Microsoft Selects Clarify for Mission-Critical Customer-Support Environment

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 11, 1996 — Clarify Inc. and Microsoft Corp. today jointly announced that Clarify is supplying the customer-service management system for Microsoft’s recently announced support programs. Valued at $2.8 million, the contract represents the industry’s largest vendor-supplied implementation of client-server customer-support solutions based on the Microsoft® Windows®
95 and Windows NT
™
operating systems and the SQL Server
™
database management system.

Clarify’s customer-support solution enables Microsoft to achieve its strategic goal of providing proactive assistance to customers, such as large multinational corporations that are deploying mission-critical business systems using the full range of Microsoft products, including the BackOffice
™integrated family of server software, Windows 95 and Microsoft development tools. With Clarify®
technology, Microsoft is better able to provide customers global, around-the-clock account management, affording consistent and integrated support.

“Microsoft selected Clarify’s technology based on its ability to deliver integrated, state-of-the-art customer management solutions on a global, enterprise scale,”
said Mark Perry, general manager of business systems support at Microsoft.
“Our customers depend on Microsoft to keep their businesses up and running. We needed a customer-service solution we could depend on to manage urgent and complex cases quickly and effectively throughout the world. Clarify is the one company that has the combination of global-support capabilities, proven technology and experience serving Fortune 500, high-technology corporations. Clarify simply had the best solution to meet Microsoft’s business objectives.”

“Microsoft and Clarify have a shared vision of service,”
said David Stamm, president and CEO of Clarify.
“We recognize the need to satisfy the requirements of today’s service model by telephone and increasingly over the Internet, intranet and World Wide Web. Both companies are actively providing electronic services today and see this playing an increasing role in their strategies.”

New Support System Now In Use

Clarify ClearSupport®
and Full-Text Search, the basis for the Microsoft customer-support solutions, are being used today by more than 1,200 support representatives at Microsoft and its outsourcing organizations to provide support to customers in the United States, Canada and Latin America. By October, it is estimated that an additional 500 users will be online at support centers located throughout the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific region and the Far East.

“Microsoft chose to acquire this system from Clarify rather than build a new one,”
added Perry.
“With Clarify, Microsoft gains the benefits of an out-of-the-box, vendor-supported and enhanced solution plus the flexibility to customize it to the company’s particular needs. This allows Microsoft support to focus on its core objective – delivering great software services. In addition, Microsoft has been able to implement and use the Clarify-based solution in a fraction of the time it would have taken to build the system from scratch.”

Benefits Microsoft has achieved to date from the Clarify-based solution include enhanced routing of cases, improved escalation and notification of urgent issues, and electronic case submission via the Internet as part of Microsoft’s Premier ServiceDesk.

Growing Business for BackOffice Drives Changing Support Needs

The Microsoft BackOffice family of products provides the foundation for mission-critical business applications – a rapidly growing area of Microsoft’s business, and one with different support needs than desktop applications. With the goal of rapid adoption of the BackOffice products, Microsoft created a new support model – a model that facilitates solving problems quickly, but is oriented toward managing a long-term relationship rather than simply resolving a specific incident. Typical support questions are addressed by first gathering information about customers’ system configuration, network, revision levels, other hardware and software products, and the application’s usage. Questions often entail complex problems that require several support personnel working together to solve them. The collaborative workflow management, notification and escalation facilities provided by Clarify’s solution, combined with the robust data model for capturing and using information, addresses these needs for Microsoft today and in the future.

Clarify and New Microsoft Service Advantage and AnswerPoint Programs

Microsoft has implemented Clarify’s customer-service management technology to manage its recently announced Service Advantage and AnswerPoint programs. The Premier and Premier Global support plans are key components of the Service Advantage program that provide customers the support foundations necessary for successful deployment of mission-critical, client-server software systems. The AnswerPoint program is for end users, developers and organizations requiring Standard or Priority technical support from Microsoft.

For customers of the Service Advantage and AnswerPoint programs, Clarify ClearSupport is used to support all cases and issues regardless of the products a customer has purchased. New offerings of the Premier and Premier Global programs include Premier Watch, a remote server-monitoring and server-restoration support offering for Windows NT and BackOffice servers running mission-critical business applications; Early Assist, which provides Premier customers release-level support for selected beta products; Premier ServiceDesk, which enables customers to gain exclusive access to a secured support area on the World Wide Web; and multivendor coordination, which ensures problem-resolution in a multivendor environment.

Information About Clarify and Microsoft

Clarify Inc. (NASDAQ
“CLFY”
) is the market-leading developer of customer-support management software that enables organizations to quickly and cost-effectively improve customer satisfaction, product quality and employee productivity. Customers include Amoco Corp., Bay Networks, Cisco Systems, GE Medical Systems, Hewlett-Packard Co., Microsoft Corp., Motorola, Tandem Computers and Transamerica Corp. Clarify reported 1995 revenues of $21 million. Founded in 1990, the company has more than 160 employees and is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. Its products are sold through sales and service offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Clarify can be reached by phone at (408) 428-2000, e-mail at [email protected], or the World Wide Web at http://www.clarify.com.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Clarify and ClearSupport are registered trademarks of Clarify Inc.

Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT and BackOffice are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

All other brands and products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.

Click here to go to Clarify’s web site.

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