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Company: Informatica Corporation, Redwood City, CA
Company Description: Informatica is the world’s top independent provider of data integration software and services. Informatica provides data integration software and services that enable organizations to gain a competitive advantage in today's global information economy by empowering them with timely, relevant and trustworthy data for their top business imperatives
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Use of Technology in Customer Service

Nomination Title:  Informatica My Support Portal: The Personalized, One-Stop-Shop for Optimizing Today’s Complex Data Integration Environments

Tell the story about how technology has improved your customer service initiatives since the beginning of July 2011 (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:

Worldwide, 5,000 enterprises rely on Informatica for mission-critical data integration solutions. Informatica Global Customer Support (GCS) is making the use of technology a key factor in its ability to help drive customer success and rapid ROI through superior and timely service/support – which is, in turn, a key differentiator for Informatica in the marketplace.

This past year, Informatica GCS has focused on using technology to empower customers to avoid/manage/resolve issues through Informatica’s award-winning MySupport Portal. Recognized by the Association of Support Professionals as one of the world’s "Ten Best Web Support Sites," MySupport is earning considerable plaudits from customers for its:

•New Support TV
•Highly personalized user experience

These plaudits are translating directly into increased and more effective use of MySupport resources, a strengthening of those resources, decreased site attrition, and increased call deflections.

Watch, Learn, Resolve
Through customer feedback, it was brought home that they learn most effectively about Informatica products through a visual medium, consumed in their own space at their own pace. Thus Support TV was born. Informatica support professionals pooled their knowledge of issues encountered while handling customer cases and began producing videos on various products and tools.

The use of online video recording technology streamlined content creation to the point where anyone could rapidly produce an information-packed video; thus the projected 75 videos ended up at 130+. The use of an existing platform (YouTube) and integrating it with MySupport saved time and money, and the entire project – including developing a custom interactive UI, integration and content creation – rolled out in just 45 days.

Results:
3200 video views, 50+ call deflections in the first couple of weeks alone. Comments: “Well done Informatica! You are always a step ahead than others.” “Will spend the weekend watching...superb idea.” Moving forward: customers are now suggesting topics for additional videos, thus expanding the knowledge base.

Personalization
Customer feedback also pointed out that while My Support used technology to empower customer with relevant information, it would be beneficial if the empowerment process was faster/easier. This prompted a revamp of the site to bring a more personalized experience to all users. Personalization enhancements include:

•Product Profiles – Customer-created Product Profiles filter documents, recent discussions, best practices and other content to selected products contained in each personalized profile.

•Dynamic UI – With further customization, a three-tabbed dynamic widget on the Home Page contains all latest content relevant to each individual customer including recent discussions, documents and best practices.

•Personalized SR Dashboards – A personalized dashboard displays quick links to each user’s most recently accessed Service Requests.

•Personalized Bug Tracker – Users have a personalized view of Bugs opened for their projects (i.e.: open and close dates, status, etc.). This alone reduced incoming status query calls by 4%.

Results:
Site abandonment decreased by 25% in 2012; there was a 100% increase in discussions and the calls deflected via forums went up by 70%.

Significance: the more that customers use MySupport, the better empowered they become to drive their data integration success.

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated customer service organization:

Ansa Sekharan : Senior Vice President, Global Customer Support

Ansa Sekharan is senior vice president of Informatica's Global Customer Support, where he is responsible for establishing Informatica as a trusted partner for customers worldwide by ensuring their success with Informatica's products. Sekharan was an early employee at Informatica starting in 1996. During his tenure, Informatica has received prestigious industry awards recognizing its support services, including being ranked number one in customer loyalty in the data integration enterprise software sector for seven years in a row. He graduated with honors from the University of Tulsa where he earned a master's in Computer Science.