MONDAY AND TUESDAY, JUNE 12 - 13TH, 2006

Certified Help Desk Manager ™ - STI Knowledge

WEDNESDAY - JUNE 14th, 2006

REGISTRATION & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

"Presentation of Colors"

Welcome & Introduction with the Conference Chair, Daryl Covey and Host, Ivy Meadors

9:00 - 9:50

FEATURED KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Judi Zito, Chief Information Officer of Miami-Dade County

Join Ms. Zito as she discusses the challenges of leading enterprise IT initiatives at Miami-Dade County government to help improve County operations, processes, services and the assurance of IT support for the County’s Strategic Plan. Ms. Zito will explore how leadership serves as a catalyst for significant innovations such as the Miami-Dade 311 Answer Center, the nation’s first multi-jurisdictional call center, and the nationally recognized county web portal. Ms. Zito will also discuss the vision of Miami-Dade’s eGov initiative.

• Learn how the Miami-Dade 311 Customer Service Advocates work with Stakeholders to Measure Customer Satisfaction

• Hear how the Miami-Dade 311 handled calls during Hurricane Wilma last year and Routed Contact Data to Emergency Services

• Explore e-Gov initiatives and best practices at the Miami Dade County government

Meet the Speaker:

Judi Zito is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Miami-Dade County, Florida, a position she was appointed to in June of 2003. As CIO, Ms. Zito establishes the overall direction of information technology (IT) for Miami-Dade County government, including the coordination and oversight of enterprise IT initiatives to improve County operations, processes, services and the assurance of IT support for the County’s Strategic Plan. Position responsibilities also include oversight of the Enterprise Technology Services Department and the implementation of the 311 Answer Center.

Ms. Zito has forged the vision for Miami-Dade County’s e-government initiative. She initiated several projects to transform the way in which residents and businesses interact with County Government online. E-payments, new interactive services and government-to-government partnerships with local municipalities have resulted in a 50% increased use of miamidade.gov, four internationally recognized awards within the past year, and new opportunities for cross-jurisdictional, seamless service to the citizen.

During her 21 years of service to Miami-Dade County, Judi has been a “behind-the-scenes” leader, serving as a catalyst for significant change. In May of 2003, she was presented with the ‘Quiet Storm’ award at the annual Women’s Power Caucus, a prestigious recognition of women who make an enormous impact on people’s lives on a daily basis, almost always out of the public view. In January of 2004, she was selected as one of Computer World’s 100 Premier IT Leaders.

10:00 - 10:45

Track 1:
Business Strategies

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

Case Study: How to Improve Productivity and Reduce Costs Using Mobile Technology

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, www.atf.treas.gov

Patrick Bultema, Executive Chairman, Aeroprise, www.aeroprise.com

Support professionals are rapidly coming to recognize that mobile solutions are essential to quality support, especially when customers are highly distributed. Yet, most companies fail when support people go into the field, and when they try to give them tools in the field. And often, attempts to mobilize the field support people doesn’t leverage the mobile devices and phones they are already carrying. Join us for this eye-opening case study with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms where we’ll reveal three career-enhancing secrets for improving productivity, quality, and reducing support costs with mobile and wireless solutions.

Benefits of attending:

• Networks and devices and carriers.  Make sense of an increasingly complex set of wireless choices with tips from the pros

• Hear five reasons why most mobile projects fail, and why yours won’t

• Learn from how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is improving national security with mobile support solutions

Take Away:  Join us and you’ll receive a valuable resource titled “Your Guide to Winning with Wireless” This exclusive tool was compiled from interviews with agencies and their support operations which are benefiting today from mobile and wireless solutions.

Meet the Speaker:

Patrick Bultema is Executive Chairman of Aeroprise. He is also Entrepreneur-in-Residence of vSpring Capital, a venture capital firm with special expertise and focus on the IT Service and Infrastructure Management industries. Patrick was previously CEO of FrontRange, and Chairman of the Help Desk Institute. He is widely recognize as one of the premier experts on the business of support.

10:00 - 10:45

Track 2:
High Touch Solutions

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

Leading Less Than Highly Motivated Customer Support Organizations to a Higher Focus on Outstanding Service

Kate Nasser, President, CAS, Inc., www.katenasser.com

Do you lead a busy overworked customer support organization that faces any or many of these challenges: low motivation, salary caps, bound by regulations, patronized by customers, baggage from previous bad leadership, or changes in service to quickly learn and absorb? This session is for you. Join Kate Nasser, customer service and people-skills guru, as she outlines how to re-energize and focus customer support team members on delivering outstanding customer service in the face of these types of challenges. Customer support work in any venue can be thankless yet critical to the success of the larger organization. Kate Nasser will highlight how to re-energize these customer support teams for better morale and service delivery.

Benefits of attending:

• Clarify the big picture of a de-moralized support organization

• Learn the best ways to begin re-energizing support teams

• Avoid initial missteps of starting the wrong way

• Build a plan that re-focuses team members on inherent value rather than how customers treat them

Take Away:  Take with you specific responses that your customer support team members can use with difficult customers who break regulations, who patronize or insult, or who are impatient with the learning curve that goes with implementing changes.

Meet the Speaker:

Kate Nasser is known industry wide as the people-skills guru on the topic of customer support and teamwork. She founded CAS, Inc. 17 years ago after working in technology customer support at American Home Products and Johnson & Johnson. Kate is experienced, wise, funny, down-to-earth, and just wild and different enough to inspire growth and improvement in individuals and teams. Her varied background as a business owner of CAS, Inc., certified teacher, technology professional, and organizational psychologist, makes her credible to many.

As a trainer, Kate models the people-skills she is teaching – leadership, teamwork, communication, and customer service. Kate teaches the steps to establishing a reputation for greatness, specific how-to skills, and perspectives on how to manage your feelings and issues to reach your goals. Audiences in the thousands rate her as one of the most knowledgeable and best speakers on this topic. She has a B.S. in Mathematics and M.A. in Organizational Psychology. Please join her in this evocative session.

