SEI Information Technology focuses on the needs of larger ISPs, working with them to improve their services and to reduce support costs.

by Jeff Goldman [November 12, 2003]

SEI Information Technology was founded in 1969 as an IT consulting company. In the mid-'80s, the company developed the back office system for McDonald's, which is still in use today. According to Gary Manske, SEI's Senior Manager of Business Development, the company began offering support services when McDonald's asked them to provide support for the solution they had developed.

SEI's customer care operations now support a wide range of corporations including McDonald's, Sonic Corp., and Allied Domecq QSR. For North Dakota's Dickey Rural Networks, SEI has provided helpdesk services and outbound teletraining. The company's greatest strength, Manske says, lies in its ability to offer a broad range of services beyond outsourced technical support.

SEI Information Technology Voice: (888) 734-7343 info@sei-it.com

As a result, SEI specifically targets larger providers that need a more thorough approach to their technical support. "Looking at a couple of hundred calls a month is not typically where we play," Manske says. "A larger ISP that may field thousands of calls a month would be much more appropriate both for our size and for our capabilities."

Still, Manske encourages ISPs of all sizes to seek out a similarly thorough partnership with any provider. "In today's environment, you can find call centers all over: they're a dime a dozen," he says. "But what really sets one service provider apart from another is their ability to work with the customer to help reduce calls, reduce incidents, and reduce overall support costs."

A partnership mentality
SEI's support services are organized around the company's Service Management Center. By bringing multiple vendors together at a single point of contact, the center allows providers to simplify their interaction with their customers. "We're unique in that we can support customers when there are other vendors involved," Manske says.

The system also allows for efficient reporting of information relating to a number of different vendors and issues. "We can capture all that data into one call tracking system, and then a customer can receive reports that span the scope of all those different vendors," Manske says. "They're able to see a holistic view of what's happening in their entire service."

Going beyond basic reporting, SEI works actively with its clients to solve the problems that those call reports present. "We look at things like the top ten issues procedurally that a customer needs help with, and we can help them tailor some targeted training to those specific issues," Manske says. "Being proactive in that regard is important to us."

Employee loyalty is another key focus for the company. "Typically, when you hear 'call center,' you think of high employee turnover," Manske says. "Our turnover is much lower than the industry average. We provide positions for technicians that can come in at the entry level and work their way up through supervisors, project leads, implementation managers, all the way through management."

Considering your options
SEI has call centers in Indiana and North Dakota, as well as a center in Debrecen, Hungary. The presence of a European call center helps the company support its international clients, and also allows it to offer a wider range of languages than many other providers: SEI offers support in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German.

Pricing can be structured in a number of different ways, though Manske urges ISPs to focus on per-subscriber pricing. "When you look at things like per minute or per call, the incentives aren't necessarily there for the service provider to reduce volumes and take that pain out of the system," he says. "Whatever pricing model is chosen, the service provide has to have the incentive to reduce call volume."

When choosing a support provider, Manske says, it's important for an ISP to look beyond the obvious. "A lot of service providers are going to tout their average speed of answer, abandon rate, those types of things," he says. "You have to look under the covers to understand what value they're really providing: how are they reducing call volume, and how are they helping you to reduce your overall support costs?"

With SEI's partnership mentality, he adds, ISPs get far greater value than they would from a more basic call center. "If someone's looking at just reducing their support costs today, a commodity buy might be the best thing for them," Manske says. "But if they're looking at how their business is going to stay competitive in the future, they need to look at how that partnership will help them improve their service over the long term."

— End

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Online resources:
	Outsourced Customer Support Directory
	Quick Reference Chart