HDI Announced Industry Award Winners at HDI 2013 Conference & Expo

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., June 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- HDI, a global association for technical service and support professionals and the premier certification body for the industry, today announced the successful wrap-up of the twenty-third HDI Annual Conference & Expo, which took place April 16–19, 2013, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. The HDI 2014 Conference & Expo will be held April 1–4, 2014, at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, FL.

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"This year's attendance was incredible, and the winners we honored with our HDI industry awards truly reflect the quality of our annual event," said Michelle Frilow, director of conferences and events at HDI. "We're extremely proud to recognize such esteemed individuals and teams for their exceptional service and the effort they put into the success of their careers."

Targeted to the needs of the technical service and support industry, HDI 2013 attracted more than 2,300 attendees from all over the world. "The extreme emotion displayed by this year's award winners was incredible to witness!" said Craig Baxter, HDI's global brand director. "We were also extremely thrilled to present our new outsourcer category under the HDI Team Excellence Awards, and the new HDI CSAT Elite 50, which showcases the industry's top performers in terms of customer service as determined by the HDI Customer Satisfaction Index Service. Overall, it was another fantastic year!"

HDI's industry awards, presented each year at the HDI Annual Conference & Expo, recognize individuals and teams for excellence. HDI's award lineup includes the HDI Analyst of the Year and Manager of the Year Awards; the HDI Team Excellence Awards, honoring internal support, external support, and outsourcer support teams; and the HDI Desktop Support Technician of the Year Award. All of these awards are sponsored by Robert Half Technology. HDI also presents the Ron Muns Lifetime Achievement Award and, new this year, the Rock of Our Foundation Award.

The 2013 HDI industry award winners include:

• HDI Analyst of the Year – James Edmiston, Qualcomm, Inc.

James Edmiston works as an IT support analyst on a team of forty-five that supports more than 25,000 employees around the world, assisting customers with everything from password resets to systems recovery. In the two years that James has been in IT customer service, he has garnered more than 150 positive customer service surveys.

James has earned one of the company's highest awards for excellent service. He sets a high bar for himself, but he's still found time to earn a dual Bachelor's degree in computer networks and network security. James is also proud member of the Wounded Warriors program, having been drawn to the program by his own military service and his personal experience returning to civilian life.

• HDI Desktop Support Technician of the Year – Scott Robinson, NASCO

Scott Robinson has been with NASCO since July 2010. From the moment he joined the team, customers began sending his manager positive messages about his great attitude, superb customer service, and  technical knowledge. Scott consistently gives 100 percent, making sure his customers are satisfied, contributing more than his fair share of the work, staying late when necessary, and covering his teammates. He is a joy to work with and the image of what a successful desktop support professional should be.

• HDI Manager of the Year – Linda Toro, Fish & Richardson P.C.

Linda Toro is the manager of IT support services at Fish & Richardson P.C. She has been active in the service industry for more than fifteen years, a member of HDI for six. Linda is a certified Microsoft Office Specialist and a certified HDI Desktop Support Manager. She designs, develops, and implements her firm's desktop support programs based on IT strategic plans and identifies organizational needs using a variety of innovative approaches, in accordance with techniques and practices appropriate for law firms.

Linda's current responsibilities include supervising fifteen staff members, including IT specialists, and an in-house support center with more than ten locations. She is responsible for hiring and training new staff, developing and maintaining the policy and procedures manual, promoting and maintaining a teamwork attitude, and monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on the effectiveness of the training program. She is also responsible for the IT department's academic program implementation, organization, curriculum development, evaluation, and delivery.

The HDI Team Excellence Awards honor three world-class support organizations that have enhanced the image of the industry by achieving the highest standards of excellence in customer support and service delivery. All three categories are judged according to the same criteria: people, process, procedures, technology, and resources.

• HDI Team Excellence Award, External – Infinite Campus

For more than eighteen years, Infinite Campus has successfully implemented its solutions for customers of all sizes. As the largest US-owned student information system provider, Infinite Campus manages more than 5.3 million students in forty-three states. Its customers' student bases range from fewer than 100 students to more than 600,000 students and include school districts, regional consortia, state departments of education, and the federal government.

• HDI Team Excellence Award, Internal – The Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System

The Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (FMOLHS) IS support center focuses on processing inbound phone calls and tickets submitted through a customer portal. Clinical and administrative staff, as well as vendors and contractors, comprise the 25,000 customers served. The support team proudly executes its mission by delivering excellent customer service to FMOLHS team members while efficiently resolving issues and enabling high-quality patient care.

The IS support center's leaders attribute the team's success this year to three areas of continued focus: first call resolution, which is currently at 79 percent; ongoing team member engagement; and retention initiatives like ongoing professional development and the opportunity to work from home.

• HDI Team Excellence Award, Outsourcer – CDI Technology Solutions Corporation

For more than sixty years, CDI has delivered engineering and technology solutions to Fortune 1000 clients around the world. CDI has approximately 10,000 employees operating in locations in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Through a commitment to metrics-driven operations, service level agreements, and analyst training and retention, CDI's Service Management Centers of Excellence provide industry-leading quality for their long-term outsourcer clients. In addition to service management, CDI provides application lifecycle management, digital solutions, and IT security and risk management solutions.

The Ron Muns Lifetime Achievement Award, created in honor of HDI's founder, recognizes individuals for their contributions, enthusiasm, and tireless efforts to advance the technical service and support industry. This award, in its sixth year, honors a great leader who has made lasting contributions to the industry.

