INSERT COMPANY LOGO HERE - Frost & Sullivan offers a way forward for support organizations that are struggling to balance customer demands and needs, technology developments, cost

© Frost & Sullivan 2014 1 “We Accelerate Growth”

INSERT COMPANY LOGO HERE

BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH


Contents

Background and Company Performance ........................................................................ 3

Industry Challenges .............................................................................................. 3

Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact ...................................... 5

Conclusion........................................................................................................... 8

Significance of Company of the Year ............................................................................. 8

Understanding Company of the Year ............................................................................. 9

Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................... 9

Best Practice Award Analysis for Support.com ................................................................ 9

Decision Support Scorecard ................................................................................... 9

Visionary Innovation & Performance ..................................................................... 10

Customer Impact ............................................................................................... 10

Decision Support Matrix ...................................................................................... 11

The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ..................... 12

Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 12

Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ................................................................................................................. 13

About Frost & Sullivan .............................................................................................. 14



Background and Company Performance

Industry Challenges

Support Interaction Optimization (SIO) is a set of solutions that incorporate guided

resolution integrated with knowledge bases and interactive analytics to assist support

agents to better solve customers’ complex inquiries and support issues. These tools auto-

populate agent screens with suggested answers and solutions, and next best actions for

support agents to dramatically cut down on the time needed to solve a customer’s issue.

The advent of SIO has created a new market within the contact center industry to answer

the need for tools that enable shorter, less expensive, more accurate, productive, and

satisfying support experiences.

Today’s consumers are increasingly techno-savvy, almost obsessed with the compelling

plethora of high-tech goods and services available to them. Frost & Sullivan research has

shown that these mobile, engaged, and “always on” consumers increasingly prefer to self-

serve first and research online before they engage or re-engage with a business over the

phone. They also attempt to troubleshoot their own product problems. Only when they

can’t self-help do they pick up the phone.

Having gone through the process of exhausting other resources, when customers do get

to that support line, their questions are usually of a more complex nature, requiring a

higher level of support. At this point they often are anxious and stressed, having spent

considerable time attempting to fix their problems without achieving results.

Understandably they want swift and straightforward answers and issue resolution from

agents.

These issues are going to become more challenging to handle with the advent and the

growing popularity of connected devices, also known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Frost

& Sullivan forecasts that globally there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. These

include appliances, home automation, health monitoring, equipment and machinery,

vehicles, and wearables. Often IoT installations involve multiple vendors of products and

networks, which have to work together reliably. But when one of them doesn’t function

correctly customers do not want “the blame game” between suppliers. Instead they

rightfully expect one vendor to take the lead and get any issues resolved.

Yet, complex customer support interactions, like for IoT, can be costly, due to interaction

length and potential escalation to higher level support staff or subject matter experts

(SMEs). The contact center industry also suffers from high staff turnover. Estimates of

agent churn are nearly 40% per year, with agents typically leaving after 2 ½ years, at a

replacement cost of about $10,000 each. Additionally, companies face the cost of lost

business from unhappy customers. Customer satisfaction scores and first contact

resolution rates are shown to have steep declines with increasing agent turnover.

However, the existing array of support applications – such as case and ticket



management, customer interaction management (CIM), customer relationship

management (CRM), and remote access – by themselves are not meeting companies’

customer support needs. Suppliers and their clientele must devise, implement, and

achieve success with solutions that can improve the Customer Experience, manage

complex issues, integrate with other applications, improve performance, and reduce costs.

This reality calls for a new breed of support solutions that complement the software that

companies had already invested in, thus filling a critical gap in the technology and support

landscape.

SIO offers a way forward for support organizations that are struggling to balance

customer demands and needs, technology developments, cost containment, and market

limits. SIO assists in customer support environments, but also includes tools geared

specifically for technical support as well. The breadth of SIO applications encompasses

remote access, diagnostics and resolution, including the transmission and installation of

bug fixes and new software.

SIO allows companies to manage and solve complex issues in less time and expense with

Level One agents, by providing them with step-by-step answers and questions. Analytics

tools built into SIO applications provide real-time insights into agent behavior, support

processes, and product data. These tools uncover which routes – guided, custom, or

support agents’ free-form replies – solve problems faster and more effectively. These tools

also check on agent adherence compliance with guided resolution procedures, uncover

process bottlenecks, product causes of average handle time (AHT) spikes, and detect

product errors and malfunctions. SIO, therefore, results in minimal escalations, future, or

repeat calls. SIO also reduces agent onboarding and training costs.

