Informations Builders

Company: Information Builders, New York, NY
Company Description: Information Builders' award-winning combination of business intelligence and enterprise integration software has been providing innovative solutions to more than 12,000 customers for the past 30 years. WebFOCUS is the world's most widely utilized business intelligence platform. It provides the security, scalability, and flexibility needed at every level of global extended enterprises.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Executive of the Year

Nomination Title: Stu Madison, Vice President of Corporate Technical Support Services

1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Stu manages three major departments within the Company; worldwide customer
technical support (including user forums), customer education, and internal
training. He believes it is vitally important to build an alliance with
customers in order to develop and maintain a true partnership where credibility
and trust result in success for both parties.

Stu continually creates new incentives and initiatives in his organization to
promote a keen sense of the importance of customer service.

In 2009, our upgraded Premium Service, originally developed by Stu, generated
$4,000,000+ in additional revenue in part due to Stu’s continual involvement
with the sales force. IB’s Premium customers see real value in the services they
receive as evidenced by a retention rate between 92% and 100% over the last
several years. Premium customer surveys rated our service and staff at over 98%
satisfaction.

Under Stu’s management, the technical support website was upgraded and provided
a call deflection savings of over $1,000,000 per month in 2009.

Stu is an active participant in projects within his department. He both
encourages and supports the decisions of his managers and will work with senior
management (including the CEO) to support department needs. The staff sees Stu
as their champion at the corporate level because he will fight and/or defend
them when appropriate.

Stu made major improvements to the transactional and periodic survey system in
2009 that ensures customers are receiving the excellent service to which they
were entitled. The metrics generated by the surveys and other sources are used
by Stu to define a bonus program that encourages the support reps to meet goals.
In 2009, Stu raised the bar and the goals were subsequently met. Some key
metrics for support overall:


Overall Satisfaction: 87%(08);94%(09)
Timeliness of Response: 94%(08);97%(09)
Professionalism: 97%(08);99%(09)
Technical Proficiency: 93%(08);97%(09)
Solution Quality: 86%(08);91%(09)

Stu continually encourages the support managers to nominate staff members who go
out of their way to do good things for customers. They are rewarded with cash,
Customer Service plaques, and write-ups in the Company’s internal newsletter. In
addition, Stu ensures that everyone participates in National Customer Services
week by personally getting involved in all the planned activities.

Stu continually implements various training events for employees in all parts of
the company. He believes that a well-trained and knowledgeable staff is key to
the company’s success and for the continued relationship building between the
company and its customers. Part of that training includes not only specific
technical training, but also soft skills training. Last year, he organized and
personally coordinated management training sessions so that managers had their
mentoring skills improved.

Stu saved the company over $500,000 by implementing an aggressive online
training approach. He undertook similar initiatives with customer education and
was able to improve efficiency while maintaining excellent customer satisfaction.

The results of the training, emphasis on customer services and management have
been recognized by several organizations, including the ABA where we were
finalist for three years in a row. And last year, Stu was solicited by the TSIA
(formerly SSPA) to present a session at their annual conference. Moreover, IB
customer support has received the TSIA certification as the only Business
Intelligence company to have all of its support staff certified in customer
services skills.

Stu has been the backbone of the support organization, having built an extremely
talented and well respected staff – a truly world class support organization. He
is a real people manager and takes meaningful steps to ensure the customers
receive the best service possible from people who really care about their success.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.informationbuilders.com/new/magazine/v19-1/pdf/magIBSpring09_CustomerSupport.pdf

http://www.informationbuilders.com/new/magazine/v18-1/pdf/magIBJan08_InfoResponse.pdf

http://www.informationbuilders.com/new/analyst_reports.html

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

Stu Madison is the Vice President of Corporate Technical Support Services which
comprises the IBI Helpdesk, all internal technical training, user groups, and
Customer Education. Holding a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Stu
has managed other support organizations prior to joining Information Builders in
October 1985. His background spans technical writing, software development and
systems analysis, systems programming management, and teaching to field
technical support and SE management.
Stu’s extensive background and experience have made him a key player in the
success of Information Builders throughout his 23+ year tenure. He is
responsible for $8M of support and customer education services revenue.