Customers Fastidious About Call Center Service

Teleperformance, a provider of outsourced CRM and contact center services, released the results of customer care survey that shows the quality of experience with a company’s customer contact center determines consumer sentiment and brand loyalty. According to the survey, a single negative experience with a customer call center would likely cause 68% of the respondents to take their business elsewhere. Over 1000 U.S. adult consumers completed the survey.

Survey results also revealed consumers expect excellent service in return for brand loyalty:

-- 87% of people felt they had a right to a better contact center experience if they regularly spend money with a company or stay loyal to a brand

-- 51% of people said the main reason for their dissatisfaction with a company is poor customer service or a bad contact center experience

More info on the service and support industry can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

Worldwide IT Spending To Grow 4.6 Percent in 2010

A slow but steady improvement in the macroeconomic environment in 2010 should support a return to modest growth in overall IT spending, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide IT spending will reach $3.4 trillion in 2010, a 4.6 percent increase from 2009. Although modest, this projected growth represents a significant improvement from 2009, when worldwide IT spending declined 4.6 percent. All major segments (computing hardware, software, IT services, telecom, and telecom services) are expected to grow in 2010.

From a regional perspective, Gartner's IT spending forecast reflects the economic situation in each region and country with the emerging regions leading the way in terms of growth both in the short and longer term. However, because of the scale of IT spending in North America and Western Europe, these regions weigh heavily in the global IT spending growth rate overall.

IT spending growth in emerging markets (with the exception of central and eastern Europe and some of the Gulf states) is expected to lead the way, with spending forecast to grow 9.3 percent in Latin America, 7.7 percent in the Middle East and Africa and 7 percent in Asia/Pacific. Recovery in Western Europe, the United States and Japan will start more slowly, with Western Europe increasing 5.2 percent, the U.S. growing 2.5 percent, and Japan increasing 1.8 percent.

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Survey of Nearly 1,600 CIOs Shows IT Budgets in 2010 to be at 2005 Levels

IT budgets will essentially be flat in 2010, increasing by a weighted global average of 1.3 percent in nominal terms, compared with 2009 levels where IT budgets declined 8.1 percent, according to results from the 2010 CIO survey by Gartner Executive Programs (EXP). 2009 was the most challenging year for IT since the survey began in 1999, and CIOs had faced multiple budget cuts wiping away four years of budget increases, giving CIOs basically the same level of resources as they had in 2005. While there are some signs of recovery in the 2010 projections, these will not overcome last year’s cuts.

Business expectations are shifting from a focus on greater cost-based efficiencies, to achieving better results based on enterprise and IT productivity. These productivity gains will come from collaborative and innovative solutions that take advantage of the new “lighter-weight” services-based and social media technologies, including virtualization, cloud computing and Web 2.0 social computing. This transition can be seen in the top 10 technology priorities for CIOs in 2010 where business intelligence, the No. 1 technology the past five years, dropped to the No. 5 priority.

These strategic, “lighter-weight” technologies are of increasing importance to the CIO. Exploiting them provides the cost, capacity and capability gains needed to define, source, create and deploy information- and process-intensive solutions that will reshape IT and its future role.

Moreover, the technologies that CIOs are prioritizing in 2010 are technologies that can be implemented quickly and without significant upfront expense, instead of investing millions of dollars to get millions in benefits, with these technologies, up front investments are measured in thousands of dollars to get those same benefits.

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Key Predictions for IT Organizations and Users in 2010 and Beyond

Gartner, Inc. has highlighted the key predictions that herald long-term changes in approach for IT organizations and the people they serve for 2010 and beyond. Gartner's top predictions for 2010 showcase the trends and events that will change the nature of business today and beyond.

Gartner’s top predictions for 2010 and beyond include:

By 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets. Several interrelated trends are driving the movement toward decreased IT hardware assets, such as virtualization, cloud-enabled services, and employees running personal desktops and notebook systems on corporate networks.

By 2012, India-centric IT services companies will represent 20 percent of the leading cloud aggregators in the market (through cloud service offerings). Gartner is seeing India-centric IT services companies leveraging established market positions and levels of trust to explore nonlinear revenue growth models (which are not directly correlated to labor-based growth) and working on interesting research and development (R&D) efforts, especially in the area of cloud computing. The collective work from India-centric vendors represents an important segment of the market's cloud aggregators, which will offer cloud-enabled outsourcing options (also known as cloud services).

By 2012, Facebook will become the hub for social network integration and Web socialization. Through Facebook Connect and other similar mechanisms, Facebook will support and take a leading role in developing the distributed, interoperable social Web. As Facebook continues to grow and outnumber other social networks, this interoperability will become critical to the success and survival of other social networks, communication channels and media sites.

By 2014, most IT business cases will include carbon remediation costs. Today, server vitalization and desktop power management demonstrate substantial savings in energy costs, and those savings can help justify projects. Incorporating carbon costs into business cases provides a further measure of savings, and prepares the organization for increased scrutiny of its carbon impact.

In 2012, 60 percent of a new PC's total life greenhouse gas emissions will have occurred before the user first turns the machine on. Progress toward reducing the power needed to build a PC has been slow. Over the course of its entire lifetime, a typical PC consumes 10 times its own weight in fossil fuels, but around 80 percent of a PC's total energy usage still happens during production and transportation.

