IDC's IT Service Strategies for Proactive Customer Success research assists software and hardware vendors and providers in developing, marketing, and delivering managed support and deployment services. Recurring revenue, to put it simply, represents some of the most profitable and sought-after dollars for technology providers. By subscribing to this service, clients will gain greater insight into best practices for operational efficiencies, competitive positioning, and strategies so their services can drive revenue growth and improve the customer experience, whether in as-a-service models or through traditional sales.

IT Service Strategies for Proactive Customer Success
Markets and Subjects Analyzed
- Software and hardware support offerings
- Virtualization support services
- Channel and partnering strategies for support
- Multivendor support services
- Electronic and esupport strategies, including mobility
- Hardware vendors transitioning towards more software support
- AR/VR and its impact on support and deployment
- How critical support and deployment are to customer experience
- Big data, AI, and machine learning paired with preventive/proactive maintenance and support
- IoT and the impact to support organizations
- The impact of new technologies such as serverless, software-defined architectures and cloud on support services requirements
- Customer experience that is product, SLA and KPI driven
- Vendor strategies and best practices for support
- Service models for premium and multivendor support
- Trends in consumer support services
Core Research
- Worldwide Software Support Services Forecast and Analysis
- Worldwide Hardware Support Services Forecast and Analysis
- As-a-Service Offerings
- Support for and the Rise of Customer Success/Customer Experience
- Consumer Support Analysis
- Edge and DC support and Deployment Strategies
- Impact of Virtualization on Enterprise Support
- Impact of Cloud and Cloud Support Services
In addition to the insight provided in this service, IDC may conduct research on specific topics or emerging market segments via research offerings that require additional IDC funding and client investment.
Key Questions Answered
- What are the best-in-class elements of support programs?
- What will be the critical skills, systems and tools, organizational structures, and marketing strategies for delivering superior software and hardware support services?
- How will new technologies such as IoT, AR/VR, analytics, AI, and machine learning affect the software and hardware support market?
- How are proactive and predictive analytics changing the services industry?
- How can technology providers use support services as a competitive differentiator?
- What are the key drivers for improving and maintaining customer satisfaction over time?
- What does "customer success" really look like in hardware and software support services delivery?
- How will the market for consumer support services evolve?
- What are the key market opportunities?
- What do cloud and as-a-service offerings mean for support?
Companies Covered
Accenture plc, Avaya Inc., Broadcom Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Fujitsu Limited, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hitachi, Ltd., IBM, McAfee LLC, Microsoft Corporation, Nortel Inversora S.A., Novell, Inc., Oracle Corporation, Red Hat, Inc., SAP SE, Sybase, Inc., Symantec Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, Unisys Corporation, VMware, Inc.