WELLESLEY, Mass. & OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--Sept. 12, 2006-- New Research Discovers That Knowledge Management Success Depends upon Adequate Funding, Appropriate Skills and Resources Allocation and Proven Practices to Capture and Refine Content

Service Excellence Research Group, LLC (ServiceXRG), the leading industry resource for support and service industry professionals and eVergance, the leader in end-to-end consulting services for CRM optimization and Web self-service, announce the release of a new report, "Knowledge Management - Strategies, Benchmarks and Best Practices."

Through the collaborative efforts of ServiceXRG and eVergance data was collected from 117 leading service organizations through in-depth one-on-one best practices interviews and surveys. The report highlights the current strategies and practices companies use to capture and share the accrued knowledge and expertise of their service organization. This report provides a comprehensive look at the way companies allocate skills and resources to Knowledge Management, how content is captured and processed for distribution and the performance indicators used to measure success.

Among the significant findings is that Knowledge Management is evolving from informal grass roots projects to strategic service initiatives. While significant investments are being made to develop knowledge assets, strategies to measure the impact from knowledge remain elusive. The greatest inhibitors to the long term success and maximum return on investment from Knowledge Management are the lack of sufficient funding and the commitment of adequate resources. Other findings include:

-- The average cost of Knowledge Management is 8.2% of the support budget, yet varies considerable by the size of the support organization.

-- On average 3.1% of total support staff is dedicated to Knowledge Management activities.

-- Content quotas for support reps are widely used but reported to be ineffective.

-- The average knowledge base contains nearly 50,000 documents, yet more then half of documents are seldom or never used.

-- Deflection is the most common method used to measure the impact of knowledge management initiatives.

"Knowledge management is among the top service initiatives today, yet there is little information available about how to staff, manage and measure theses efforts," says Tom Sweeny, Principal & Co-Founder, ServiceXRG. "This report provides the practical advice, essential practices and measurement strategies required to develop a world-class knowledge management capability."

"Many of our clients are either planning or expanding significant service-oriented knowledge management projects," says Steve Raye, Senior Vice President & Co-Founder, eVergance. "By partnering with ServiceXRG on this study, we have been able to develop unique perspectives on the state of KM. We expect the results will be invaluable to our client base and will strengthen our proven knowledge management consulting offerings."

For more information or to download a free report summary please visit www.serviceXRG.com.

About ServiceXRG

ServiceXRG specializes in helping companies develop and execute service and support strategies that strengthen customer relationships and optimize financial performance from service operations. ServiceXRG's research provides a balanced perspective of the IT services industry with views from users, service professionals and suppliers to the IT services industry. ServiceXRG combines years of real-world service industry expertise with a unique ability to collect, analyze and present high quality industry data. ServiceXRG provides custom benchmarking, competitive analysis, customer satisfaction assessment, and a series of reports on industry trends and best practices. For more information, visit www.servicexrg.com.

About eVergance

eVergance is a management consulting and systems integration firm offering end-to-end consulting services for CRM optimization and Web self-service. With extensive contact center, knowledge management and strategic planning experience, eVergance offers a practical, balanced approach that delivers exceptional results. Founded in 2002, eVergance has helped nearly 100 clients enhance their customer experience and deliver organizational value. The firm's clients include innovators and industry leaders such as American Express, AmSouth Bank, Ascension Health, Business Objects, Ford, H&R Block, Novell, Qwest, and Sprint. eVergance has offices in Boston, MA and Denver, CO, and is headquartered in Overland Park, KS.