HDI2004blog

Help Desk Institute Names Akamai Technologies and Saudi Aramco 2004 HDI Team Excellence Award Winners

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – May 4, 2004 – Help Desk Institute (HDI), the world's largest membership association for service and support professionals and the premier certification body for the industry, has named Akamai Technologies the winner of the 2004 HDI Team Excellence Award for External Support and Saudi Aramco’s EXPEC Computer Center (ECC) the winner of the 2004 HDI Team Excellence Award for Internal Support. The announcement was made at the Help Desk Institute Conference and Expo (HDI 2004) held April 17-21, 2004 in Orlando, Fla.

Help Desk Institute Announces Winner of Global Help Desk Analyst of the Year Award

Micheal Rodgers of Bay Care Health System Recognized for Providing Exemplary Service

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – May 4, 2004 — Help Desk Institute (HDI), the world's largest membership association for service and support professionals and the premier certification body for the industry, today announced the winner of its inaugural competition for the Global Help Desk Analyst of the Year: Micheal Rodgers of Bay Care Health System and the Tampa Bay Chapter of HDI. This new annual award program -- sponsored by Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of information technology professionals -- recognizes the best help desk analysts from around the world. Each HDI local chapter was invited to select a winner to compete at the regional level. Regional Analysts of the Year were then invited to participate in HDI’s Global Analyst of the Year Award, which was presented at the HDI Annual Conference (HDI 2004), April 17-21, 2004, in Orlando, Fla.

Show Daily: Photo Gallery

HDI2004 was the best annual conference and expo yet! We celebrated 15 years of success and looked forward to the next 15 years. Here are some photos from the event.

Stan Slap

Expo

Expo

Launch Pad

Show Daily: Wednesday Happenings

The final day of the HDI 2004 conference began with an executive networking breakfast as well as breakfast and networking opportunities and roundtable discussion groups for the other HDI 2004 attendees who dared to get up by 7am after the previous night’s party, followed by nearly a dozen breakout sessions ranging from “IT IQ,” “Help Desk Tools and Technologies That Cost Less,” and “Leveraging Self-service and Knowledge for Global Intranet Support.”

The HDI 2004 Annual Conference & Expo concluded with a keynote address by Mimi Donaldson, entitled “All Stressed Up and No Place to Blow.”

Show Daily: Tuesday Happenings

Tuesday morning’s HDI 2004 celebration of community began with Daybreak Discussions and informal roundtable breakfast groups, and continued with a celebration of excellence in the general session with the presentation of the HDI Team Excellence Award for Internal Support.

Ron Muns also acknowledged the newest support centers who have received HDI Support Center Certification.

The morning’s general session continued with a lively keynote presentation by Stan Slap entitled “Bury My Heart at Conference Room B.” In his address, Slap recounted the deadly sins of managing corporate culture:

Show Daily: Help Desk Institute Announces Joe Fleischer, Chief Technical Editor for Call Center Magazine, as HDI's New Strategic Advisory Board Chairperson

ORLANDO, Fla. - April 20, 2004 -- Help Desk Institute (HDI), the world's largest membership association for service and support professionals and the premier certification body for the industry, today announced the appointment of industry chronicler Joe Fleischer to the position of chairperson of the HDI Strategic Advisory Board for a one-year term. Phil Verghis, retiring chairperson, made the announcement during his State of the Industry address at the HDI Annual Conference and Expo held this week in Orlando.

Show Daily: Offshoring Topic of Support Industry Trends Address At Help Desk Institute Annual Conference

ORLANDO, Fla. – April 20, 2004 – Help Desk Institute (HDI), the world's largest membership association for service and support professionals and the premier certification body for the industry, today tackled the challenging issue of offshoring during its state of the industry keynote address at HDI 2004, the association’s annual conference held April 17 - 21, 2004, in Orlando, Fla.

Show Daily: More Vendor Announcements

Here's a roundup of some more vendor announcements made at HDI2004. Yesterday's roundup can be found here. More information on each announcement can be found in the extended post. Full releases can be found at Virtual Press Office.

GWI Software announced c.Support(R) version 3.0 for Microsoft(R) Windows, a comprehensive Asset Management module that will give companies the control they need to manage their entire infrastructure.

LLE Language Services unveiled LLE Lingo Suite for Service Centers, a holistic, enterprise-wide approach to language communications designed to help customer service and support organizations deliver world class language translation, interpretation, transcription and testing services at every point of customer contact: telephone, e-mail, facsimile, document, voice mail, digital audio, bi-lingual testing and the Internet.

RightAnswers, LLC announced that it is showcasing its next-generation version of Knowledge-Paks, which offers a comprehensive knowledge base that helps streamline all aspects of the service and support process, while accelerating problem resolution and reducing costs.
TechTeam Global, Inc., announced that its new Eastern European site, based in Bucharest, Romania — TechTeam Global, SRL — is now operational. The new facility offers TechTeam's complete suite of service offerings, including technical help-desk support, business process outsourcing services, remote desktop and network monitoring, and software support and integration.

Show Daily: Monday Happenings

The morning began with the Cantastics, who started the general session with a bang in a Stomp-style performance using garbage cans, incredible rhythms and even a little audience participation.

Ron Muns then greeted the attendees and noted that we are part of a growing community that now includes more than 2 million support and IT people in the US.

“Our jobs are getting more interesting,” said Muns. “Our jobs used to be fairly simple … but increasingly the minority of the people in support are going to be on the phones … Today we’re more about engineering, knowledge sharing, thinking about global issues, and so we need to think differently about our profession, but we need to keep thinking about service and our customers despite the automation. The organizations that are least strategic and not thinking about their customers are the ones that are going to be most impacted by the changes.”

Show Daily: Sunday Kick-Off

HDI2004 got off to a great start on Sunday! Here are some of the highlights:

After a full day of pre-conference sessions, including three classrooms totaling more than 150 people training for HDI Help Desk Manager (HDM) Certification, the HDI Annual Conference officially started in the general session theatre.

Cinda Daly, the HDI Annual Conference program director kicked off the event by recounting the history of the support profession and Ron Muns, the founder of HDI and the founder of the support industry.

Forrest Gump (Kirk Weisler) met Ron Muns, HDI’s founder and CEO on a park bench onstage as a “help desk professional”:

“Being a help desk professional is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes you get the chewy ones – they chew you out – sometimes you get the nutty ones..."

With a ball drop teambuilding activity, fun, music and surprises – the opening session was all designed to celebrate excellence, the support industry, profession, community, excellence, and 15 years of HDI
Ron Muns talked about day-to-day blocking and tackling and sharing and learning; it all adds up to building best practices.