Blackboard Client Support – Built for Success

Craig Chanoff Vice President of Blackboard Client Support

April 2005

And now a word from our lawyers…

• Any statements in this presentation about future expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our most recent 10-K filed with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of April 11, 2005. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to April 11, 2005. Blackboard, in its sole discretion, may delay or cancel the release of any product or functionality described in this presentation.

Just another day at the office

• Call Spikes

• Scheduling problems

• Workforce issues

• Product issues

• Retention issues

• Satisfaction issues

• Administration mandates

• If my name is brought up during a meeting with your Regional Sales Manager…that is probably not a good thing.

• The "TSM" acronym is as popular on the list_serv as WYSIWYG, SSL and TIA.

• The best hiring strategy has been giving job offers to our most vocal clients.

• My job description includes being a “faculty and student apology” ghost writer for your Provosts and CIO’s.

What have I learned 18 months into the job?

• What are we doing now?

• Building and measuring your Help Desk

• The future of self-service and business intelligence

Discussion Points

Rely on Dedicated Resources

• Interact through 2 dedicated Points of Contact- Account Manager and Technical Support Manager

CLIENT # 138679http://behind.blackboard.com

Technical Support Manager Greg Poland 1-888-788-5264 X 1234Account Manager Michael Weber 1-800-424-9299 X 2833

mweber@blackboard.com

Global Call Center

• Follow The Sun Model

– 70 Support Representatives

– Five Global Support locations

– VOIP Telephony System integrating global offices

– Global CRM tool

Washington, DCPhoenix, AZ

Netherlands

Japan

Singapore

Self Service - Behind the Blackboard®

• Comprehensive web-based service center

– Used by 7,000 system administrators and 165,000 students and instructors

– Research 2,300 Knowledge Base Articles

• Managed by over 70 Support and Development staff

– Review product-related documentation

– Manage personalized account information

– Create, view and update support cases

The Blackboard® Community

Users Conference

Client Advisory Boards

Email Listserve

Behind the Blackboard

Regional User Groups

Developer Community

Building Blackboard Client Support

Users

Products Processes

Performance Measurements

Roles & Responsibilities

Supporting Technology

Building Your End User Support

Users

Products Processes

Performance Measurements

Roles & Responsibilities

Supporting Technology

Administration Strategies Impact End User Support• Institution Strategies - Vision/Goals/Identity;

Products/Services

DRIVES

• Help Desk Strategy - Positioning and value; Processes; Organization; Metrics

DRIVES

• Technology Strategy - What technology when; Benefits; Architecture; Integration

People, Process & Technology

People Process

Technology

• Focus on the Process, the People, and the Technology

Process

• Identify and evaluate the 5 core business processes essential to the service delivery process:

– Managing End User Requests

– Administering Knowledge Resolutions

– Analyzing Performance Measurements & Activity Reports

– Managing Service Disruption Announcements

– Supporting New Products & Services

Process

People

Judgement &Discretion

Subject MatterExpertise

Experience

Skills

• Interpersonal

• Leadership

• Management

• Communication

• Problem Analysis

• Team Transitions

• New System Development

• Project Management

• Budgets & Funding

• Training & Facilitation

• Knowledge Management

• Telephony Systems

• CMS

• Oracle

• Approaching SeniorManagement

• Dealing with DifficultPeople

• Handling unique circumstances

• Identify and evaluate the strengths of the people

People

Technology

• Avoid additional capital expenditures

• Leverage existing software

• Focus attention on the configuration & design as well as the supporting business processes– Incident Management– Knowledge Management– Telephony System

Technology

Technology

Supporting Business Policies & Procedures

Business Rules & Configurations

Applications

• Three areas of focus:

Critical Success Factors and a Measurable Plan

• Understand the critical success factors associated with the help desk…

– If funding doesn’t happen…

– If the new case tracking tool does happen...

– Leadership

• What are the key components to a well developed plan.

– Logical Organization

– Measurable Tasks

– Identified Milestones

– Distinct Roles & Responsibilities

– Properly “Paced”

Key Performance Indicators

• End User Satisfaction

• Employee Satisfaction

• Costs/Productivity Goals

• Organizational Maturity Goals

The Pillars of a Help Desk

People

Process

Technology

Key P

erformance

Indicators

Measured PlanCritical Success Factors

Self Service Business Intelligence

Innovative Self Service

• How to save money and please end users at the same time

• Self Service for better service– Poor system make end users angry– Can lose touch with end users– Can be a waste of money– Can take longer

• Huge gains to be made in efficiency and user satisfaction – as well as major new business opportunities (and challenges)

Innovative Self Service

• Focus on bottlenecks• Prove end user benefit• Keep it simple and fast• Promote self-service clearly• Reward end users for their effort• Be ready for sharp peaks in demand• Make sure users can get easy help• Listen to what users are saying• Plan for down-time / extra capacity• Be ready for third-generation technologies and plan now

for re-tooling within five years

Business Intelligence Solutions

• Evolution of data analysis– Reporting

• What is driving call volumes?

– Analytics• How do user segments really

affect call handle times?

– What is driving decisions?

– Business work flow is decided ahead of time and data drives the automated process

• Drive an end user experience that improves experience

The Pillars of a Help Desk

People

Process

Technology

Key P

erformance

Indicators

Measured PlanCritical Success Factors

Self Service Business Intelligence

Listen to your end users!!

• You aren’t changing the product names again, are you?• Thank you for having patience and helping us get back

online! We look forward to NOT having to call you soon... • The Technical Support Manager (whose name we can’t

remember) has provided us with excellent support.• Online support was negligible while Blackboard tech

support (human-based) was excellent. • I feel silly saying I am running Blackboard Learning

System™ version 6.1 App Pack 2 Service Pack 3 Hotfix 5 with Patch 3.

• Where is Volker and what have you done to him?• Please get better on-hold music.

Feedback from clients

• What are we not doing to meet your support expectations?

• Has the TSM model changed your perception of Support?

• What one thing would you like to see changed about the support experiences with Blackboard?

Questions and Discussion

Thank You!