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Mastering the Business of Medicine by Sharla A. Paul 
From MD to MBA: The Next Step in Patient Care? by Faye Goolrick |
Help for the help desk
In the words of Support Technologies founder Cliff Oxford '94EMBA, "the corporate help desk is often treated like a second-class citizen in the information systems industry. But whether you're talking about employee productivity, customer service, or other areas, in today's world the help desk is a strategic part of any business." With 180 employees and offices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Phoenix, and Hong Kong, Support Technologies offers customized help desk services and consulting and the only standardized, comprehensive help desk training program in the nation, according to Oxford. "We developed the training for our own employees, and we're now teaching courses to train certified help desk professionals in sixteen cities," says Oxford. "We'd like to see it become a standard for the industry." A native of Waycross, Georgia, Oxford earned his undergraduate degree in political science at West Georgia College, working his way through school loading boxes and driving trucks for United Parcel Service. A decade later, he developed an innovative, much-needed internal "help desk" to serve drivers in the Southeast. His prototype soon became UPS's national model-and he began thinking of a future outside UPS. "When I first decided to enter the Executive MBA program, I guess I was 'brainwashed' by the UPS way of doing things, because I'd never worked anywhere else," he recalls. "So I thought I'd just go through and get my ticket punched, get the credential. . . . But I was surprised. The program really helped me a lot-the curriculum, the interaction with other managers, the new ways of looking at things." Among other assignments, he wrote a paper on why help desk services could be launched as a successful independent business. When UPS offered an attractive management buyout, Oxford grabbed it, and his MBA paper became the working draft of his business plan. "If I hadn't done the MBA program," he says, "I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to found and grow this business the way I have." With a steady referral clientele of Fortune 500 companies and high-tech start-ups ("I've never had to make a cold call"), national media coverage, and a new Asian office, Support Technologies's continued growth seems assured. The company has recently introduced a pre-paid technology support card offering help desk service directly to consumers. Current plans are to take the company public in the fourth quarter of 1999. F.G. |
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