10:00 - 10:45

Track 3:
High Tech Solutions

Focus: Help Desk, Contact Center

VoIP in Government Contact Centers: Multi-Channel Options for Reduced Cost Over Distributed Locations

Peggy Gritt, President, Zelpha Media and Founder of the VoIP Institute, www.zelphamedia.com

Government contact center professionals have a unique opportunity when the overall voice over IP strategy is created. Governments are adopting voice over IP technology due to its ability to lower costs for distributed locations. Where does the government contact center fit in? Many times moving to voice over IP also means changing contact center technologies. Everybody knows that technology also impacts processes, agents, and supervision. Therefore this session guides you through the potential for voice over IP in your government contact center and how you as a professional can influence your requirements.

This session is anything but tech-speak and gives you real-world examples that you can use to improve your operations and multi-channel capabilities. In this lively session with an industry expert you will learn the following:

• What other government centers are doing with their voice over IP deployments

• Influencing process change through improved technologies on the market – such as remote agent and disaster recovery plans with voice over IP

• How you can use your conversion to voice over IP to improve contact center efficiencies

• Creating your wish list and working with your technical staff

• Managing call routing and skills in the media environment

• Multi-channel and new system capabilities.

Take Away:  Join this lively session on IP contact center planning and you will receive a multi-channel best practices “self” report card system. This system includes a self-survey and final scoring sheet to indicate your performance versus multi-channel customer contact best practices. Peggy will also be sharing a white paper she wrote called, “Converting your enterprise and contact center to an Interaction Value Center.”

Meet the Speaker:

Peggy is the CEO of the VoIP Institute, Inc., an international organization to bring together users and potential users of VoIP to share case studies, best practices, and management information. She has 17 years background in converged voice and data technologies with a particular focus in IP contact center. She also has her own consulting practice.

MORNING BREAK

11:00-11:50 AM

Track 1:
Business Strategies

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

Raising the Bar: Achieving Advanced Strategic Leadership Thinking

Pete McGarahan, President, McGarahan and Associates, http://www.mcgarahan.com

Achieving Strategic Leadership Thinking requires time. It is also dependent on your ability to empower your team to manage the day-to-day operations.  As you shift your focus from managerial tasks to creating your aligned support strategy for delivering valued services, you must enlist the support and buy-in of key stakeholders.  You will learn first to make the time, make the plan and lead the execution of continuous improvement roadmap. Achieving Strategic Leadership requires that you open your mind and yourself to new ideas, take risks and expose yourself to new learning experiences. “Readers are Leaders” is the mantra for the strategic thinker, who can envision the end and communicate a clear and simple vision and strategy.

Benefits of attending:

• Proven Time Management techniques

• Differences between what Managers do and what Leaders do

• Leadership Best Practices

• Thinking and focusing on big Impact Initiatives

• Selling your ideas, strategies and business cases to senior management

Take Away:  Proven Time Management Techniques Worksheet

Meet the Speaker:

Peter McGarahan is the founder and president of McGarahan & Associates.  Pete’s value to the service and support industry and business is his thought leadership.  As a practitioner, product manager and support industry analyst and expert, he has influenced the maturity of the service and support industry.  His passions for customer service led the Taco Bell support organization to achieve the Help Desk Institute Team Excellence Award. IT Support News also named him one of the “Top 25 Professionals in the Service and Support Industry” in 1999.  Support professionals voted McGarahan “The Legend of the Year” in 2002 and again in 2004 at the Help Desk Professionals conference for his endless energy, mentoring and coaching and his valuable contribution to the support industry and community.

11:00 - 11:50

Track 2:
High Touch Solutions

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

How to Meet and Exceed Customer Expectations (Metrics, Strategies and Technology)

Stuart Willoughby, GSA, www.gsa.gov

USA Services recently completed focus group research on citizen expectations when contacting the federal government and a comprehensive study of contact center metrics, best practices, and technology trends in the public and private sectors. The findings provide federal agency citizen service managers with valuable information on how to best structure their operations to meet citizen expectations. Additionally, the findings reveal how leading customer service organizations measure performance, the levels of performance they are achieving, and how they accomplish their goals.

Benefits of attending:

• How to develop and improve your citizen contact strategies

• Understanding the citizen expectation categories when contacting government and which ones are the most important

• How age makes a difference when citizens contact the federal government

• Which communication channels are the most preferred by citizens (email, internet, telephone)

• The customer service performance metrics for world-class organizations

• Learn an approach to building a best-in-class contact center

• New technology trends in contact center services

Meet the Speaker:

Mr. Willoughby is the Director for the USA Services E-Gov Office in the Office of Citizen Services & Communications (OCSC) at the General Services Administration (GSA). He has extensive Federal experience in the development, management, and marketing of Internet, E-Government and eCommerce related programs.

Prior to joining the General Services Administration in 2002 to work on FirstGov.gov--the Official Portal to the Federal Government--he managed a number of US Postal Service electronic programs and new initiatives. These included the management and development of a successful USPS shipping center web site and suite of Internet API Shipping Web Tools for which he holds three separate US Patents. Stuart served in the USPS National Marketing Office from 1985-1992 and directed a number of successful nationwide marketing and sales efforts for new revenue with business and corporate mailers. He now supports the USA Services E-Gov Initiative vision to electronically provide timely, accurate, and consistent responses to citizens about government services and information.

Stuart is a Senior Fellow with the Council for Excellence in Government. He graduated from the University of Houston, 1975, with a BA in International Political Science and holds a Masters in Business Administration from Houston Baptist University, 1983. Most recently, he was awarded a Master’s Certificate in Information Technology Project Management from George Washington University’s School of Business.

11:00 - 11:50

Track 3:
High Tech Solutions

Focus: Contact Center, Service Portal

Case Study: Customer Service in Local Government: How Hampton, Virginia’s 311 Customer Call Center is Providing ‘Customer Delight’ to Residents and Tax Payers

Elizabeth Nisley, Call Center Manager, City of Hampton’s 311 Call Center, www.hampton.va.us

We live in a very customer-oriented world – virtually anything a person wants to do can be done 24 hours a day (24 hour banking with ATMs; 24 hour shopping via internet, 24 hour education through on-line universities, etc.). While the rest of the world has adapted to become more customer-oriented, local governments typically have failed to keep pace. Most local governments continue to operate their non-emergency services during traditional business hours. A centralized call center with an easy-to-remember number can radically change taxpayers’ perceptions of local government services.

