It is unlikely that 2009 is going to be a banner year for anyone: while service budgets are under scrutiny and maintenance renewals become more difficult, customer expectations for better and more sophisticated service continue to rise. But that doesn’t mean service and support organizations will be unable to meet these heightened expectations, or that big cuts to operational budgets will necessarily occur. Service revenues have become the economic engine for software and hardware firms, protecting support operations from indiscriminate cuts that would impact customer satisfaction and loyalty. The key to success is finding ways to further streamline operations, as well as increase service revenues—not easy after a decade of ―working smarter not harder‖ has created highly productive, extremely lean service and support operations.

Download: How to Thrive in an Economic Recession