By Danialle Weaver

Have you ever frittered away a day trying to hook a new printer-copier-fax-scanner machine up so it works properly with both your PC and your laptop? Only to find out the issue wasn't an "IRQ" conflict or a software configuration problem, but a decidedly low-tech external gizmo to switch between the two computers?

If so, the experience probably made you madder than hell.

The same thing happened to Joseph Jacoboni recently. But instead of getting angry, he rubbed his hands together and laughed. "We're going to be in this business for a very long time," he observed.

Jacoboni's five-year-old company, Software Support Inc., runs the call centers that provide answers to computer user's questions. Located just north of Orlando along the booming Interstate-4 corridor, Software Support has developed a reputation for quality in an industry not always known for that.
The result shows. The company is growing exponentially and revenues could hit $30 million or more by the end of this year. Customers include computer manufacturers and resellers, software publishers, Fortune 1000 corporations, traveling salespeople, home office workers and even frustrated parents.

The company's motto: "The only call you need to make."

"We have a tendency in this industry to think the technology is mature because we have very sophisticated interfaces that are easier and more intuitive and that we have an environment in which manufacturers and software publishers are creating compatible products," Jacoboni said. "The reality is most computer companies still operate within their own confines - they're concerned with their product's features and functions."

The frenzy of technology mergers and acquisitions and the rapid pace of technology innovation only will exacerbate the problem.

Worldwide, spending on software support services is expected to double by 2000, to just over $30 billion, estimates International Data Corp. The U.S. customer information services market, including help desk software and professional services, will grow from $1.9 billion this year to $2.76 billion by 2000, according to the Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based research firm.

Corporate America, faced with shrinking staff, dwindling resources and technology flux, is turning to outside help in answering an increasing number of user queries. More than 40 percent of companies that operate help desks are expected to outsource at least some tasks by 1998, said The Gartner Group, a research firm. Small to mid-sized companies, home offices and mobile users also are crying out for support.

Ironically, while the need for support is exploding, computer makers and software developers have pulled the plug on free lifetime support services in order to cut costs and maintain razor-thin profit margins - services they once claimed made their product better than the other guy's. Besides, they were not fond of sporting a perennial black eye from callers over help-desk quality.

As a result, intense competition has erupted among service providers seeking to fill the void. Amy Osetek, a Dataquest analyst, said companies who survive the inevitable shakeout must differentiate themselves from competitors and pump up call volumes. Price, depth of offerings and technical expertise are key. So is a clear, targeted message backed up with valued and unique capabilities.

Software Support broadened both reach and volume in April when the company introduced a support package targeted to small businesses and home offices. In June, the company launched a revamped World Wide Web page (www.ssisupport.com) that allows computer users to find free answers to common questions.

Dataquest's Osetek lauded the company's actions. The research firm "sees a growing need for both phone and Internet-based support services to residential and small office/home office markets," Osetek said. Other companies should listen up, she suggested.

Software Support's strategy also has won compliments from a major competitor, Tampa's Sykes Enterprises. Software Support has constantly expanded its new offerings and exhibited "good focus" and "marketing flair," said Sykes senior vice president David Garner. "Jacoboni is serious in his intent to provide quality services and in trying to ensure the industry as a whole moves forward from a quality image standpoint."

"We have a first-call resolution rate of 93 percent," Jacoboni said proudly.

Although Software Support is private and Jacoboni won't reveal specific numbers, he said 1995 sales were in the $8 million to $10 million range. This year, the company is "on track" to meet forecasts of $30 million to $40 million. Exponential growth is expected in 1997.

The company's headquarters and call center is staffed by about 300 support technicians, nearly 85 percent of whom are full-time. The staff will expand once a new building is finished two doors away. A second $3.6-million center in Houston opened in February, and a third is to open in Salt Lake City this year. On average, about 600 employees eventually will staff the Orlando and Houston operations, with from 200 to 300 in Salt Lake City.

Software Support's fee structure starts at $25 per "incident" and can go over $1,000 per year for a small business. Software and hardware manufacturers are charged on a per-minute or per-call basis. According to The Gartner Group, costs to corporations can range from $2 to $4 per minute, or $8.59 to $36 per user per month.

The company has made a profit every year except its second, and all the profits are reinvested into the company, said Jacoboni, who is the company's principal owner and serves as president and CEO. Until recently, Jacoboni's was the only seat on the board of directors, but the board currently is being expanded. At least one of those seats likely will go to Logistix, an independent software manufacturer in Freemont, Calif. Logistix recently hired Software Support to provide worldwide call center services for its products. As part of the deal, Logistix took an equity stake of undisclosed size.