Benefits of attending:

• Find out why great customer service in local government is no longer a luxury.

• Discover why Hampton places a premium on ‘customer delight’ in local government.

• Learn how Hampton ‘re-invented’ the call in-take process of 4 major departments and how ‘customer advocates’ can answer any question from A-Z!

• Learn how Hampton’s 311 Call Center was a ‘shining light’ during major power outages during and after Hurricane Isabel.

Take Away:  Take home simple tips on how you can change a taxpayer’s perception of their local government and what the benefits are to you!

Meet the Speaker:

Elizabeth (Liz) Nisley is the manager of Virginia’s first 3-1-1 Customer Call Center located in Hampton, Virginia. The call center is a first of its kind, providing one stop shopping for city services and information. As the call center manager, Liz is responsible for communicating a vision for Customer Delight and manages, plans and coordinates new strategies in providing outstanding customer service to city residents using a “just one call – does it all” philosophy.

EXCELLENCE AWARDS CEREMONY

NETWORKING LUNCHEON and VISIT EVENT PARTNERS

Mastermind Sessions
(sessions may vary depending on attendee interests)

Workforce Management, Customer Service, Running a Small Help Desk, Knowledge Management, Metrics, Leadership, Culture, ITIL, Technology, Hiring, Firing & Inspiring, Citizen Service Levels, Help Desk Boot Camp, etc.

3:00 - 3:45

Track 1:
Business Strategies

Focus:  Contact Center, Help Desk

Case Study: How to Measure and Reward Individual Performance in a Call Center

Joseph F. McCann, Assistant Director for Insurance, VA Regional Office and Insurance Center, www.vba.va.gov/ro/philly

The VA Life Insurance program is currently the 6th largest life insurer in the United States covering over 7 million veterans, military service members, and their families for over $1.1 trillion dollars in coverage. At the heart of our operation is our call center, established in 1988.

Our operational approach is “Signature Service,” meaning that Insurance Specialists are responsible for all aspects of the calls they receive (plus non-phone-generated work). Therefore, our call center staff is trained to provide quality service not only in telephone communications, but also in all aspects of technical work. We have always emphasized quality of service over quantity. Our specialists are not held to a quantity standard for number of calls answered, nor encouraged to limit call length.

We utilize a home grown but very effective Contact Management System called VICTARS. VICTARS is a contact management system that provides access through one gateway to many applications and databases, including the Treasury Department and SSA. VICTARS accesses over 5.5 million stored document images and has many other valuable features such as instant messaging, journalizing and history that enable "virtual case management", as well as the ability to generate forms, letters, and statements.

Benefits of attending:

• The advantages of a case management approach.

• The importance of our six-month training program.

• Measuring employee performance

• How our rewards and recognition program fosters a sense of teamwork.

Take Away:  Joe will raffle off a Government Life Insurance booklet. This 82 page booklet has complete information about the VA’s Life Insurance programs for veterans and active duty service members and their families.

Meet the Speaker:

Joe is a veteran who served two tours of duty in the Republic of Vietnam. He graduated from the Philadelphia University where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration. Joe began his career with the Veterans Administration in 1973 as a veterans claims examiner. In 2003 he was appointed Assistant Director for Insurance. Joe is responsible for the operation of VA’s life insurance programs.

The VA life insurance program is currently the 6th largest life insurer in the United States covering over 7 million veterans, military service members and their families for $ 1.1 trillion dollars in coverage. The Insurance program in Philadelphia has an annual budget of $42 million dollars and has 418 employees. The program includes the VA Insurance nationwide toll free operation with 90 Insurance Specialists answering over 3600 calls per day.

3:00 - 3:45

Track 2:
High Touch Solutions

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

Case Study: Ready, Set, Measure! Implementing GSA’s CSLIC Standards and Guidelines at U. S. Census Bureau

Les Solomon, U.S. Census Bureau, www.census.gov

The new Citizen’s Service Levels Interagency Committee Report offers unique challenges for our diverse organization with multiple customer services centers and unique customer profiles–from the survey or census respondent to the data user–making it difficult to wrap the report’s standards and guides into one set of policies. Les will present a case study from the U.S. Census Bureau that accesses the agency’s “as-is” status with its “to be” adoption of the standards and guidelines, including the implementation of a satisfaction survey implemented in the Question and Answer center module.

Benefits of attending:

• Sample matrix by channel and division compliance

• Satisfaction survey including approval process

• Processes used for customer response follow-up and feedback to agents

• Strategies for measurement and management

• Our lessons learned

Take Away:  Lessons learned from other agencies involved in the CSLIC adoption process and handouts of Census Bureau procedures.

Meet the Speaker:

Les Solomon served as the Census Bureau representative on GSA’s Citizen’s Service Level Interagency Committee and leads the Census Bureau’s task force in the adoption and implementation of the CSLIC recommendations. His 27+ year career in government has been quite diverse–coordinating a college curriculum support project, managing the professional skills development and the international training programs, and for the last 11 years, managing the Census Bureau’s main customer services center with responsibilities for information dissemination and sales. He coordinates the agency’s Question and Answer Center using RightNow Technology software and has received three Director’s awards for innovation in customer services. Les holds both the Masters and PhD from Clark University.

3:00 - 3:45

Track 3:
High Tech Solutions

Focus: Help Desk

Phishing, Pharming & Worms; Security Issues Faced by Today’s Help Desk Professional

Ernie Hayden, Chief Information Security Officer, Port of Seattle, www.portseattle.org

How many times do you receive calls from your customers asking questions that have a computer security underpinning? Such questions as “Is it OK for me to open this file?” “I don’t use this vendor but they told me to update my credit card – is that OK?” These and other questions can be confusing to the Help Desk Professional unless they have a basic understanding of information security. This knowledge is key to assuring that the security of the user and corporation is upheld.

In this educational session, Ernie’s presentation will focus on such issues as:

Benefits of attending:

• What is Information Security and what are Phishing, Worms, and other security terms?

