Notes from the RightNow 2007 Summit

I’m in Colorado Springs for the 9th RightNow Summit.  (You know you have a great job when it requires you to spend time at the Broadmoor, one of the best hotels in the world.)  I always enjoy attending the RightNow user conferences; these are rabidly happy customers and they are willing to share their experiences, warts and all.  Many vendor user conferences “shepherd” analysts to avoid much direct interaction with customers, or hold separate analyst conferences to avoid the issue entirely.  But RightNow encourages interaction with customers, and lines up 1:1 meetings with customers for us.

With over 500 customers in attendance, this is a sizeable conference.  For the first time, there are breakouts focusing on individual industries, allowing more focused knowledge sharing.  The session topics are also broader this year, reflecting RightNow’s expansion beyond customer service into full CRM.  The highlight of the first morning for me was the customer panel, with representatives from some big name companies including Orbitz, William Sonoma, Electronic Arts, Telstra and eHarmony.  Some interesting tidbits for you:

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Empolis Brings Context to eService with Information Logistics

I’m happy to say that the SSPA is gaining more reach and visibility in Europe, including plans for our first European conference in 2008 (stay tuned for more details!).  When it comes to service and support technology, North America certainly doesn’t have a lock on innovation, and yesterday I had a great briefing with German-based Empolis, a provider of knowledgebase, intelligent search and problem diagnostic tools.

Empolis has a unique brand identity, “The Information Logistics Company,” and they see helping support organizations navigate the complex web of structured and unstructured enterprise content as a logistics problem:  manufacturing, storing, tracking and consuming valuable corporate resources–your knowledge.

Here are some of the core components of the Empolis solution, along with my take on how they are differentiated from other solutions:

Supporting Customers using Online Communities

It is always nice to get a little press attention, and I’ve had some great feedback after my quotes in the Wall Street Journal last week in a Journal Report on Technology entitled, “Support’s Perfect Storm.”  And, I’m credited in print with the name, having been publishing about Support’s Perfect Storm for a year now.   (I guess I squeaked in before new WSJ owner Murdock mandates only Republicans can be interviewed and quoted from now on.)  First I heard from former colleagues who saw the piece, and now I’m receiving more requests for interviews from other press outlets.

Today I interacted with Dan Greenfield, VP of Corporate Communication at Earthlink, and also author of the blog Bernaise Source, a fascinating site that explores the intersection of PR and new media.  Some of the content in our exchange has been covered in this blog previously, and I thought I’d include the Q&A since it addresses some trends/issues differently than I’ve included in blog posts before.