Service Executive Industry Board Adds Two Technology Industry Experts to Drive Service Revenue Standards and Thought Leadership

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ServiceSource®, the service revenue performance company, and the Service Executive Industry Board (SEIB), an independent industry body created to share best practices, address industry issues, and shape the future direction of service and subscription revenue for high tech, healthcare and life sciences vendors, today announced Polly Sumner, global services and chief adoption officer, salesforce.com, and Ed Deenihan, executive vice president, customer advocacy at NetApp, will join the SEIB, effective immediately.

“With my diverse experience in the technology industry, including leading NetApp’s worldwide technical support business, this is a perfect opportunity to collaborate and share ideas with the best and brightest in the industry”

As high tech service revenue continues to grow as a percentage of overall revenue, vendors are constantly looking for best practices, benchmarks, and innovative new approaches to guide them toward long-term financial results and the associated positive financial results that come with high service and subscription and retention rates. Both Sumner and Deenihan bring those innovative perspectives, insights and experiences to the SEIB executive board, along with the founding members.

“The addition of both Polly Sumner and Ed Deenihan is an enormous coup for SEIB; I speak for the entire board when I say how thrilled we are to have Polly and Ed joining our organization,” said Mike Smerklo, CEO of ServiceSource and Chair of the SEIB. “Polly and Ed bring unique and innovative perspectives on this rapidly growing industry and have the extensive experience to help advance SEIB’s goal of expert education and counsel in the field.”

“We’ve seen firsthand how the rise of cloud computing and the subscription model has created exciting new opportunities for companies to sell, deliver and renew their services to customers,” said Polly Sumner, global services and chief adoption officer at Salesforce.com. “The development of the SEIB as a leader and source of shared knowledge about delivering the very best in services will benefit the entire industry.”

“With my diverse experience in the technology industry, including leading NetApp’s worldwide technical support business, this is a perfect opportunity to collaborate and share ideas with the best and brightest in the industry,” said Ed Deenihan, executive vice president, customer advocacy at NetApp.

Sumner and Deenihan join SEIB as part of an industry “who’s who” in service renewals and revenue management, including:

Jay Ackerman, Executive Vice President Business Development - ServiceSource
Scott Bajtos, Senior Vice President Global Support Services - VMware
Bret Barczak, General Manager Services Marketing - GE Healthcare
Jeff Bizzack, President - ServiceSource
Rafael Brugnini, Vice President Software Service Sales - Hewlett-Packard
Alan Grady, Vice President Software Subscription and Support - IBM
Rick Legleiter, Senior Vice President Customer Service - Siemens Healthcare
Mike Smerklo, CEO ServiceSource and Chairman of the Board
Lambert Walsh, Vice President Technical Services - Adobe Systems Incorporated
Steve Webber, Vice President Finance and Operations Global Services - EMC
Tom York, Vice President Maintenance and Technical Support Services - IBM

With a shared vision and dedication to growing customer value, the SEIB members meet three times annually to create industry standards for benchmarking and measuring the health of global services, maintenance and subscription businesses. Additionally, the board will identify trends and opportunities that are impacting their industry and look to share key learning’s and best practices.

About Service Executive Industry Board (SEIB)

The Service Executive Industry Board (SEIB) is a forum of senior leaders dedicated to advancing the excellence and long-term direction of services inside technology-based hardware, software, and healthcare companies. Founding SEIB members represent leading companies in the forefront of driving world-class customer value. Collectively, they manage over $45 billion of services and maintenance revenue.

About ServiceSource

ServiceSource partners with technology, healthcare and life sciences companies to help them maximize maintenance, support and subscription revenue while optimizing customer loyalty. ServiceSource increases contract renewal rates for clients by up to 40 points. These results are achieved via a purpose-built service revenue solution, including a suite of cloud applications and managed services leveraging a deep, proprietary knowledge base of benchmarks and best practices. ServiceSource operates using a pay-for-performance business model that enables a success-driven, shared-risk partnership. For more information, visit www.servicesource.com.