Structured as a series of interviews with the key players behind TAC Web: -- the senior director, project managers, technical writers, and site manager - the book is laced with e-support terminology as well as high-tech colloquialisms (e.g., bleeding edge appears frequently). The interviews themselves convey a sense of intimacy; you feel as if you're sitting in a meeting with all of Cisco's e-Support teams, getting an interior view of how their organization is structured and what methods they use. For example, you learn that Cisco has dedicated technical writers within the support teams to transform customer issues into meaningful support content. Also, a bonus of the interview format is that it allowed the book's designer to leverage white space effectively, alleviating the feeling of density that sometimes characterizes a text-heavy book.

The target audience for this book is CEOs and Senior VPs seeking to either implement an e-Support solution or improve an existing one. Of particular interest to these execs is the chapter on metrics, which provides graphics and sample charts showing the kinds of metrics Cisco relies on. (Walker Information regularly surveys Cisco customers regarding the TAC Web site content). It examines the greatest challenges involved in acting on these metrics, as well as what metrics are meaningful and where they come from. For example, Cisco measures what technical articles customers access most frequently so that their tech support team can proactively get that information to customers in a more direct form - either via e-mail messages or by making the content more visible on the TAC Web. Cisco also measures customer satisfaction with the technical content on the Web site, so that they can improve its effectiveness and accessibility..

As for the book itself, it has one big weakness: It is not a blueprint. Although it provides a useful peek inside a successful e-Support implementation, it does not offer a step-by-step method for creating a comparable system for your company or for "saving millions" with your own e-Support solution. The authors could have done a better job of setting appropriate expectations in an Introduction explaining the book's scope and goals or by writing a Conclusion that summed up the interviews. Also, they really don't talk about how the Cisco e-Support model might translate to other companies. Will it scale down for companies that don't have the resources to assemble a marketing team devoted exclusively to e-Support or a team of writers and editors to gather and shape content from support engineers?

Collaboratively written by Cisco experts Andrew Connan and Vincent Russell, E-Support: How Cisco Systems Saves Millions While Improving Customer Support is an intrinsically fascinating, informed and informative presentation of the E-support system -- a self-service, web-based means of providing help and support to customers that is much less costly than traditional telephone-based support services. A thorough and "reader friendly" guide to what e-support is, and how it can benefit the conduct of business (especially focusing upon the e-support network created by Cisco Systems), E-Support is very highly recommended reading and directly applicable to understanding and developing an e-support corporate marketing strategy.