At the same time, the increasingly complex business IT environment with cloud, hybrid,

and shadow IT demands a methodology and a process to help users resolve problems.

SIO fits such a requirement and there will be demand from business hardware,

technology, and services vendors for SIO tools.

But SIO success also hinges on providing advanced tools to support agents dealing with

complex technical and remote support issues. Success also hinges on providing the right

balance of live and self-service assistance, and the proper tools to effectively guide agents

through potentially complex interactions.

Suppliers must devise, integrate, and successfully deploy customer Web self-service,

remote support, guided resolution, analytics, and performance management applications

to deliver SIO. Each of these components must work together seamlessly in order to

provide a superior Customer Experience. This is not easy as each of these software

elements have very different pedigrees.



Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact

Criterion 1: Addressing Unmet Needs

The Support.com Nexus SIO meets the unmet and underserved needs of companies

desiring a solution that helps them to cost-effectively resolve complex issues, including

those that arise from IoT applications. Nexus SIO guides support agents through customer

interactions with workflows, or “Guided Paths” that provide step-by-step answers and

questions, aided by in-depth analytics.

Using Nexus, contact centers can continuously optimize live support interactions. Nexus

analytics provide real-time insights into agent behavior, support processes, and product

data. These tools uncover which paths – guided, custom, or support agents’ free-form

replies – solve problems faster and more effectively. It also checks on agent compliance

with Guided Paths™, uncovers process bottlenecks, product issues causing spikes in

average call handle time, and detects product errors and malfunctions.

Nexus remote tools also provide access to PCs, Mac, Android, iOS, and other devices in

the world of connected devices or the IoT. Nexus also can navigate complex corporate IT

environments, including cloud, hybrid cloud, and shadow IT to solve users’ problems with

its Guided Path methodology and remote access tools. Any support process that is

repeatable and trackable is a candidate for Nexus SIO.

Criterion 2: Visionary Scenarios & Mega Trends

Support.com lies in the “nexus” of three Mega Trends: connectivity and convergence,

bricks and clicks, and social trends. The Nexus SIO solution is a new approach and

integrated solution-set that enables and supports connected devices, communications, and

computing hardware and software, which themselves are converging. Support agents use

Nexus SIO to quickly and systematically troubleshoot and resolve the often complex

issues that will arise with these products and services. Nexus also provides omni-channel

engagement, where customers enjoy the same excellent Customer Experience online, by

phone, and in-person. Nexus is being used with retail staff to solve customers’ problems

in-store or integrated with phone and online channels.

The connectivity and omni-channel features of Nexus enable Support.com to meet the

customer support expectations of the new generation. Nexus has been written to

supplement and support customer web self-service, including service through mobile apps.

That Nexus has remote access to let agents fix problems fits within the new generation’s

connectivity and technology zeitgeist, in which they expect their providers and suppliers to

manage their products and services.

Criterion 3: Implementation Best Practices

Support.com is writing the book on SIO best practices. Nexus arose from Support.com’s



need for an optimization application in its own outsourced contact center; fielding

approximately 20,000 contacts on a daily basis. Indeed, Nexus was created based on the

insights from over 20 million support interactions.

Every facet of Nexus is based on Support.com’s experiences in serving its customers

through its contact center. Support.com tested and refined Nexus with its support agents.

For example it found that Nexus reduces AHT by as much as 50%.

Support.com has written into Nexus a methodology that permits consistent, repeatable

and trackable processes. And Nexus uses a drag-and-drop visual designer for custom

path creation and updates, eliminating the need for IT assistance to update and publish

best practices. Another Nexus SIO feature, Nexus Guided Path™ Libraries, allows support

organizations to maintain repositories of those paths that reflect their best practices.

Criterion 4: Blue Ocean Strategy

Support.com is one of the first vendors to develop a comprehensive best-of-breed

application focused on SIO that answers customers’ developing support needs. While

other support solutions vendors have pieces of SIO, only a few of them have assembled

these parts to create holistic SIO products. Support.com also is a pioneer in embracing

the SIO concept in its marketing and messaging.

