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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (87101)	11/27/2000 2:01:30 PM
From: PCSS	Respond to of 97611

BTW, the 25.50 trade came about 2 hrs ago in the midst of quite a # of 25.05 trades .... there has been NO trades anywhere near 25.50 ... therefore ... I look at the 25.50 trade (high) as a mis-typed (transformed) 25.05 trade. Othere than that, I believe today's high (so far) is 25.23 which came early in the morning. Michael

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (87101)	11/27/2000 2:04:54 PM
From: Night Writer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

El, That looks like a major break through to me. I hope more service contracts are going to pop in the near future. I didn't see this deal on my news radar. Any idea where the article is located? NW

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (87101)	11/27/2000 2:09:17 PM
From: Night Writer	Respond to of 97611

Here is something of interest to folks with older PCs. The article doesn't mention the automatic software fixes and updates made by Compaq over the internet. NW Help Is Only A Click Away Nov 27, 2000 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- Computer makers aren't just hawking the Internet to drive sales of desktops and servers. They're increasingly using it to cut the cost of providing support services in a price-sensitive hardware market. Dell Computer Corp. servers and consumer PCs, for instance, come with software that automatically diagnoses system problems and suggests remedies. If the problem can't be fixed locally, the software communicates with a Dell helpdesk technician over the Internet, conveying the system configuration and information about the problem. Dell (stock: DELL) estimates that phone help costs the vendor $15 to $25 per call, while dispatching a service technician costs about $100. "Even one service call puts us in the red," said Bill Peterson, Dell's services strategy director. "So we do whatever we need to do to avoid that dispatch while improving customer satisfaction." On systems without its Resolution Assistant software, Dell, Round Rock, Texas, must dispatch a technician on 10 percent of service calls; with Resolution Assistant, it sends a technician only 5 percent of the time. Compaq Computer Corp. (stock: CPQ) provides e-support through KnowledgeCenter, software based on the same technology as Resolution Assistant. With e-support, Compaq's call-center volume is the same as last year's, though unit sales of consumer PCs doubled and sales of business PCs rose 30 percent to 40 percent. Internet support also helps consumers save time during tech-support phone calls, said Melodie Sherwood, an e-support marketing manager with Hewlett-Packard Co. (stock: HWP). HP, Palo Alto, Calif., like Dell and Compaq, offers agent software that diagnoses a PC problem and sends information back to the vendor help desk to get started on a solution. PC vendors say about three-quarters of the time taken by most tech-support phone calls involves customers identifying themselves, describing the configuration of their system, and describing the problem. Using Internet software agents shortens that process; even if it turns out the problem requires a phone call to fix, the software agent can take care of the preliminaries before the user picks up the phone. In one extraordinary example, many Dell customers were signing up for an ISP whose setup software corrupted Internet Explorer files. Customers without Resolution Assistant required 40 minutes of online phone support, talking the customer through dialog boxes and menus. With Resolution Assistant, Dell said it was able to write a script to fix the problem automatically in 21 seconds. And even in situations where e-support can't reduce the duration of a tech-support phone call, Internet-based problem solving at least gives customers better control of their time. By combining e-mail, online chat, and telephony, customers can move through tech support at their own pace, breaking away to perform other tasks. Online support services allow vendor helpdesk staff to make better use of their time as well, said Geraldine Rossiter, director of eService delivery for Compaq. Compaq, Houston, makes extensive use of Internet chat. A helpdesk staff member can keep several chat windows open at once, assisting a customer in one window while a customer in another window is away from his or her PC looking up some information or following up on the staffer's instructions. Their emphasis on e-support comes as PC vendors face heightened competitive pressures. Their products are becoming commodities, and while PC sales are still growing year-over-year, the rate of growth is slowing.»More from InternetWeek techweb.com Copyright (C) 2000 CMP Media Inc. -0-