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AFSMI
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dvillamil@afsmi.com

SSPA and AFSMI Join Forces to Present Fall 2008 Recognized Innovator Green Edition

Nominations Set to Open for the Industry's Leading Awards Honoring Service & Support Organizations

SAN DIEGO, June 30, 2008 –The Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA)and the Association for Services Management International (AFSMI) today announced that the highly successful SSPA Recognized Innovator Awards Program will be expanded to include AFSMI partners.

The newly expanded program will coincide with the Fall 2008 SSPA Services Leadership and AFSMI World Conference and Technology Services Expo, themed "Winning Service Strategies in a Shifting Global Economy." The thought provoking conference agenda will focus on new service strategies, technology and insight into the future of the service industry, empowering attendees with new ways to reduce risk and the knowledge to be among the first to solve the global services gap.

The Recognized Innovator Awards will honor companies for outstanding innovation in products and services, and the program is open to all SSPA and AFMSI partners exhibiting at the conference.

"With innovation front and center at the conference, the Fall 2008 Recognized Innovator Awards promises to be one of the most exciting programs for the service and support industry," said John Ragsdale, SSPA vice president of technology research.

Winners will receive their awards on the main stage during the AFSMI/SSPA general session and Ragsdale will lead tours of the winner’s booths in the Technology Services Expo. Winners will also be featured in published SSPA and AFSMI research following the event.

Categories for the "Fall 2008 Recognized Innovator Awards: Green Edition" are:

Innovation in Enabling Virtual Support Centers. Keeping cars off the road cuts peak traffic congestion, lowering gas consumption as well as reducing gas-related pollution. The advent of IP Telephony has made a dramatic change to support centers, allowing technical support engineers (TSEs) to work from home while their work activities are still captured and auditable. The challenge, however, is to enable these at-home employees to fully participate in all support programs and processes, putting pressure on companies to monitor remote agents to identify opportunities for training and coaching, and to find ways to keep these TSEs up-to-speed on policies and new technical information. The winner in this category provides innovative technology to fully engage remote employees so they are not isolated; enable support management to understand the complete picture of the employee, even when they are working remotely; and identify training needs of remote engineers and/or streamline remote training delivery.
Innovation in Eliminating Onsite Visits. With companies reporting that “rolling a truck” for a field service repair can cost as much as $500, finding ways to eliminate onsite visits can provide huge savings for a support organization, as well as cut the carbon footprint of support by keeping more trucks off the road. Reducing the number of the field service visits starts with correctly diagnosing product or service issues up front, and may include remote monitoring or other remote access to supported technology. The winner in this category provides innovative technology to remotely diagnose and resolve product or service issues, with a proven track record for reducing onsite field technician visits.
Innovation in Streamlining Field Service Schedules. When onsite visits can’t be avoided, maximizing the number of appointments per shift and minimizing the number of miles driven will allow a company to fulfill field service obligations while lessening environmental impacts. Accurate positioning with GPS, real-time ‘pull’ scheduling, wireless devices and applications, as well as intelligent scheduling software, are merging to allow field service organizations to support more appointments with fewer resources, as well reduce the miles driven in the process. The winner in this category provides innovative technology to streamline the scheduling and dispatch of field resources, increasing productivity for onsite appointments and ensuring the right mix of parts and skills are included to eliminate return visits.

Complete Recognized Innovator Awards program details including milestone datesand the application will be published soon.

For more information on participation in the Fall 2008 SSPA Services Leadership and AFSMI World Conference and Technology Services Expo, please contact Lydia Zaffini, lzaffini@thesspa.com.

For more conference information and to register for the Winning Strategies conference, please visit:
http://afsm-winningstrategies.com
http://sspa-winningstrategies.com

About AFSMI
Founded in 1975, the Association for Services Management International (AFSMI) is the global leader in helping service professionals and field services organizations deliver more value for their customers.AFSMI members range from major Global 2000 companies to smaller, regional players and individual service professionals. AFSMI is internationally recognized for its 30 years of experience delivering service industry research, training and education programs and industry events. AFSMI is a member of a global network of associations that includes the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) and the Technology Professional Services Association (TPSA). For more information, or to join AFSMI, visit www.afsmi.com.

About the SSPA
As the industry’s foremost professionals association, the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) is a key resource for the information and best practices needed to make better business decisions. It brings together the best minds from across the industry spectrum – from established companies with successful track records to the pioneering newcomers with out-of-the-box ideas. The SSPA also partners with thought leaders such as J.D. Power and Associates and the Wharton School to create programs that benefit the industry. The SSPA is a member of a global network of associations that includes the Technology Professional Services Association (TPSA) and the Association for Services Management International (AFSMI). For more information, visit www.thesspa.com.

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