The SaaS Support Forum (TSSF)

The SaaS tsunami has had profound impacts upon the software industry, and it isn't over yet -- especially for Support, where it's just beginning.  While traditional software vendors and their customer contact center teams desperately struggle to keep ahead of the expensive floods of “It’s Broken; Fix It NOW!” calls, Support in SaaS companies is different.  A new era has begun; what was once a despised but necessary evil in the traditional software game is fast turning out to be the key to long-t

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The SaaS & Support Project in 2010

Almost five years ago, Bill Gates warned Microsoft about the significant challenge to the company and industry posed by the advent of SaaS.  While the new business model has yet to fully reach the gains predicted for it back then, the momentum is building.  An ever-accelerating number of traditional perpetual-license software companies are readying SaaS products or have already quietly released them.  In the process, a lot has been learned about the magnitude of the change that is SaaS.  As comp

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SaaS & Professional Change

Awareness of the fundamental changes driven by the shift to SaaS to the profession and practice of Customer Support, both to external Support and internal IT Help Desks, is growing.  The Help Desk Institute has asked me to write a two-part series on the subject for their SupportWorld magazine, drawing on the continuing research of The SaaS & Support Project (tm).  The first article, on “SaaS, Cloud Computing and The Redefinition of Customer Support,” explores the changes to Support when a co

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The Future of Customer Success Management: A Look Ahead

A common thread throughout the research of The Customer Success Management Initiative has been the interest in members of the growing CSM community to meet other professionals and to learn what is being done in their companies and groups.  Curiosity is high, and questions abound.  What will the future of CSM look like?  What will drive the CSM role to develop and mature?  What do people see as best business practices in Customer Success Management?  As teams and programs mature, what levels will

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Definition: Remote Support Technology

For generations of customers and customer support representatives alike, the experience of trying to work together to resolve a problem over a phone line has often been extremely frustrating and unsatisfactory even when ultimately successful.  I remember countless episodes from my own days many years ago as a support rep, telling customers “Now enter this command, and then tell me what the screen shows.”  Unfortunately, in far too many centers, these costly and difficult conversations are still

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