Help Desk Institute Annual Canadian Conference
December 1 and 2, 2003 - Vancouver:

Mark your calendars now! HDI is pleased to announce that we will be offering our first Canadian Conference Program this coming December 2003. The Western Canadian portion of this event will be held in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia and the Eastern Canadian portion will be held in exciting Montréal, Québec.

A slate of top international speakers, as well as Canadian HDI chapter member case studies, will all be part of this exciting conference program. We extend an invitation to all North American HDI members to visit one of these incredible Canadian locations for a first-class Help Desk Institute event.

If you would like to receive a conference program, when available, please email support@thinkhdi.com

For more information click here

Call Reduction Strategies That Work
Help Desk Calgary Luncheon, Wednesday November 19, 2003

It is critical to create a detailed support strategy that includes reducing targeted call volume. It is imperative for your Enterprise Support organization to reduce current call volume to improve financial and operational performance metrics. Additionally, your team can be repositioned to handle more strategic, value-add and business critical types of issues. We will discuss the required best practices - Root Cause Analysis - that need to be implemented before you can effectively and consistently reduce your call volume. To build the business case for implementing a call reduction strategy, you must first utilize your call categorization data to know what types of calls should be targeted for reduction/elimination. We will talk about some call reduction programs that have been successful in achieving their call volume reduction goals including:
• Self-service and redirecting customers from the phone to the web
• Customer training programs
• Utilizing Root Cause Analysis for problem determination, elimination and deflection
• Utilizing IVR beyond skills-based routing
• Support Automation, roll-back, backup & restore
• Communication strategies during outages

Please join Peter McGarahan as he presents a methodology, action plan and case studies for successfully reducing call volume. Senior executives are already asking for this - surprise them - present your call reduction strategy today before they have to ask for it!

Sponsoring This Event:
Network Associates Inc., Magic Solutions and Nashco Consulting
Magic Solutions is the leading provider of browser-based service management solutions. Magic Solutions provides integrated, process-oriented e-business support solutions for organizations across the enterprise to deliver the highest levels of service and great efficiency. www.magicsolutions.com

Nashco Consulting., a Premier Certified Business Partner of Magic Solutions for Network Associates Inc., offers IT Service Management solutions including help desk software, non-IT functions, business process consulting and implementation & data migration services to customers in North America. www.nashco.ca

About Pete McGarahan
Pete McGarahan is Executive Industry Fellow for STI Knowledge, the support industry's most widely recognized Certification and Advisory Services programs and premiere provider of Enterprise Support Solutions.
McGarahan has over 20 years of experience in business support, planning, design, and development. His passions for customer service lead the Taco Bell support organization to achieve the Help Desk Institute Team Excellence Award. In addition, IT Support News selected McGarahan as one of the "Top 25 Professionals in the Service and Support Industry". He is a Certified Instructor, author, keynote presenter, industry leader and advisor as well as customer service advocate. As program director and host of the STI Knowledge Symposium, Pete is constantly challenging and guiding the Support Industry to align itself with the business and proactively addressing current economic, business and support best practices, trends and directions.

New and Renewing Members
Help Desk Calgary extends a warm welcome to the following new and renewing members for the months of September and October:

Burntsand Inc.
Control-F1
M-Tech Information Technology, Inc.
OAO Technology Solutions
Tesco Corporation
Zeroride Communications Ltd.

Join a Committee
Contribute your skills and ideas to help provide value to our membership through our volunteer opportunities. For more information click on the link below or write to us at info@hdi-calgary.org.
Executive and Volunteer Information