Making the Internet fast, reliable and secure
Customer Engagement in Today’s Digital Age
Julie Cardinali Brancik
Sr Technical Program Manager
Agenda
•
Who is Akamai Technologies
•
Akamai Community Journey
•
Akamai’s Project Approach
•
Internal Aloha Community Overview
As the global leader in Content Delivery Network (CDN) services,
Akamai makes the Internet fast, reliable and secure for its customers.
$2.2B
2015 Revenue
1,400+
Networks
5,000+
Customers
6,000+
Employees
AKAM
S&P 500
110+
Countries
WEB
PERFORMANCE
Deliver fast
responsive
web and mobile
sites
NETWORK
OPERATOR
Embed CDN into
carrier & mobile
networks
CLOUD
SECURITY
Protect against
DDoS,
web application &
other Internet threats
MEDIA
DELIVERY
Deliver high-quality
streaming video
at broadcast scale
CLOUD
NETWORKING
Optimize, scale
& secure the
enterprise network
AKAMAI INTELLIGENT PLATFORM™
AKAMAI SOLUTIONS
©2016 AKAMAI | FASTER FORWARDTM
EMPOWERING OUR CUSTOMERS TO INNOVATE
External Customer
Community
The Akamai Community is where our customers go to get answers to their
questions about Akamai products, search our knowledge base, read our research
reports and whitepapers, and connect with our thought leaders.
Akamai Community Journey
2014 Feb
RFP
Akamai
Community
2014 May
Purchase
JIVE‐X
selected for its
security features,
ease of operation
and use, and
support of rich
content &
features
2014 Oct
Launch
@Akamai Edge
Customer
Conference
Must Login to
view any content
2015 April
Open
To Guests and
Prospects
Most content
open to the
internet and
google‐able
2016 Feb
Jive Cloud
Upgrade and
Content
Migration
New functionality
UI/UX Redesign
No more
upgrades!
Increase consistency of brand‐experience
Align and integrate with existing support
processes
Foster peer collaboration support
Thought leadership to create opportunities
and engagement
Align with marketing, social listening, analytics, and other programs
Provide customers with avenue for self‐service
Akamai’s Project Approach
Akamai Community – Strategic Framework
What will make the community an
indispensable resource?
Audience Needs
and Objectives
Overall Business Goal
Business Objectives
(What/ Who)
St
ak
eholder
Va
lu
e
:
“S
tate
m
e
nt
s
of
Deligh
t”
Community Objectives / Key Use Cases
Key Business Drivers / Objectives
How can community better support the desired user experience?
Business Objectives
Business Goal :
“Build a unified online community to foster communication among the company’s globally dispersed customers,
partners and staff, establishing a destination for peer‐to‐peer assistance and interactive self‐service.”
Increase Customer
Satisfaction and
Loyalty
Business Objectives
• Reduce Support Case
Submissions
• Reduce call volume ‐ deflect
calls to self‐service Channels
• More quickly locate resources
and find answers to questions
• Satisfy customers’ and
partners’ request for more self‐
service
Reduced (optimize)
Volume of Support
Cases
• Provide enhanced customer
support experience
• Address top customer‐
provided opportunities for
improvement:
‐ Responsiveness to requests
‐ Improved knowledge system
• Better connect resources
(peer‐to‐peer, and with
appropriate Akamai
resources)
Foster Customer
Acquisition and
Retention
• Provide easy access to
knowledge articles,
white papers, research
reports and other
information
• Obtain direct feedback
from customers –
enhance products and
overall value proposition
Better
Communication with
Customers, Partners,
and Employees
• Provide a platform for
thought leadership (blogs),
company announcements,
product news, and feedback
Target Audience Segments
Key Audiences
Member Segment
“Statements of Delight”
Customers
• I have a consistent central experience • I am able to quickly locate resources and find answers to questions • I have the ability to network and connect with other professionals • I am able to give feedback and feel involved • I can manage my costs while getting the support I needAkamai Staff
• I have a single location for providing customers information and documentation • I am able to gain insight into the questions asked and the information needed • I have a direct connection to customers and their product ideas, feedback and requests that can feed into the product team • I am able to collaborate with my account team and store account data in one placePartners
• I stay informed about Partnering opportunities (on‐roadmap) • I have a consistent central experience to access materials and resources (on‐roadmap) • I have easy access to information such as sales collaterals and information about our products/services (on‐roadmap) • I know who to talk to at Akamai about various topics • I can participate in open discussions with Customers • I am able to collaborate privately with AkamaiGuests/Prospects
• I am able to understand Akamai’s offerings • I have the ability to network and connect with other professionals • I have insight in how Akamai works with its customersMember Needs
Designing the community with “What’s in it for them” as our primary guide.