• Ron Muns Lifetime Achievement Award – Greg Oxton, Consortium for Service Innovation

Greg Oxton is the executive director of the Consortium for Service Innovation. Greg has extensive experience in the customer service and support industry, specializing in support strategy and organizational development. Before joining the Consortium staff, he spent sixteen years with IBM, in customer support and support strategy development, and he managed a major worldwide support reengineering effort at Tandem Computers, later becoming the director of global support planning.

The Rock of Our Foundation Award honors a leader who has made lasting contributions to the HDI community.

• Rock of Our Foundation Award – Sophie Klossner

This year's award honored Sophie Klossner for her enthusiasm and her tireless efforts on behalf of the HDI membership program. Sophie was single-handedly responsible for marshaling a vast army of volunteers to launch the HDI local chapter program. After twenty years with HDI, Sophie retired in July 2012.

This award not only honored Sophie but was also named in her honor. Sophie loves rocks, and she believes that people—like rocks—should be cherished for their unique gifts and qualities. Sophie has been and will continue to be greatly missed at HDI.

About Qualcomm, Inc.
Qualcomm, Inc. is an American global semiconductor company that designs, manufactures, and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, the company has 157 locations worldwide. Qualcomm's wholly-owned subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., operates substantially all of Qualcomm's R&D activities, as well as its product and services businesses, including its semiconductor business, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.

About NASCO
NASCO provides information technology solutions to BlueCross BlueShield plans across the nation. Celebrating twenty-five years of service, this Atlanta-based company's single-system solution is designed to ensure that plan members' insurance claims are paid accurately and efficiently. NASCO, owned by several BlueCross BlueShield plans, has processed more than one billion claims and is unsurpassed in the market for reliability, flexibility, scalability, and operational performance.

About Fish & Richardson P.C.
Fish & Richardson P.C. is a leading global law firm practicing in the areas of intellectual property and litigation. Founded in 1878, the firm prosecuted and litigated many fundamental patents of the industrial age: the telephone, the airplane, the light bulb, the radio, to name a few. Today, with more than 350 attorneys and technology specialists, Fish remains the go-to IP firm for the world's greatest innovators in cutting-edge technologies. Fish delivers superior value by providing strategic business insight enriched by deep technical and legal expertise to clients who value intellectual property.

About Infinite Campus
For more than eighteen years, Infinite Campus has successfully implemented its solutions for customers of all sizes. As the largest US-owned student information system provider, it manages more than 5.3 million students in forty-three states. Its customers' student bases range from fewer than 100 students to more than 600,000 students and include school districts, regional consortia, state departments of education, and the federal government.

About The Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System
The Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System delivers compassionate care to those in need by providing high-quality, cost-effective medical care. This nonprofit corporation serves as the parent for the healthcare ministry, which includes four hospitals and a full array of acute care and tertiary services, including residential nursing care, PACE, community support, and outreach. Today, nearly 10,000 dedicated individuals work to advance the system's mission. The health system's combined service area covers more than 1.8 million individuals, representing more than 40 percent of Louisiana's population.

About Ameritas
Ameritas offers a wide range of insurance and financial products and services to individuals, families, and businesses. These products and services include life insurance, annuities, individual disability income insurance, group dental, vision, and hearing care insurance, retirement plans, investments, mutual funds, asset management, banking, and public finance.

About the Consortium for Service Innovation
The Consortium is a nonprofit alliance of organizations focused on innovation for the support industry. Members create innovative ideas through a process of collective thinking and experience. The Consortium's work integrates academic research and emerging business trends with members' operational perspectives, and the result is innovative operational models that improve the support experience. Rather than make incremental improvements to current processes, the Consortium develops innovative ways to deliver outstanding customer support.

About CDI
Founded in 1991, CDI's mission is to offer the highest quality software and services at competitive rates and with a quick return on investment. CDI has successfully helped hundreds of customers realize their IT visions with tremendous cost savings. With more than twenty years of experience, CDI has established itself as the premier provider of affordable solutions to businesses in the ERP space.

About Robert Half Technology
With more than 100 locations worldwide, Robert Half Technology is a leading provider of technology professionals for initiatives ranging from web development and multiplatform systems integration to network security and technical support.

About HDI
HDI is the professional association and certification body for the technical service and support industry. Facilitating collaboration and networking, HDI hosts acclaimed conferences and events, produces renowned publications and research, and certifies and trains thousands of professionals each year. HDI also connects solution providers with practitioners through industry partnerships and marketing services. Guided by an international panel of industry experts and practitioners, HDI serves a community of more than 120,000 technical service and support professionals and is the premier resource for best practices and emerging trends. For more information about HDI, visit www.ThinkHDI.com, or call 800.248.5667.

About UBM Tech
UBM Tech is a global media business that provides information, events, training, data services, and marketing solutions for the technology industry. Its media brands and information services inform and inspire decision makers across the entire technology market— engineers and design professionals, software and game developers, solutions providers and integrators, networking and communications executives, and business technology professionals. UBM Tech's industry-leading media brands include EE Times, Interop, Black Hat, InformationWeek, Game Developer Conference, CRN, and DesignCon. The company's information products include research, education, training, and data services that accelerate decision making for technology buyers. UBM Tech also offers a full range of marketing services based on its content and technology market expertise, including custom events, content marketing solutions, community development and demand generation programs. UBM Tech is a part of UBM (UBM.L), a global provider of media and information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

Contact
Melanie Adamich
HDI, UBM Tech
719.785.5391
[email protected]  

SOURCE HDI

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