More on 2007

‘Tis the season, continued. Add to the list of studies regarding 2006 performance or 2007 forecasting a study undertaken by the Service and Support Professionals Association, billed as “the largest and most influential association for technology service and support professionals,” whose results were released today.

Entitled “Service and Support Technology Spending – Market Sizing and Spending Plans for North American Technology Companies,” the study tracked SSPA members’ budgets for new technology, functional components adopted, types of technology, and levels of satisfaction. Vice president- and director-level executives from over 175 companies were polled. The study was developed by SSPA vice president of research and former Forrester analyst John Ragsdale, and is planned to be the first annual member survey of service and support technology.

To the numbers, then!

Key figures include:

• Approximately $565 million will be spent in 2007 in North America on eService, CRM, contact center and field service technologies by large technology companies.

• Spending by small- and medium-sized enterprise technology companies is forecast at approximately $884 million.

• Nearly half of all surveyed companies have budgets of over $1 million for new service and support technology. Seventeen percent of these companies have a budget over $10 million.

• Fifty-three percent of large companies have budgets over $1 million; 20 percent have a budget over $10 million.

• Sixty-two percent of overall spending will be allocated to contact center and CRM software. The shares are forecast at 36 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

• Twenty-two percent of large companies indicate they plan to purchase web chat and collaboration tools.

“Service and Support Technology Spending – Market Sizing and Spending Plans for North American Technology Companies” is available by emailing Paula Brici at paula@bricicomm.com.