Service Excellence

Celebrating STAR Award Success

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Last week I had the privilege of attending the Technology Services Industry Association’s (TSIA) Technology Services World (TSW). The conference was an opportunity to connect with associates in the services business, collaborate with colleagues, and explore new ideas. In my previous post entitled “Rethinking Customer Support,” I discussed the new book entitled “Consumption Economics.” The concepts from this book provided the central theme for the conference with many of the sessions discussing various aspects of the book’s “New Rules of Tech.” The week was definitely fruitful.

One of the conference highlights for me was the awards luncheon where EMC Global Services was honored with three STAR awards:

  • Overall Excellence in Field Services Delivery
  • Overall Operational Excellence in Technology Professional Services
  • Overall Operational Excellence in Education Services

EMC also earned its third TSIA Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of surpassing 15 individual STAR Awards (our total is now 16). EMC is one of only three companies to achieve this level of recognition.

Why are these awards important? The application process for the STAR Awards is stringent and quite competitive. The process requires us to take a look at specific aspects of our support business in detail. While we do this every day with our own criteria and metrics, we welcome this opportunity to map our capabilities against TSIA’s criteria and to be benchmarked against our peers. Investing this time to analyze our processes and capabilities in detail is another step we can take to help us ensure that we are continually innovating and improving service for our customers.

I also believe there is value in asking our team around the world to pause and celebrate their hard work.  Because I lead EMC Global Customer Support, the award for “Overall Excellence in Field Services Delivery” was the one I prized the most. I’ve found the EMC support staff to be somewhat humble while measuring themselves against extremely high expectations. So to this very dedicated team, I would like to say thank you and well done!

Visit TSIA’s Award Page to see other winners and a photo of EMC employees accepting the awards on behalf of EMC Global Services.

About the Author: Mary Cay Kosten

Mary Cay leads a team of 1400 professionals that provide operational support to the Dell Technologies Services organization. Her team is responsible for driving operational excellence and implementing innovations across Dell Technologies Services. This includes areas such as eServices & Knowledge Management, Program and Change Management, Business Services, Remote Support Contact Center Operations, Command Center, Process Engineering and Data Sciences, Data Enablement and Analytics, and the Global Centers of Excellence. Kosten has over 30 years of experience in service and supplier management, with a proven track record in building outstanding service delivery organizations. Prior to joining Dell EMC, she was Vice President of global customer services delivery for Oracle/Sun Microsystems, responsible for delivering all elements of Sun Microsystems’ support services. Under her leadership, Sun achieved the prestigious J.D. Power Certified Technology Service and Support (CTSS) Award for "An Outstanding Customer Service Experience," the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) Award for Excellence in Service Operations, and Sun was inducted into the STAR Awards Hall of Fame. Kosten is a 2008 recipient of the Denver Business Journal's Outstanding Women in Business (High Tech and Telecommunications) Award and a 2006 recipient of the Silicon Valley YWCA Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) Award. She also is on the Advisory Board for TSIA’s Field Services discipline. She holds an MS degree in systems management from the University of Southern California and a BS in marketing from the University of West Florida.
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