Criterion 5: Price/Performance Value

Support.com offers Nexus as a best-of-breed SIO solution that integrates with but does

not duplicate other vendors’ applications. Nexus is CIM and CRM solution agnostic, and

can take cases and tickets that have been initiated in third-party platforms, flow them into

the SIO applications, and integrate the resulting data into knowledge bases. Support.com

has pre-built integrations with Salesforce and SugarCRM, with more being added. In

addition, Nexus is a hosted solution, which gives it flexibility, scalability, and affordability.

Criterion 6: Customer Purchase Experience

Support.com’s Nexus is generating sometimes dramatic results. Nexus enabled a

communication service provider to shrink its pre-call AHT by 74%. Meanwhile the

solution’s Guided Paths and data analytics identified process bottlenecks and streamlined

processes in less than 24 hours.

The provider offers an IoT home automation solution that ties their communications

system into other home devices. The webcam connects to the home security system, the

refrigerator to the home health monitoring system, and the audio solutions to the home

sound system. Tying all of these devices together creates complexity for initial setup and

ongoing support.

A critical component of the provider’s customer support program included engaging



customers at risk for churn. These customers were those who had signed up for the

service but had not yet set up their home automation. The company needed support in

outbound calling, customer setup assistance, and education.

The communications provider looked to Support.com for help in identifying process issues,

reducing churn, and providing outstanding customer support. The Nexus solution was

deployed to all agents serving the company’s home automation program. The company’s

customer support supervisors used the Nexus Guided Path visual designer to quickly and

easily create optimized paths for agents.

Previously, measuring the effectiveness of agent paths involved tedious, manual

processes. The provider’s supervisors had to manually listen to every call to assess key

metrics. Now, Nexus tracks the data for them automatically, measuring key factors like

the time the agent is spending on all interactions. The data informs supervisors of path

best practices and enables them to quickly deploy resolutions to any problem areas

identified in the data.

The communications provider also needed assistance with outbound calling to help

customers with their home automation system setup. The process required ten key steps

that agents were tasked to complete before contacting the customer. These included

checking billing information and program stock keeping units (SKUs)

After a week of studying the outbound calling path and handle times in Nexus, supervisors

determined that several steps in the path were causing significant bottlenecks that were

increasing AHT. The path was adjusted so agents could reach more customers, decrease

AHT, and ultimately reduce churn.

The communications provider also realized significant benefits by adding Nexus to their

home automation customer-support program. Program supervisors learned from Nexus

that agents were spending as long as 12 minutes finding key information such as when

customers could be reached at home before placing a call. After all that only 15% of calls

were successful in reaching customers.

With Nexus, program supervisors easily identified process bottlenecks and determined

which steps should be reconfigured or eliminated. Those steps were quickly rearranged

and instantly deployed to all agents. The entire process, from analysis to deployment took

less than 24 hours. Agents immediately followed the new process without the need for

additional training.

After improving the outbound calling process and measuring its effectiveness, the

communications provider reduced pre-call setup from an average of 8.7 minutes to just

2.3 minutes. As a result the provider reported higher customer satisfaction and reduced

churn for their home automation subscribers.



Conclusion

Matching SIO tools to the specific needs of a business reduces the complexity and costs of

providing the superior customer support that will ensure a company’s competitive

advantage. As such, Frost & Sullivan believes that SIO tools and partnerships that enable

SIO solutions will thrive in the coming decade. Support.com has come out of the gate with

a powerful, proven, and timely SIO solution that has already helped companies achieve

these results. Because of its strong overall performance, Support.com is recognized with

Frost & Sullivan’s 2014 Company of the Year Award for Support Interaction Optimization.

Significance of Company of the Year

To win the Company of the Year award (i.e., to be recognized as a leader not only in your

industry, but among your non-industry peers as well) requires a company to demonstrate

excellence in growth, innovation, and leadership. This kind of excellence typically

translates into superior performance in three key areas: demand generation, brand

development, and competitive positioning. These areas serve as the foundation of a

company’s future success and prepare it to deliver on the two criteria that define the

Company of the Year Award (Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact).

This concept is explored further below.



Understanding Company of the Year

As discussed above, driving demand, brand strength, and competitive differentiation all

play a critical role in delivering unique value to customers. This three-fold focus, however,

must ideally be complemented by an equally rigorous focus on visionary innovation to

enhance customer value and impact.