• What does CIA have to do with security and the Help Desk?

• What are key security considerations for the Help Desk Professional?

• Why is a Help Desk Professional just as important as a Police Officer or Fire Fighter during emergencies? What’s that got to do with security?

Take Away:  A checklist of ten key questions to ask for information about your service desk.

Meet the Speaker:

Ernie has over 30 years experience as a technology manager and leader. Ernie is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and has often given presentations and training on Information Security issues. Ernie is currently the Chief Information Security Officer / Manager Enterprise Information Security for the Port of Seattle – one of the world’s busiest combined airports and seaports. He also has broad experience in the Help Desk arena from his past role as Director Customer Fulfillment for a major software vendor in the Pacific Northwest. Ernie has been recognized for his security knowledge and outreach in Information Security Magazine.

VISIT EVENT PARTNERS AND AFTERNOON BREAK

FEATURED KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Captain Geoffrey Abbott, U.S. Coast Guard

Leading Change from the Middle
Leadership During Major U.S. Disasters: Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Imagine a workplace where... Anyone can be a leader, regardless of position. You can put your best ideas to the test. Your team is energized and excited about their contributions. You truly CAN make a difference!

Pressures to further improve effectiveness and efficiency will require continued innovation, motivation and activation of our most valuable resource - our people. Many people have excellent suggestions, yet it is extremely difficult to implement new ideas within most organizations. This energizing presentation provides specific strategies for individuals to successfully lead constructive change from all levels of their organizations.

Benefits of attending:

• Organizations can grow their workforce leadership competencies and reap the potentially significant benefits

• Motivated individuals can expand their own capabilities to become the leaders organizations need today and tomorrow

• Become re-energized as you hear success stories of every day individuals taking the initiative to lead from the middle and save lives during Hurricane Katrina, protect the environment and grow other leaders

Meet the Speaker:

Captain Geoff Abbott, earned his Bachelor of Science from the United States Coast Guard Academy and a Professional Degree and Masters Degree in Ocean Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After several operational and engineering assignments, Geoff served as Facilities Engineer at Coast Guard’s Training Center in Cape May, NJ and as Commanding Officer of Civil Engineering Unit Providence, RI, responsible for Coast Guard facilities in the northeast.

Geoff then served as Executive Assistant to the Coast Guard’s Chief Engineer and Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard's Research and Development Center in Groton, CT. Most recently Geoff worked for the Coast Guard’s Vice-Commandant and Chief of Staff, overseeing the Coast Guard’s Performance Excellence Program; coordinating meetings and conferences for Coast Guard executives; and serving as Chairman of the Coast Guard’s Innovation Council.

In April 2005, Geoff became the first Visiting Senior Fellow at the Homeland Security Institute, focusing on technological solutions and policy issues concerning Homeland Security. Captain Abbott recently joined National Defense Industry Association’s Homeland Security Executive Committee.

Geoff’s passions include: Leading change, growing leaders, creating innovative partnerships and culture, and integrating people, technology, systems and policy to develop and implement solutions.

"Free conference pass give-away at end of session – must be present to win."

Mastermind Sessions & Continental Breakfast
(sessions may vary depending on attendee interests)

Workforce Management, Customer Service, VoIP, Self-service, Strategies for Calming Difficult People, Stress Management, ITIL, Inspiring on a Shoestring Budget, Customer Satisfaction Surveys

9:00 - 9:50

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Brad Worthley

Outstanding Leadership in a Service Culture

Brad Worthley, President, Brad Worthley International, http://www.bradworthley.com

When employees are good at their task, the natural progression is to promote them into a management role. We teach the employees how to manage inventory, manage payroll, manage money and manage other things. We end up with "managers" instead of great "leaders". Do you know any person who wants to be "managed?" This session will focus on creating great leaders: Leaders that have vision and can inspire and motivate their employees to greatness.

• Rethink Your Role as a Manager

• Leading by example

• Proactive vs. Reactive Leadership

• People Don’t Fail as Much as Systems

• Problems vs. Symptoms

Take Away:  Every attendee will come away with actionable content that they can begin using the very next day. Brad will also have leadership videos and CDs available, plus free articles and newsletters.

Meet the Speaker:

Brad Worthley is an accomplished business consultant with over 31 years of management experience. He is also an internationally acclaimed leadership and customer service expert who has trained hundreds of thousands of people in a wide range of industries throughout the world.

Brad teaches businesses how to consistently build and retain both customer and employee loyalty by changing their culture and not just their people. Brad is an author, consultant and trainer working with small and medium size companies, and some of the largest corporations in the world. In his spare time,

Brad has volunteered as a youth soccer, baseball, and basketball coach for the last 15 years, and he volunteers weekly at a domestic violence shelter where he works with children. He has a 19-year-old son in the Army who is currently in Iraq flying unmanned spy planes in an effort to protect our troops.

10:00 - 10:50

Track 1:
Business Strategies

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

The Benefits of a 24/7 Live Help Strategy

Gary Hogge, Utah Interactive, LLC

As the state of Utah increased its online government services to support the growing needs of its citizens and businesses, it looked for ways to manage the need for direct interaction with the users of those services. A 24/7 customer support program was implemented that allows the state to support its users when, where and how they need. This session will discuss the strategy of using a "24/7 Live Help" customer support program to enhance customer experience, improve efficiencies, reduce costs and change the perception of citizens about government services.

Benefits of attending:

• Implementation and processes

• Results: Citizen and Agency

• Potential road blocks

• Best Practices

Take Away:  A product / service brochure highlighting the features and benefits of the 24/7 Live Help, describing the target audience and how to access the service. Mr. Hogge will also provide information about the Utah.gov website and an invitation to try out the service.

Meet the Speaker:

As the Director of Partner Relations at Utah Interactive, Gary is responsible for managing the relationships between Utah Interactive and numerous state and local government agencies. Gary has worked in the technology industry for over 20 years and joined Utah Interactive in September of 2004. Since then, Gary and his team, with oversight from the state's CIO, have been tasked with hosting, developing and expanding the suite of online services that best meet the needs of Utah citizens, businesses and visitors. Utah Interactive is a subsidiary of NIC. Utah Interactive has a long-term contract with the state of Utah to manage Utah.gov.