While providing support services may seem like a no-brainer now, the path has not always been smooth for Jacoboni or for Software Support. Jacoboni, a 43-year-old Detroit native, started his first company, a sales motivation and training consultancy in Houston, at age 21. He expanded too quickly and burnt himself out four years later. A series of sales management positions led him to Central Florida and Maynard Electronics, which was acquired in 1989 by Archive Corp. of Costa Mesa, Calif. and which now is part of Lake Mary's Seagate Software Storage Group.

After serving as director of sales and building Maynard's revenues to $50 million, Jacoboni began to burn out again.

"I had a daughter, who was then six, and I hardly knew her because I was on the road so much," Jacoboni recalled. Chaffing at the role of employee and tired of making money for others, the frustrated entrepreneur took a six-month sabbatical, "to decide what I want to do when I grow up."

Not looking forward to moving back to snowy Northern winters, Jacoboni sold his house, borrowed against assets and scraped together $100,000 in startup capital. In late 1991, he opened Software Support's first 1,200-square-foot office in Lake Mary. There were 10 employees.

Things went well the first year. The company said it made a small profit. The second year, however, brought a small loss. On its heels, in late 1993, came a $44,883.95 tax lien from the Internal Revenue Service for failure to pay employment taxes. (Late receivables were the problem; the lien was released a month later.) Jacoboni calls it a typical bump in any entrepreneur's path to success.
Another misstep was a sales office in Holland, envisioned as a major European call center. That office opened briefly, then closed, after Jacoboni discovered employee costs in Europe are higher than the U.S. because of liberal leave and overtime policies. Instead, the company's springboard to the overseas support market will be the new center in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake is in an ideal time zone to service Pacific Rim markets, and the area is populated with former Mormon missionaries, who because of their time abroad have excellent multilingual capabilities.

Despite past troubles, Jacoboni has received many offers to invest in the company or buy it outright. Small wonder: The company's competitor, Tampa's Sykes Enterprises, went public April 30, and of this writing was counted among the most successful of the spring 1996 IPOs. Software Support isn't ripe yet for an IPO, but financials are audited, just in case.

Meanwhile, the company continues to grow. Software Support's extensive client list includes Cisco Systems, NCR, Informix, Coral, Borland, Office Max, Gateway 2000 and Dell. The company provides support for 170 shrink-wrapped PC and Macintosh software programs for operating systems and applications such as databases, spreadsheets, graphics, utilities, educational software and games. The company also provides support for desktops, laptops, printers and peripherals, as well as for connecting them together. It provides advanced technical support services for networks, client-server solutions and Intranets, as well as mobile PC users.

Software Support earned awards from two industry publications this year for innovative service offerings. One of those offerings was Support ProFiler, a software package that uses artificial intelligence to quickly pull up information on a customer's computer configuration, existing applications, whether the customer has called before and who took the call. The information is routed to the technician's screen a split-second before the customer's call is patched through.

It was Profiler that sealed a support contract with Centerior Energy Corp., an Ohio utility, for 700 field sales and marketing employees working at odd hours from virtual offices in homes, distant hotel rooms or rental car trunks.

"I was impressed with the way they used technology," said Centerior's client services supervisor, Jerry Iagulli. "Other vendors do it with brute force." Software Support also was the only vendor interviewed willing to support Centerior's proprietary software.

Overall, Iagulli was impressed with the quality of service provided by Software Support. He pointed to the company's requirement that each support technician set aside two hours of each eight-hour shift for continuing training on various software applications. (An industry rule-of-thumb suggests support technicians should spend no more than five hours on the phone each day.)

Software Support does not hire entry-level support technicians. Rather, each technician is expected to be knowledgeable in four or five separate applications. Several times each day, a supervisor's "blind third ear" checks the technician's tone of voice and rate of speech for appropriateness. Supervisors monitor hold times and abandon rates and professionalism and knowledge count: 15 percent of each paycheck is performance-based. Salaries average $24,800; training is underwritten by a state Quick Response Training grant of $218,580 and a $200,000 Seminole County grant, awarded in August.

Training is important, but it also takes professionalism to answer some questions, explained Sales Engineer Stan Orelove. One caller asked where the 'any' key is. Another wanted to know why the door to his CD-ROM drive, which he used as a cup holder for his coffee, was now stuck shut.

"If people would just learn to use their F1 keys, our business would drop considerably," Orelove said.

Don't hold your breath.