Key Benchmarking Criteria

For the Company of the Year Award, Frost & Sullivan evaluated two key factors—Visionary

Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact—according to the criteria identified

below.

Visionary Innovation & Performance


Criterion 2: Visionary Scenarios Through Mega Trends



Criterion 5: Financial Performance

Customer Impact



Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Best Practice Award Analysis for Support.com

Decision Support Scorecard

To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance

categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool

allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to

the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that

basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation;

ratings guidelines are illustrated below.

RATINGS GUIDELINES



The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Visionary Innovation & Performance and

Customer Impact (i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the

definitions for each criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team

confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which

confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a

significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies.

The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the

interests of all organizations reviewed, Frost & Sullivan has chosen to refer to the other

key players as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3.

Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)

Company of the Year

Visionary

Innovation &

Performance

Customer

Impact Average Rating

Support.com 8 10 9.0

Competitor 2 7 9 8.0

Competitor 3 7 8 7.5



Requirement: Implementing a robust process to continuously unearth customers’ unmet

or under-served needs, and creating the products or solutions to address them effectively

Criterion 2: Visionary Scenarios Through Mega Trends

Requirement: Incorporating long-range, macro-level scenarios into the innovation

strategy, thereby enabling “first to market” growth opportunities solutions


Requirement: Best-in-class strategy implementation characterized by processes, tools, or

activities that generate a consistent and repeatable level of success.


Requirement: Strategic focus in creating a leadership position in a potentially

“uncontested” market space, manifested by stiff barriers to entry for competitors

Criterion 5: Financial Performance

Requirement: Strong overall business performance in terms of revenues, revenue growth,

operating margin and other key financial metrics

Customer Impact


Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar

offerings in the market




Requirement: Customers feel like they are buying the most optimal solution that

addresses both their unique needs and their unique constraints

Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company’s product or service, and have a

positive experience throughout the life of the product or service

Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty

Decision Support Matrix

Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard,

analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to

visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at

best-in-class levels.

High

Low

Low High

Cu

sto

mer I

mp

act


Support.com

Competitor 2

Competitor 3



The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best

Practices Awards

Research Methodology

Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research

methodology represents the analytical

rigor of our research process. It offers a

360-degree-view of industry challenges,

trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of

Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.

Too often, companies make important

growth decisions based on a narrow

understanding of their environment,

leading to errors of both omission and

commission. Successful growth strategies

are founded on a thorough understanding

of market, technical, economic, financial,

customer, best practices, and demographic

analyses. The integration of these research

disciplines into the 360-degree research

methodology provides an evaluation

platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at best-

in-class levels.

360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN

THE CHAOS



Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices

Our awards team follows a 10-step process (illustrated below) to evaluate award

candidates and assess their fit with our best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity

of our awards process are based on close adherence to this process.

STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT

1 Monitor, target, and screen

Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe

Conduct in-depth industry research

Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies

Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria

2 Perform 360-degree research

Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline

Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners

Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria

Rank all candidates

Matrix positioning all candidates’ performance relative to one another

3

Invite thought leadership in best practices

Perform in-depth examination of all candidates

Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all

candidates Identify any information gaps

Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates

4

Initiate research director review

Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles

Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives on

candidates’ performance Update candidate profiles

Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper

5

Assemble panel of industry experts

Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders

Share findings Strengthen cases for candidate

eligibility Prioritize candidates

Refined list of prioritized award candidates

6

Conduct global industry review

Build consensus on award candidates’ eligibility

Hold global team meeting to review all candidates

Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all eligible

candidates

Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide

7 Perform quality check

Develop official award consideration materials

Perform final performance benchmarking activities

Write nominations Perform quality review

High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes

8

Reconnect with panel of industry experts

Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient

Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner

Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria

9 Communicate recognition

Inform award recipient of award recognition

Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for

continued success Celebrate the recipient’s

performance

Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand

10 Take strategic action

The award recipient may license the award for use in external communication and outreach to stakeholders and customers

Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award’s role in future

strategic planning

Widespread awareness of recipient’s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees



About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth

and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's

Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined

research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation

of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in

partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment

community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit

http://www.frost.com.

http://www.frost.com/

Documents

INSERT COMPANY LOGO HERE - Frost & Sullivan offers a way forward for support organizations that are struggling to balance customer demands and needs, technology developments, cost