Gary holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Utah and an MBA from Westminster College. He lives in Kaysville, Utah with his wife Jennifer and their four children.

10:00 - 10:50

Track 2:
High Touch Solutions

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

Case Study: Internal Revenue Service: Self Service Tools -  Will Customers Adopt Them?

Janet Harp, Supervisory IT Specialist, MITS, Internal Revenue Service

The challenges of the public sector to deliver IT products and services continue to escalate due to shrinking budgets and human resource availability. Self service tools are touted by the industry to reduce cost while improving overall customer service. But what is the impact on customer satisfaction? Do customers like to use self-service tools? Will they adopt them for everyday use? The Internal Revenue Service was the recipient of the “Best User Adoption Rate” award by an industry software provider in May 2005.

Benefits of attending:

• Learn the implementation and deployment strategy used for a successful implementation – tips for success!

• Hear challenges encountered with the implementation – lessons learned.

• Understand what tangible business results have been achieved from this implementation – reduced cost and improved service.

Meet the Speaker:

Janet has over 15 years experience in information systems and technology with the IRS. She started her career in 1987 after graduating with a B.S. in Information Systems from Northern Kentucky University. She entered the IRS in a compliance position as a field revenue officer and was promoted to an IT position in 1990. Since then, she has served in a variety of IT positions. She currently serves as a manager for the Service Management Standards and Reporting team for the End User Equipment and Services Division in the Modernization & Information Technology Services organization.

10:00 - 10:50

Track 3:
High Tech Solutions

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

Business Strategy: The Technology Behind the Business

Ivy Meadors, CEO, High Tech High Touch Solutions, Inc., www.hthts.com

Did you know your Xbox could be your next telephone, or that you'll watch your favorite television program on your telephone? The Sony PSP has already started to evolve into a full-blown Smartphone/PDA device. You will use VoIP in your homes, offices, kiosks and more. But does it "really" work as stated? Using VoIP will be the means for most communications. And have you considered Blogging as a knowledge base of solutions for your company and customers? Online Assessments are great for gathering data ranging from skill assessments, personal behavior styles, customer satisfaction levels and more. Did you know you there are free tools to do online assessments? Have you considered creatively using email signatures to cut 30, 45, even 60 minutes off your email communications every day?

In this fast-paced, interactive session, Ivy’s delivery of a potpourri of technology solutions will excite you to embrace technologies, some outside of the norm, as a means to empower the service and support team to provide superior customer experience. During the next decade, computing and networks will transition us toward entirely new ways to communicate, do business, organize, think, live, and more. It's time to think even more creatively and outside of the norm to react quickly to customer requirements and respond to changing needs.

To gain the competitive advantage, and manage down resources, it is crucial to become creative in our use of technology solutions. These solutions will provide the means to deliver enhanced service and support resulting in better customer relationship management and enhanced communication avenues at a lower cost. The technologies behind the business are important components to ensure success.

Benefits of attending:

• Discuss what's happening in the VoIP industry and gain insights to the pros and cons of implementing VoIP

• Get you exposed to and excited about Blogging, the next Knowledge Management tool

• Unlock ideas for using Online Assessments

• Show you a technique to use Email Signatures that will save you time, sometimes more than an hour a day!

Take Away:  A handout listing websites and resources dedicated to VoIP.  Also a CD of a panel discussion Ivy facilitated with three different companies, represented by their telecom engineers, will be available for purchase.  It is loaded with real-world information.  The session was presented to the Seattle Call Center and Help Desk user groups and scored outstanding.

Meet the Speaker:

Ivy Meadors is CEO and founder of High Tech High Touch Solutions, Inc., a trade show producer and consulting firm specializing in help desks and call centers. Speaker-consultant, Ivy Meadors, has over 29 years of experience in call centers and help desks. She is considered one of the industry’s most respected leaders and is one of the top 5 most recognized names in the Help Desk industry.

The owner and producer of both the Help Desk Professionals Conference and the Government Customer Support Conference, Ivy is the sole woman tradeshow / events company owner in our industry. Ivy is also co-founder and President of the Northwest Call Center Professionals Association and President of the Help Desk Northwest User Group in Seattle.

Ivy publishes the online newsletter, eSharings, has been published in the top industry magazines and newsletters, wrote a monthly column for Customer Interface Magazine, received the IT Support News Award for being one of the “Top 25 Most Influential Professionals in the Service and Support Industry”, Support Technologies awarded her with recognition for being one of the greatest contributors to the Service and Support industry, and she received the honor of being one of the Top 10 Legends in the Help Desk Industry.

As an experienced keynote speaker and seminar leader, Ivy is known for her engaging, thought provoking, spontaneous style, delivering forward thinking, and unconventional ideas. She carries the title of Professional Speaker as recognized by the National Speakers Association. Ivy’s presentations are rich with content and alive with humor and real-life examples. You may not always agree with her position but she will certainly challenge you to think of things from a different view-point as she challenges the norm and promotes the exceptional, and sometimes even unusual, solutions.

MORNING BREAK

11:00 - 11:45

Track 1:
Business Strategies

Focus: Contact Center,
Service Portal

Eight Best Kept Secrets for Unlocking the Productivity of Your Call Center Workforce

Penny Reynolds, The Call Center School, www.thecallcenterschool.com

It's not just about getting the right number of bodies in chairs anymore. In addition to matching the workforce to the call workload, it's also important that we make the most of those staff in terms of efficiency, service, and quality. This workshop will provide a variety of ideas for improving the workforce planning process in your center, but will go beyond the forecasting and scheduling basics. You’ll learn many related ideas and mistakes not to make in the area of workforce productivity. Just a few of the topics to be covered include: how to get the right people in place and the most common hiring mistake, setting reasonable performance goals, measuring individual and team productivity, increasing adherence, and motivating staff to perform at their peak.

