Internap Network Services
Company: Internap Network Services, Atlanta, GA
Company Description: Internap provides high-performance IT infrastructure services that enable their customers to focus on their core business, improve service levels and lower the cost of IT operations. Internap's colocation, connectivity and managed hosting solutions are differentiated by unparalleled levels of performance, availability and support.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year
Nomination Title: Internap Global Customer Service Department
Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department achieved since January 1 2010 (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:
Enterprises and consumers are experiencing a fundamental shift in how they store, manage and access personal and business-critical data and applications – moving toward outsourced data centers and Software-as-a-Service and cloud environments. High-performance access to that data is vital. Think of the impact on a banking customer who can’t access an online account or a shopper that isn’t sure whether an online transaction was processed. According to research, even a one-second delay in website performance can mean a 7% reduction in customer conversion, lost revenue and dissatisfied customers. Downtime is not an option.
Internap provides the IT Infrastructure services enabling this shift, delivering
data center services, including colocation, managed hosting and cloud, as well
as enterprise IP services and a Content Delivery Network, to thousands of
enterprises worldwide. As Internap’s customers are entrusting the company with
the delivery and protection of their business-critical applications, Internap
recognizes that the quality of its customer support directly impacts customer
business – including end user satisfaction and loyalty, brand reputation and
financial performance.
In 2010, Internap achieved “five nines” availability across its colocation and
IP connectivity services. Five nines (99.999%) is the industry gold standard for
the system design and operational performance of high-availability equipment,
networks and services and represents less than six minutes of total downtime for
a given year. This is paramount as businesses adopt new IT service delivery
models like cloud, SaaS and hosting, where highly reliable access to
business-critical infrastructure, data and applications is required.
Internap’s reliability and performance is fueled by its patented Performance
IP™, which leverages patented Managed Internet Route Optimizer™ (MIRO)
technology to analyze network performance characteristics like available
bandwidth, delays and packet loss and intelligently deliver content,
applications and communications over the optimal Internet path.
Internap’s customer service department turns the optimized performance that MIRO
enables into a reality. Because its support team actively monitors data center
and IP network availability at all times, Internap provides a proactive, 100%
uptime service level agreement, unprecedented in the industry.
Rather than rely on outsourced call centers, Internap engineers answer all
customer calls 24x7x365 in its network operations center (NOC) – dramatically
reducing resolution time. Rapid reaction times combined with proactive customer
communication and its experienced customer service team help make Internap’s
support organization world-class.
In 2010, Internap deployed an advanced call center system that is integrated
with its customer trouble-ticketing system, resulting in dramatic and immediate
improvements in customer service. The new system lets customers enter their
ticket number via phone and they are automatically routed to the engineer
handling their case. Once a call is answered, the service engineer’s screen
automatically populates with the caller’s ticket history, providing the engineer
with comprehensive information about the customer and, in turn, the customer
with a more productive service experience.
Internap’s dedicated customer support efforts in 2010 yielded these outstanding
customer benefits:
• Customers gave an average rating of 4.8 following resolution of open service
tickets (based on a scale of 1 – 5, with 5 being “extremely satisfied”).
• Internap’s Net Promoter Score, a general business customer loyalty metric,
rose 20 percentage points in the last year (Net Promoter Scores are measured
against a company’s own increase/decrease over time versus against competitor
metrics).
• Internap’s NOC had a 2:1 ratio of outbound to inbound calls, highlighting its
proactive customer support.
• In a testament to the outstanding service of Internap's support team, out of
nearly 2,500 incoming customer service calls per month:
o All calls were answered within 10 seconds, on average
o The caller abandon rate was an astonishingly low .01%
o 95% of the time, the Internap NOC engineer answering a call was the same one
that resolved the issue, underscoring the deep skill and expertise of the
department.
o 94% of the time, incoming calls were answered by the first engineer who was
routed the call (vs. trying multiple engineers before ultimately connecting the
customer).
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.internap.com/best-customer-support/
http://www.internap.com/best-customer-support/network-operations-center/
http://www.internap.com/best-customer-support/sla/
http://datacenterjournal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4554:where-areall-the-service-oriented-colocation-providers&catid=120
**Also, Internap is a two-time recipient (2006 and 2005)of the EE
Times' "Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Award" for "Achievement in
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated organization/department:
Steve Orchard, senior vice president, operations and customer support
Mr. Orchard has significant experience in network technology and design, data
center operations, and customer support. He is responsible for the operations
of Internap’s global customer support services, including its IP network,
network operations center, core systems and security. His team is responsible
for network and data center operations, product delivery and enhancing the
company’s strong service reputation. Since arriving at Internap in 1999, he has
held a variety of roles with increasing responsibility including network