POSTSCRIPT:.
In August, the Association of Support Professionals will publish a
book-length report on this year's "Ten Best Web Support
Sites". The report will offer a closer look at the ten winning
sites, with . . .
SIDEBAR:.
The Ten Best Web Support Sites of 2001
OPEN DIVISION
Cognos
support.cognos.com/support
Dell
premiersupport.dell.com
Hewlett-Packard
itrc.hp.com
Macromedia
www.macromedia.com/support
National . . .
WEB SUPPORT: A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC VIEW.
"Jupiter Media Metrix reports that [despite the current
economic downturn] 74% of businesses will spend more money on customer
relationship management (CRM) infrastructure in 2001 than they did . . .
DATA POINTS: TECH SUPPORT TURNOVER.
[CHART OMITTED]
Tech support departments are famous for burnout and constant
employee churn, which adds substantially to the cost of recruiting and
training new support reps. In fact, a new . . .
HOW TO LIVE WITH MICROSOFT.
There's an old parable about a scorpion who hitches a ride
across a river on the back of a frog, and then stings the frog in
mid-river. "Why?" the frog asks. "Now you're going
to drown." Says the . . .
CHECKLIST: OEM PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS.
Earlier this year, SPSS set up a new "enabling
technologies" division to offer statistical and analytical
solutions to large OEM partners like Unisys, Lucent, NetGenesis, and
Hyperion. David Blyer, . . .
HOW TO HOST AN INFLUENCER DINNER.
"One of the simplest and most powerful ways to build a
company's reputation," says publicist Shel Israel, "is to
host occasional dinner meetings with a group of 'key
influencers'--typically with . . .
THE ART OF SEMINAR MARKETING.
No question, seminars are an absurdly primitive way to sell
technology products. We lure a few dozen people to a windowless hotel
room, force them to sit through mind-numbing PowerPoint . . .
DATA POINTS: MICROSOFT'S PROFIT-PER-EMPLOYEE RATIO.
[CHART OMITTED]
It's no secret that Microsoft has pulled well ahead of most
rivals in revenue per employee, but a less-watched metric--profit per
employee-- has widened the competitive gap even . . .
HOW TO BE A BAD BOSS.
Executive coach Paul Lemberg is a pretty upbeat guy, but he's
often frustrated by how often well-meaning bosses put obstacles in front
of their employees and create dysfunctional organizations. . . .
CHECKLIST: BANNER AD COMPONENTS.
Like most forms of Web marketing, banner ads have lost much of
their novelty value. But good banner ads still produce healthy
clickthrough rates and even sales--and more than ever, the . . .
ON MINIMIZING SOFTWARE COMPLEXITY.
Greg Gianforte's four-year-old company, RightNow Technologies,
sells customer service automation software--a product category
that's become notorious for out-of-control implementation costs.
But . . .
MARKETING CASEBOOK #2: SIMPLE IDEAS, BIG RESULTS.
Some marketers would like us to believe that it takes a mysterious
mix of experience, scientific testing, and creativity to produce a
breakthrough campaign. The truth is, there's also a lot of . . .
DATA POINTS: PERMISSION-BASED E-MAIL.
Although spammers get most of the blame for overloading e-mail
mailboxes, consumers have currently "opted in" for almost 15%
of total message volume in the U.S., according to data compiled . . .
HOW TO RUN A CUSTOMER ADVISORY BOARD.
"It's shocking to see how many companies don't pay
attention to what their customers are thinking," says Paul Lemberg,
an executive coach who works with high-growth technology companies.
"They . . .
THE AUTODESK SUBSCRIPTION LICENSE.
"When the history of the software industry is written,
upgrades will be one of its biggest mistakes." --Autodesk CEO Carol
Bartz
After two decades of dragging users along a sometimes-rocky . . .
THE CASE FOR E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS.
Every month, FirstPlace Software president Brent Winters cranks out
a long, densely technical e-mail newsletter about search engine
algorithms and keyword positioning strategies. FirstPlace gets . . .
NOTES ON METHODOLOGY.
The Soft-letter 100, published annually since 1984, is defined
formally as "a ranking of the top 100 personal computer software
companies in the U.S., based on calendar year revenues." . . .
THE 2001 SOFT-LETTER 100.
[CHARTS AND TABLES OMITTED]
When we published our first Soft-letter 100 rankings back in
February 1984, the "personal computer software" category was
easy to define: Inexpensive, mass-market . . .
DATA POINTS: CONSULTING METRICS.
Software companies usually have good productivity benchmarks for
the product side of the business, but service metrics--especially for
high- cost consultants and application developers--are often a . . .
|
|