Meet the Speaker:

Penny Reynolds is a Founding Partner of The Call Center School where she heads up curriculum development. She develops and teaches courses on a wide variety of call center topics, including workforce management, performance measurement, and call center technologies. Penny is a popular speaker at industry conferences and association meetings and a frequent contributor to industry trade publications. Her articles have appeared in print publications such as Operations and Fulfillment, Customer Interaction Solutions, Contact Professional, and Customer Support Management. She has recently published books entitled Call Center Staffing: The Complete, Practical Guide to Workforce Management, Fundamentals of Call Center Supervision, and The Power of One, and has also co-authored the five textbooks for University of Phoenix’s call center certification program. An honors graduate of Vanderbilt University, Penny was one of the first recipients of Call Center Magazine’s prestigious Call Center Pioneer award.

11:00 - 11:45

Track 2:
High Touch Solutions

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

Case Study: Outsourcing – A Roadmap to Ensure Success

Carole Dobbs & Eileen Dewey, GSA

Right sourcing, outsourcing, contracting out. No matter what term you use, whether to do it is a key decision that everyone must make (or re-address from time to time) as you operate a contact center. And if you decide to contract out, you must build a relationship that can last through ordinary and extraordinary situations. Information and communication need to be the bookends, if you are to have success stories in between. Also, come hear how GSA’s National Contact Center weathered the storms during the last hurricane season and helped with the recovery efforts. Share your own success stories or lessons learned.

Benefits of attending:

• Transition from one vendor to another successfully
• Work with contractors in emergency situations
• Set up your contact center team to ensure maximum success
• Leverage an up to date knowledgebase that is accessible to all
• Apply lessons learned.  GSA will discuss lessons learned and how they use them at their own contact center, as well as how they utilize them when working with  FirstContact partners.

Take Away:  Attendees will walk away with a link to the USA Services Emergency Procurement Toolkit. This will help you prepare essential documents so you will be ready if disaster strikes.

Meet the Speakers:

Carole Dobbs joined the General Services Administration (GSA) in June 2004 as a program analyst for the USA Services E-Gov Initiative in the Office of Citizen Services & Communications. Carole has 15 years of Federal service.

Prior to joining GSA in June 2004, she led the Internet Services team that manages the www.usps.com and intranet portal sites. She also developed and managed the first Information Technology intranet website for USPS.

Carole joined the Federal government in 1990 as a press officer for the U.S. Department of Energy.  Later she developed one of the premier websites for DOE for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and managed their Customer Service Center.

Prior to her government service, she held several positions in the private sector including Shell Oil Company, Meridian Corporation, and the Association of Oil Pipelines.

Carole has a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration from Strayer University and is enrolled in the E-Commerce masters certificate program at the University of Virginia.

Eileen Dewey began her career with the Federal government as a claims representative with the Social Security Administration. She held various other positions at SSA during her time there: supervisor, systems coordinator, and district manager of a field office.

In 2003 she joined the USA Services team for a six month developmental detail, and was instrumental in bringing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on as the first of several Tier I agencies to acquire contact center services through the National Contact Center (1 800 FED INFO, FirstGov.gov, and Pueblo publications distribution). She joined GSA’s Federal Citizen Information Center, the group that manages the National Contact Center (NCC), permanently in December 2004, where she serves as a contact center specialist with the team that manages the NCC. Part of her duties included transitioning contact center services for the NCC to a new contractor in November 2004, when FCIC awarded a new task order for the Center.

11:00 - 11:45

Track 3:
High Tech Solutions

Focus: Help Desk

Case Study: Creating a Service Desk Effectively Combining ITIL with Technology

Judy Hogan, Federal Aviation Administration, www.faa.gov

Learn why FAA chose an ITIL-based IT Service Management (ITSM) solution, how Judy worked the internal politics to get it approved and implemented the solution to increase efficiencies and maximize ROI.

Benefits of attending:

• Navigate the political waters to obtain management buy-in for ITIL

• Realize real-life benefits of adopting an ITIL-based ITSM solution

• Keep the lid on assets with asset management tools

• Overcome the hurdles to implement your chosen ITSM Solution

Meet the Speaker:

Judy has 40 years of experience in Information Technology. She has a wide variety of experience in private industry and she has worked at the city, state, and federal levels of government. She has worked in the newspaper and insurance businesses; and, she was the Systems and Programming Manager for a manufacturing company located in Oklahoma City that had five remote plants.

Judy has worked for the Federal Aviation Administration at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City since 1990. She has served in many positions at the FAA including software development, mainframe security, process improvement, quality assurance, and currently the help desk.

"Happy" customers are a high priority for Judy no matter what position she is serving. Since October 1, 2001 she has served as Contract Officer Representative for the Customer Support Center (CSC). The CSC provides Level 1 “first point of contact” support to over 24,500 customers worldwide; and growing every day.

LUNCHEON AND VISIT EVENT PARTNERS

1:45 - 2:30

Track 1:
Business Strategies

Focus: Help Desk

Business Strategy: Aligning IT with today's business needs using ITIL Best Practice guidelines

Greg Charles, PH.D, Computer Associates., www.ca.com

IT environments are becoming increasingly more complex. Because of this, both public and private sector companies are turning to best practices as a guide to designing IT management processes that can increase efficiency, reduce costs and align IT with the needs of the business. The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices serve as an example that can guide organizations to improving their operations. This presentation focuses on using ITIL and other best practices to move IT from a mere source of technology to a Service-Providing Trusted-Partner - aligning IT with the needs of the business and supporting an ongoing strategy of overall IT Service Management.

Meet the Speaker:

Greg Charles, Ph.D., is an Area-wide Principal Consultant at CA. Greg is in constant demand across the entire U.S. and Canada as a speaker and consultant on the topic of IT Service Management. Since joining CA in 1998, he has continually been focused on meeting clients' business challenges through CA's Management solutions on both distributed and mainframe platforms. Currently, Greg is the lead for CA's ITIL, Best Practices, and Compliance practices for the Western United States.

Greg has been an IT professional since 1981, and holds a Ph.D. in Business Ethics, attained after completing his undergraduate studies in Information Technology.

