasts? I appreciate your feedback as we embark on this new journey together. I have included a couple of podcasts for your review. Learn about the founding of HDI from CEO and Founder Ron Muns. If you have ever thought about getting more involved here at HDI I have interviewed Karen Yuen the current Chairman of the Member Advisory Board, and Johann Stoessel the Chair Elect of the MAB. If you want to learn more about HDI's new Customer Satisfaction Index tool (CSI), listen to this interview with Rick Baucom of HDI, who ran the Beta testing for the new CSI tool. Take a listen and let us know what topics and people you would like to hear more about. I look forward to our journey together into the world of HDI Podcasting!

Kind Regards,

Rich Hand