The Reynolds and Reynolds Company announced Oct. 2 that the company's Technical Assistance Center (TAC) has been recognized once again by the Software Support Professionals Association (SSPA).

For the third consecutive year, Reynolds' TAC, with centers located in Dayton, Ohio, Mississauga, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec, Canada, received the STAR (Software Technical Assistance Recognition) Award in the High Volume category.

The awards ceremony took place at SSPA's Horizons 2002 World Conference held Oct. 1-4 in Savannah, Ga. The STAR Award recognizes outstanding accomplishments and superior performance in the delivery of technical support to external customers.

"Year after year, Reynolds' TAC continues to amaze the SSPA with their world-class service and support, second-to-none in the automotive retailing industry," said Bill Rose, SSPA founder/executive director. "Successfully fielding 130,000 calls per month from customers, it's no wonder that Reynolds and Reynolds is leading the transformation of automotive retailing."

Scott Schafer, senior vice president of Reynolds' sales, marketing and info-structure services, said he attributes Reynolds' success in customer service and support to the TAC's investment in people and infrastructure. "Reynolds won its first STAR Award for our first-rate process improvements," Schafer said. "We earned the next awards as a result of our continuous and unrelenting improvements. None of this could have been accomplished without our world-class associates, a strong infrastructure, and the value of membership we attain from the SSPA -- this organization helps us to better serve our customers.

"This STAR Award is further proof that Reynolds' TAC is the best in its class," Schafer said. "It also supports data received from customer feedback and independent industry studies that indicate the TAC has the highest support levels in automotive retailing. This great support is relative to major players in the software customer support industry."

A peer group made up of SSPA Advisory Board members selected this year's STAR Award recipients. In addition to Reynolds, companies such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and EMC Corporation were recognized during the SSPA's 12th annual awards dinner.

"Our TAC has been able to earn these and other awards because of our investment in world-class associates, technology and training," said Ed Bolka, vice president of Reynolds' customer education and continuous support. "Our continuous support process has provided repeatable, predictable and consistent service levels above industry standards."

According to recent customer satisfaction surveys, Reynolds' TAC rated high in all categories, including:

Overall customer satisfaction for daily transactions -- 92 percent

Overall satisfaction with the professionalism and knowledge of TAC associates -- 95 percent

First-call problem resolution -- 84 percent (compared to the industry average of 80 percent)

In addition, Reynolds recently launched its online support service. "This new service has been met with tremendous customer approval, with over 1,500 customers utilizing it in its first few weeks of availability," Bolka said.

Reynolds' TAC has more than 450 front- and back-line service professionals who respond to incoming customer calls. Reynolds' support center, which received 1.2 million calls annually, supports 9,000 in-house servers, 330,000 peripherals and 140,000 software applications.

"It is an honor to represent our TAC associates for this unprecedented third annual award," said Randy Sellectk, Reynolds' director of remote support. "Reynolds earned this award because of the hard work and sincere dedication of our associates in the TAC."

Selleck added that in addition to its three STAR Awards, the TAC also has received Support Center Practices certification -- the premiere IT industry certification program for support centers -- for two consecutive years from Service Strategies Corporation.

About the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA)

Founded in 1989, SSPA represents more than 15,000 service executives in over 500 member companies worldwide. SSPA gives service and support professionals opportunities to share ideas, discuss developing trends and network with their peers.

SSPA offers its members conferences, seminars, specialized training, executive forums, certification programs and a variety of publications. SSPA resides at the Web portal of Supportgate at www.supportgate.com. Through these 'gates' you will find the Membership Communities of the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the SSPA Europe, the SSPA Asia Pacific, the SSPA Service Vendor Alliance, (SVA) and the SSPA Professionals Membership.

For more information regarding the SSPA and other related divisions, visit www.supportgate.com or e-mail info@supportgate.com.

About Reynolds and Reynolds

Reynolds and Reynolds, headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, is a provider of integrated information management solutions to the automotive retailing marketplace.

The company's services include a full range of retail and enterprise management systems, networking and support, e-business applications, Web services, learning and consulting services, customer relationship management solutions, document management and leasing services.

To find out more about the company, its vision, products and services, visit www.reyrey.com.