1:45 - 2:30

Track 2:
High Touch Solutions

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

What’s Your Score? Measuring and Optimizing Contact Center Performance Using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)

Ron Oberbillig, Chief Operating Officer, Federal Consultant Group, Department of the Treasury

Sheri Teodoru, Program Director, Partner, CFI Group USA, LLC

Citizens expect to have both written and telephone inquiries to government agencies answered promptly, accurately, and courteously. Thus government agencies, regardless of whether they operate or contract out their contact center operations, need to clearly outline performance expectations, develop appropriate training programs and standards, and measure the quality of service being provided. Failure to perform these tasks will mean higher costs, negative publicity, and angry customers. Learn from experts who have developed a customized approach to evaluating contact center performance utilizing the gold standard metric, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Learn how to tie your operational metrics to customer satisfaction and optimize service delivery.

Benefits of attending:

• Apply the ACSI to assess customer satisfaction with the service quality of your contact center

• Leverage scarce resources where they will have the greatest return on investment

• Reduce the number of complaints and improve response time on customer inquiries

• Build in customer service standards when developing performance based contracts

• Tie your call center metrics to customer satisfaction – optimize performance, don’t under or over deliver

Meet the Speakers:

A financial leader with over 28 years of experience, Ron Oberbillig is an enthusiastic believer in a customer-driven, results-oriented government. He markets the American Customer Satisfaction Index or ACSI to all agencies committed to improving the satisfaction of customers with their services, products and websites. In addition, Ron focuses on helping government agencies optimize their operations in accordance with the President’s Management Agenda.

Ron’s financial background is varied and includes experience in change management, strategic planning, budget and performance integration, activity based costing, and business process reengineering. Ron is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and earned his MBA degree at the University of Missouri with an emphasis in economic policy and planning. He is a retired Air Force Colonel and has taught various undergraduate business classes. Ron is a Certified Defense Financial Manager.

Sheri Teodoru brings 19 years of consulting and marketing experience to CFI. She has been with CFI Group since February 2000, working extensively with both international and domestic clients across a broad range of industries, including retail, financial, automotive, software, telecommunications, and packaged goods. Sheri currently manages the non-military government practice at CFI Group.

Immediately prior to joining CFI Group, Sheri headed up the Marketing department at Kolcraft Enterprises, an industry leader in Juvenile Products, where she directed advertising, package development, new product research and market analysis for two years. Before that, Sheri spent over 11 years in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry, working at Kraft Foods and Quaker Oats in Chicago. During her tenure in the Consumer Packaged Goods world, Sheri got a broad range of experience, spending time in Finance, Marketing Research and Marketing.

Sheri received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1986, graduating at the top of her class. She later completed an MBA (with Honors) at the University of Chicago in 1997. Sheri lives in Ann Arbor with her husband and three children.

1:45 - 2:30

Track 3:
High Tech Solutions

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

Case Study: Implementing Customer Support Successfully In the Military Sector

Joe DeYoung, National Reconnaissance Office, www.nro.gov

This session zeros in on the application of customer support and related CRM tools and techniques of value to the military sector. In addition to the people, process and technology issues typically associated with applying CRM to customer support, the military sector faces several unique challenges. How to ensure that your customer support efforts deliver needed information in real-time? What are the appropriate metrics to use when judging the impact and success of your customer support efforts? How to secure the active participation by key internal and external partners? How to resolve incompatible technologies that have been installed over the years? Come learn from one of the leading authorities on customer support and CRM within the military sector.

Benefits of attending:

• Military customer support: lessons learned

• Ensuring the active participation by internal and external partners

• Getting the people, process, and technology customer support mix right within the military sector

Meet the Speaker:

Joe DeYoung has been a member of the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community for over 30 years. His career spans a unique mix of experience to include 28 years of service, both as an active duty and reserve officer in the United States Marine Corps and over 20 years as a government civilian. He has served as a Budget Analyst, an Acquisition System Program Manager, Comptroller, and Customer Support Board Chairman.

Married 32 years, two children, one daughter and one son, two grandchildren (two boys age 1 and 2) each of my children has one child.

2:40 - 3:30

Track 1:
Business Strategies

Focus: Contact Center, Service Portal

CRM in the Government Sector

Barton Goldenberg, President, ISM, www.ismguide.com

“’Industry pundits maintain that the biggest growth area in CRM over the next three years will be in the public sector, especially within state and local governments’ and quotes Barton Goldenberg as saying that ‘I expect the government sector to spend at least $2 billion on CRM software over the next three years, and at least $3 billion on CRM services over the same period’.” CRM Magazine, July 2004 cover story

There are many opinions regarding the importance, value and impact of applying CRM in the government sector. One group suggests that most CRM lessons from the private sector can be applied with minor modification to the government sector. Another group suggests that because the government CRM value proposition cannot be revenue-based, a limited number of CRM lessons from the private sector are applicable to the government sector.

In this session, Barton Goldenberg will explore the positions of each group, will suggest that government represents one of the most untapped areas for CRM customer support processes and tools, and will argue that accomplishments to date confirm the impressive gains that the Government sector can realize as the result of effectively applying CRM tools and techniques to customer support efforts. Building off 21 years of private and public sector CRM experience, Barton will support his observations with a number of government CRM success stories.

Benefits of attending:

• The role of CRM in government customer support efforts

• A succinct government CRM value proposition

• Examples of DOD, federal and local government uses of CRM

• The key CRM challenges and opportunities within the government sector, especially as they apply to customer support

Meet the Speaker:

From founding a pioneering firm when the concept of CRM was taking form, to being one of three inductees into the newly created CRM Hall of Fame, Barton Goldenberg has always occupied a leading role in the CRM industry. It is a role earned through hard work and dedication.

As a regular columnist and member of the Editorial Board for CRM Magazine, he writes about leading edge methodology and industry trends. He is often quoted in the media, including BusinessWeek, CIO, Information Week and Selling Power. Barton is the author of the best selling CRM Automation (Prentice Hall, 2002 and 2003) and publisher of the benchmark Guide to CRM Automation (now in its 12th edition).

When Barton founded ISM in 1985, software for sales force automation was limited to contact management and was vendor dictated, with little user input. His foresight and vision to integrate sales, marketing, customer service, e-business and business intelligence became the foundation of today's CRM industry success. Having built his business for five years, Barton expanded his championship of the CRM industry in the early 1990s when he accepted a role with DCI Inc. to help shape conferences geared to users of technology, particularly for mobile and sales functions.