Internet marketing will be regulated by 2015, controlling more than $250 billion in Internet marketing spending worldwide. Despite international efforts to eliminate "spam," marketing "clutter" is abundant in every marketing channel. Pressure for greater accountability means the backlash from annoyed consumers will eventually drive legislation to regulate Internet marketing. Companies that focus primarily on the Internet for marketing purposes could find themselves unable to market effectively to customers, putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage when new regulations take effect. Although experiencing high growth, vendors who focus solely on, and sell predominately to, Internet marketing solutions could find themselves faced with a declining market, as companies shift marketing funds to other channels to compensate.

By 2014, over 3 billion of the world's adult population will be able to transact electronically via mobile or Internet technology. Emerging economies will see rapidly rising mobile and Internet adoption through 2014. At the same time, advances in mobile payment, commerce and banking are making it easier to electronically transact via mobile or PC Internet. Combining these two trends creates a situation in which a significant majority of the world's adult population will be able to electronically transact by 2014.

By 2015, context will be as influential to mobile consumer services and relationships as search engines are to the Web. Whereas search provides the "key" to organizing information and services for the Web, context will provide the "key" to delivering hyperpersonalized experiences across smartphones and any session or experience an end user has with information technology. Search centered on creating content that drew attention and could be analyzed. Context will center on observing patterns, particularly location, presence and social interactions. Furthermore, whereas search was based on a "pull" of information from the Web, context-enriched services will, in many cases, prepopulate or push information to users.By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide. According to Gartner's PC installed base forecast, the total number of PCs in use will reach 1.78 billion units in 2013.

By 2013, the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.82 billion units and will be greater than the installed base for PCs thereafter.

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Need Has Never Been Greater for Entrepreneurial CIOs

The impact of an entrepreneurial CIO is greatest when the need for productivity leverage is greatest, as in the current economic environment, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner analysts said by 2012, the companies with the top 25 percent of earnings growth will have an entrepreneurial CIO.

Gartner maintains that the distinctive feature of the entrepreneurial CIO is the proactive willingness and courage to take the high-level risks also undertaken by the business, to provide new or breakaway competitive advantages that translate directly into revenue, financial results and market share. It is this willingness to apply the highest level of creativity available within the organization to do things in a fundamentally different way that establishes new sources of shareholder value, while also setting new levels for IT productivity. It comes with the understanding that the business may fail in the attempt, but also that it will surely fail or, at best, attain mediocre performance, if it does not act.

Gartner believes that the entrepreneurial CIO is the person who, working jointly with an entrepreneurial CEO or business unit executive, marshals the resources under the command of the IT organization, as well as creatively linking to resources outside of IT, to define and capture new and growing business opportunities. The primary focus of the entrepreneurial CIO is on new-business impact, and that impact is felt in three major ways by the business:

* Velocity of change -- the ability to influence the velocity of change through the structure of the business, so that a change in strategy can be implemented at a rate that outperforms all other competitors, and, therefore, also draws revenue at an earlier time and at a rapid pace. Improvements in this area lead to gaining competitive advantage quickly in new markets with new offerings.

* Strategic leverage and extension -- capabilities that extend strategy for the enterprise to new markets, new industries and new uses, and that lead to growth in revenue against entrenched and new competition.

* Operational efficiencies -- efficiencies that improve operations to gain breakaway competitive advantage that further increase the rate of revenue and earnings growth. Gaining an improvement that is a factor of 10 or more is key to establishing true competitive advantage in the area of operational efficiencies.

Gartner's own CEO research has established each year for the past six years that more than 60 percent of CEOs see their IT organizations as a key constraint to the changes they need. It is the ability of the entrepreneurial CIO to deploy resources and architecture within the IT organization that makes it a partner that is synchronized with the entrepreneurial objectives of the business.

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Is the IT Job Market Stabalized?

Janco has just released its 2010 IT Salary Survey, which shows that overall pay has stopped falling and has flattened out. In addition the survey show an increase in hiring demand for some IT professionals. The CEO of Janco, Victor Janulaitis stated, "The economic climate is still driven with a cost cutting mindset, business closures, and extensive outsourcing. However the worst seems to be over as salaries for IT professionals are no longer falling. " The CEO added, "...many 'baby-boomers' who had planned on retiring in the next few years are not leaving the job market frustrating middle aged workers who want to advance."

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38 percent U.S. adults said that they feel surprised when they receive good customer service

Zendesk, an on-demand help desk solution, has released the results of a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive among 1,002 U.S. adults ages 18+. The survey results show that, even in the midst of a difficult economic climate, service and support is critical and should not be treated as an afterthought. In fact, 79 percent of U.S. adults said that, when they receive good customer service, it makes them more loyal to the company and 57 percent said they would be equally or more likely to talk about a good customer service experience than a good deal on a product or service.

Other findings of the Zendesk survey include:

-- Over one in three (38 percent) U.S. adults said that they feel surprised when they receive good customer service, which shows just how much potential there still is in improving this vital part of the customer interaction.

-- More young people (ages 18-34) than any other age group said that good customer service made them feel peaceful – a sign that, for future generations of customers, help desks will play a key role in their visceral reaction to a product or company.

-- Across the board, the poll found that customer service is very important to consumers in nearly every industry. However, when respondents were asked to prioritize in which industry customer service was most important, an overwhelming 47 percent chose the health care industry. Coming in a very distant second with 16 percent was the hospitality industry.

-- Men are more likely to tell friends and family about a good customer service experience (38 percent) than women are (28 percent).
More information on the service and support industry can be found at www.supportindustry.com