Bruno is well qualified to meet this challenge. With her background in service level management and process improvement, she has a strong reputation in the support industry. In 1999 she received the Service 25 Award presented by IT Support News for contribution to Help Desk excellence. She is a member of several professional organizations, including Help Desk 2000 (World Leadership Team), International Customer Service Association, Help Desk Institute, National Association for Female Executives, and Women in Technology. In addition, Bruno has extensive public-speaking experience, including support-industry conferences such as Frontlines, the Executive Summit, Information Management Forum, and Support Services Conference.

Before joining Previo, Bruno served as the director of IT customer service for Siemens Energy & Automation, where she was responsible for front-line support, training, documentation, and Remedy administration. During her tenure, she implemented service level management and redefined problem management processes. Previously, Bruno was a senior manager of enterprise support at Cutler-Hammer Inc. where she re-engineered the Help Desk and implemented new processes.

"With her customer perspective, Rae Ann knows how the support world really works," said Tom Dilatush, president and CEO of Previo. "That knowledge will bring dividends for Previo and the entire support industry."

Previo (Nasdaq:PRVO), an innovator of eSupport(Electronic SUPPORT) Providing product support over the Web rather than by telephone. Successful eSupport companies spend an enormous amount of time developing a knowledge base that addresses users' questions in a logical order. However, many do not put in the required effort, and people find wading through the troubleshooting hierarchy or question and answer page as frustrating as waiting on the telephone for a half hour.

With more than 10 years of front-line experience in enterprise support services, Bruno will spearhead Previo's eSupport advocacy and education program, which seeks to raise awareness among IT executives of the vital role of the Help Desk.
"Hiring Rae Ann was a real coup for Previo," said Pete McGarahan, chairman of Help Desk 2000. "With the growing importance of personal computers -- especially laptops and other mobile devices -- the Help Desk is taking the lead in keeping the company's far-flung IT assets up and running. Rae Ann represents the new breed of Help Desk professional who works closely with management to ensure that the company's eSupport objectives are aligned with its business drivers."

As workers become more reliant on their computers in both their professional and personal lives, the impact of PC downtime is greater than ever. But many Help Desk organizations feel they have neither the software tools nor the budgets to provide 7/24/365 support for an increasingly varied array of personal computing platforms.

"Enterprise support organizations are in crisis," said Bruno. "Help Desks and CEOs are using different metrics when measuring effectiveness, so there's little agreement on what's being accomplished. CEOs also expect the Help Desk to show productivity gains, assuming that new software tools are spurring efficiencies, but these efficiencies aren't being realized in the trenches, where Help Desk pros are trying to provide 24-hour support with largely 8-to-5 staffing budgets."

"We're going to work with eSupport providers and customers to dig into issues like these, with the goal of overhauling the entire system," said Bruno.