2:40 - 3:30

Track 2:
High Touch Solutions

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

Outsourcing - How to Build a Highly Effective Quality Assurance Program

Paul Craven, Director, Enterprise Communications, Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor, www.dol.gov

Federal agencies have increasingly relied on contact centers as a key means of communicating with the public. An increasing number of these contact centers are contractor-operated. Ensuring information accuracy, timeliness, completeness, and overall customer service satisfaction at outsourced contact center no longer needs to be a burden on the Federal manager.

This presentation provides details of the highly effective quality assurance program at the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Contact Center (DOL-NCC), including the fundamental principles of service, quality and performance that are integral to the operations of the center. You’ll learn the main activities that will ensure contractors are providing accurate information through all of your communication channels, as well as strategies to implement quality monitoring programs that achieve improved customer service ratings, and service level and response time objectives.

Benefits of attending:

• Discover what an award-winning Federal outsourced contact center is doing to ensure accurate, timely and relevant information to their customers.

• Understand the fundamental principles of service, quality and performance and their importance to your internal and external stakeholders.

• Apply proven quality management strategies that will immediately impact your project.

Meet the Speaker:

Mr. Craven came to the Federal Government three years ago after more than 25 years in private industry. His career spans several industries and technology areas with a principal focus in Information Technology. He was the founder and CEO of Image Management Systems, a public company and, one of the first companies to offer a commercial product using imaging and optical disk technology. He also founded and was Chairman of the Quadrax Corporation, a high tech public company that manufactured a proprietary thermoplastic pre-preg composite material for the aerospace industry.

As Director of Enterprise Communications Mr. Craven is leading the initiative within the Department of Labor to develop a Customer Relations Management solution that integrates the Internet, e-correspondence and the DOL National Contact Center based on a centralized knowledge base.

AFTERNOON BREAK

3:45 - 4:30

Track 1:
Business Strategies

Focus: Help Desk

The Building Blocks of an ITIL Initiative

Donna Holt, President, Help Desk Xlence, www.helpdeskxlence.com

ITIL, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library framework of IT best practices is one of the primary projects for most IT organizations in 2006. This session will address your questions and concerns, using case studies from government agencies already experiencing the benefits of ITIL-izing their support processes. 

ITIL is the “defacto” framework of best practices standards for the information technology industry policies and procedures. The acronym “ITIL” stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library and is actually a set of “Library” books containing the industry best practices.

Benefits of attending:

• Learn how to build the business case to gain approval for your ITIL initiative.  Just like any change, you’ll need to plan your strategy.

• Understand how adopting the ITIL processes will affect jobs. These processes have been practiced for more than fifteen years and have proven to have a positive effective on not only the way we perform our responsibilities, but also our interaction with other agencies and the public sector.

• Hear how Incident and Problem processes can successfully function under the current Help Desk Manager. We’ll be discussing creating two separate groups that will do what our Help Desk currently does.

• Budgets are always a bump in the road and your staffing model may preclude adding staff to manage a separate group of analysts. We’ll show you a way to adapt the Incident and Problem Management processes with your current technical support Help Desk staff.·

• Understand if ITIL processes will work in Call Centers? Every operation is different and yet the same.  We’ll work in generalities here, but time permitting, we’ll try to answer your specific questions.

• Hear what roadblocks lie just around the corner. We’ll present some examples of those bumps in the road experienced by other agencies and how they were overcome.

Take Away:  A “Glossary of ITIL Acronyms” to help you communicate the benefits of adopting this framework of best practices.

Meet the Speaker:

A much sought-after speaker, Donna Holt utilizes humor in her presentations as a method to stimulate the learning process.  She has been in the customer support industry over thirty years, including more than twelve years in the Help Desk/Support Center arena.  She is an active participant in the Support Center and IT best practices community, presenting HDI Authorized Certification Training, performing HDI Support Center Audits and is HDI’s Member Advisory Board’s Western Region Director.  She is a trainer and consultant in the areas of call centers, support centers and ITIL Best Practices.

3:45 - 4:30

Track 2:
High Touch Solutions

Focus: Help Desk,
Contact Center,
Service Portal

How to Consolidate Government Contact Centers: Benefits, Risks, ROI

Judy Hogan, Federal Aviation Administration, www.faa.gov

How do you consolidate multiple customers when the who, what, why, where, and sometimes “when” is already decided? Your CIO informs you to that they want to only have one national help desk for their Line Of Business for desktop support. Your Director requires all internal small help desk consolidated to one.

Application Managers approach you to be the first point of contact so they can free up Subject Matter Experts for more complex issues. Regional Administrator with multiple Lines of Business desires one help desk for desktop support. The Mainframe desires to have only one help desk number for all customers including global customers. At this time, consolidation is a major effort in federal government. Find out the challenges and solutions that the Customer Support Center at the FAA encountered.

Benefits of attending:

• Develop processes of repeatable steps for implementation including gathering requirements, service level agreements, operating level agreements, training, user acceptance, etc.

• Identify standard metrics for customers.

Take Away:  An SLA template, repeatable steps document, and project management plan will be distributed.

Meet the Speaker:

Judy has 40 years of experience in Information Technology. She has a wide variety of experience in private industry and she has worked at the city, state, and federal levels of government. She has worked in the newspaper and insurance businesses; and, she was the Systems and Programming Manager for a manufacturing company located in Oklahoma City that had five remote plants.

Judy has worked for the Federal Aviation Administration at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City since 1990. She has served in many positions at the FAA including software development, mainframe security, process improvement, quality assurance, and currently the help desk.

"Happy" customers are a high priority for Judy no matter what position she is serving. Since October 1, 2001 she has served as Contract Officer Representative for the Customer Support Center (CSC). The CSC provides Level 1 “first point of contact” support to over 24,500 customers worldwide; and growing every day.

CLOSING REMARKS

Conference summary, final take-away ideas and valuable give-aways.

Drawing for free HDP 2006 pass, drawing for GCS 2007 pass, and more.

                                                                                                          Daryl Covey                  Ivy Meadors             Lisa Prendergast