Customer Support Newsletter: Q3 2007
 

Previous Editions of the Customer Support Newsletter

This quarter we released our Product Patch List and this has been received extremely well by our customers. You can access the Product Patch List by logging into the Customer Support Portal where you will be able to view information about generally available patches. If you want to know how our products are protecting you against common vulnerabilities and how Microsoft bulletin releases affect your security, you can now view this information online on the Microsoft Bulletin page. Also included are descriptions for checks, signatures and vulnerabilities.

Sally Foster
Customer Support Executive
IBM Internet Security Systems

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Have you ever wondered why you are asked to respond to several different types of Customer Support surveys? What happens to that information once you submit it? Survey feedback is critical to the growth and continuous improvement of our daily operations. Our closed loop survey process is also an integral part of our Support Center Certification requirements. Surveys fall into two categories: event based and periodic surveys.

Event or incident surveys are the direct results of the issues reported to Customer Support. Unless you have opted out of the survey process or responded to a survey in the past week, each time one of your incidents is closed, our survey processor will attempt to send you a brief, four-question Web-based survey to assess our responsiveness, professionalism, product knowledge and your overall support experience. These surveys are used to assess individual performance of our Support Analysts. To ensure all incidents end as pleasingly as possible, managers are required to follow up with clients who return surveys with an unfavorable rating. We require follow-up to make sure that we fully understand where we need to improve and to make sure we can identify areas where our Analysts may need additional coaching or training.

Periodic Surveys

There are several different periodic surveys in which you may be involved. Prior to launching these survey initiatives, we will notify you via the IBM ISS true blue customer e-newsletter that the process is beginning and that you may be contacted.

Quarterly Periodic - An independent, external survey organization (currently Porter Research) randomly selects 50 customers to participate in an in-depth assessment of your relationship with the Customer Support organization. This survey may be conducted via telephone or on-line via the Web. It takes approximately 15 minutes to complete and provides us with a more detailed look at how you interact with us and what is important to you. The senior Customer Support management team reviews this information each quarter to adjust our operations and launch projects to improve our service levels.

J.D. Power CTSS Customer Satisfaction Assessment - Triggered by our Support Center Certification process, J.D. Power conducts a brief survey to assess our support operations. This survey process is controlled by J.D. Power. They dictate the questions and format of the survey. This independent assessment is then compared to industry benchmarks to score our support center and identify opportunities for improvement.

Ad-Hoc Periodic - Occasionally, we need to perform a comprehensive examination into a specific product or service we support. In these situations, we use Zoomerang (www.zoomerang.com) to create a targeted survey. Zoomerang is a Web-based tool which allows us to quickly create surveys in which you can anonymously provide feedback. Invitations to participate come via e-mail with a Web link. The feedback we receive is invaluable to making targeted improvements.

As you can see, there are several different ways you can provide feedback to Customer Support. In all cases, we greatly value the information you share with us and appreciate the time you spend communicating with us. The valuable information that you provide to us is always carefully read and included in our analysis and no response is ever wasted. It is used to reward and target growth areas for our Support Analysts and to gain insights into how we can better serve you. As always, thank you for your feedback!

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• Faster - This information is displayed as soon as it is made available in the X-Force database.
• Stays current - Whenever information is changed or updated, such as the contents of an express update (XPU) or coverage for one of the vulnerabilities in the Microsoft bulletin pages, it will automatically be reflected in the Web page at www.iss.net.

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Every day, clients like you write IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS) to thank us for their positive experience with our Customer Support center. We would like to take this opportunity to share several of this month's "thank you" testimonials to publicly acknowledge our hard-working Customer Support Analysts. We always appreciate feedback from our clients - feel free to contact us at any time with your feedback.

Every time I have had to call IBM ISS customer support, I always get the best support in the business. You really have great front line guys. Josh M. did an excellent job just like everyone I have ever talked to at IBM ISS. I only hope to learn from you guys how I can make my organization run better since you really do it right. I am really happy we went with your products because the support has proved to be awesome and a well spent investment.   - Sachin K., Major Financial Institution

I wanted to let you know that working with Jonathan T. this week has been an absolute pleasure. He's extremely easy to work with and was very knowledgeable on my particular issue. At one point I even tried to let him go so he wouldn't have to babysit me through an issue I thought I could handle on my own but he nicely said "Hey, if you don't mind, I've got time to watch it with you and am interested in how it goes." So he stayed on the line and helped me with a VMware issue that I would not have easily been able to troubleshoot. Keep this guy on your team! Thanks.   - Charles H., nGuard

I feel compelled to write to you to highly commend the work done by Michele in your Consumer
Support group. I downloaded and installed BlackICE and had a significant number of "challenges" getting it installed correctly then configured appropriately. I contacted your Consumer Support group and Michele took responsibility to get things sorted out. She was not only very patient with my limited PC skills but was an absolute expert with respect to each and every issue we had to work through. \ She is an outstanding example of excellence in service and I certainly greatly appreciate the high level assistance she provided.    - Bob, Emerging Market Growth & Consulting Associates

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The Proventia Network IPS GX6116, the highest-speed model in the Proventia Network IPS line, is available to ship immediately. This appliance - which surpasses the competition - complements the award-winning Proventia IPS product line with accurate, high-performance protection at the network core.

This release includes the following new models:

• Proventia Network IPS GX6116

• High throughput - up to 15 GBPS of aggregate throughput supports the most demanding applications, services and networks
• Segmented protection - eight protected segments on the front of the unit helps stop attacks from propagating over the network interior
• Flexible deployment options - 16 SFP/Mini-GBIC transceivers accommodate future network topology changes and allow connectivity to copper, fiber or mixed environments
• Preemptive protection at high speeds - designed to block intrusion attempts, denial of service (DoS) attacks, malicious code, backdoors, spyware, peer-to-peer applications and a growing list of threats without requiring extensive network reconfiguration

Additional Information

• For additional product/service information: http://www.iss.net/products/Proventia_GX6116/product_main_page.html
• For sales and professional services information:
  E-mail: sales@iss.net
  Toll Free: 1 800-776-2362 (U.S. and Canada)
  Phone: +1 404-236-2600 (International)

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Previous Editions of the Customer Support Newsletter

Read the Q2 2007 Customer Support Newsletter.
Read the Q1 2007 Customer Support Newsletter.
Read the Q4 2006 Customer Support Newsletter.


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