Member Segment
(who)
“I Want…”
(what)
How this will be accomplished in Jive…
(how)
End Users (Customers)
•
To avoid having to pay for Support by being able to self service support•
Easy centralized access to the Akamai information To ask questions and get support / answers to my questions•
To reduce clicks / hunting for what I need•
A clear place where I can post and view future feature requests•
To network and connect with peers•
Collaborate with my colleagues and implementation project team•
Single site for documentation and questions•
Robust Search and Easy navigation•
Posting questions to the Community based on Modules•
Watching Places / blogs•
Featured Partners, SMEs and access to experts•
Rich product Content and documentation (How‐To’s and FAQs)•
User Groups (per conference or regional)•
Private Account Groups for services projects Akamai Staff•
To reduce redundancy and be able to refer to a central repository of info•
Access to a central good tool to support customers•
To familiarize and enable customers•
To help drive satisfaction, loyalty and competitive differentiation among clients•
To be efficient in supporting, communicating and collaborating with clients•
Gain insight into Customer requests and questions•
Capture questions asked for reuse•
Provide a link to documents/info/content for customers•
Access to rich content and tools (docs, blogs, videos)•
Able to point clients to the community for FAQs and other documentation•
Manage / collaborate in a private account group•
Browse community Subject Matter Experts (both internal, partners and external)•
To be recognized for my solutions, expertise and contributions•
Association with good content•
Points for answering questions•
Be personally, or as a team, highlighted and recognized Prospects & Guest•
To gain insight in how Akamai works with its customers•
To see partnership for support and assistance•
To ask for references•
To ask product questions•
Starting discussions•
Browsing contentInternal Alignment – What did we need?
Key Internal
Resources
What? Who?
Details
Community Program Managers
• 2 FTE HeadsAmbassadors
• ~100 volunteers across about 20 topicsAkamai Account Team Leads
• Over 300 private groups created for account team collaborationBudget!
• Support platform development • Growing community team • UI/UX design
Activation… Thought Starters
Communications
Communications
Training
Training
Roles and
Responsibilities /
Governance
Roles and
Responsibilities /
Governance
Motivators
Motivators
Content
Content
Activation And
Adoption
Activation And
Adoption
‐ Launch ‐ Ongoing Engagement ‐ Roles/Accountabilities•Addressed in content plan (seeded and user generated content)
•Identifying Ambassadors / advocates / influencers per business area (work with Product Community Mgrs.)
•Assure resource availability of key roles (designate but rotate) •Establishing / providing appropriate governance
•Incentives and reinforcement (tied to current recognition programs for internal users)
•Incorporate reputation scoring/ gamification concepts •Recognition programs
•Targeted communications to specific topics
•Build awareness of new platform (ongoing reports) •Highlight/ feature benefits – generate excitement •End users
•Advocates / Champions / Leadership •Business Area
Akamai Community
Results
•
Improved self‐service helps customers get
answers and information quickly.
•
Community members are answering each
other’s questions, turning everyone into a
support agent.
•
Leads to stronger relationships with and
among customers and partners, resulting
in improved customer satisfaction,
customer retention, shorter sales cycles
and technology adoption.
“Launching our community has been that rarest of IT project outcomes: a win‐win‐win. It makes our customers happier
because they can find the information they need in their own time. It makes our services and support teams scale better as
customers are able to help themselves. And it makes our sales teams excited to see their customers getting connected to the
customer base and learn best practices from each other and become happier customers .I don’t know how we managed so
long without it!”
• Community is ~1 ½ Years Old
• 13,000+ registered members
globally
• 8,300+ pieces of content
• 1,100+ Thought Leadership Blog
Posts
• 90,000+ Pageviews per Month
• 22,000+ Visitors Per Month
• Geographic traffic split: 50%
Americas, 20% EMEA, 30% Asia‐
Pacific
• 300+ Groups and Spaces
• 95% of questions have responses
Akamai Community – By the Numbers
Customer Support in the Community
Online Technical Support Solutions
Resolved by Customer Resolved by Akamai Expert Resolved by Other Goal