On Call To Help Windows 95 Users -- Support Firm Keane Scrambling To Prepare For Software's Release

The recent buzz around Keane Inc., as one flustered employee puts it, is enough to make a beehive look like a rest home.

Chosen by Microsoft Corp. as one of five partners to provide customer-support services for the launch of the Windows 95 operating system next month, the Seattle branch of Keane is doing all it can to gear up for what has been touted as the largest software release ever.

"We've stepped up to maximum capacity, and we fully expect to be extremely - emphasis on the word `extremely' - busy," said Gary Ayres, Keane's Seattle branch manager.

Boston-based Keane and the other companies hired by Microsoft - Unisys Corp., Softmart Inc., Digital Equipment Corp. and Stream International Inc. - will work as troubleshooters. During the 90-day Windows warranty period, customers who dial Microsoft's help line will either be assisted by the company's in-house staff or routed automatically to one of the five support teams.

To prepare for the Aug. 24 rollout, Keane relocated its Seattle operations in May to a 30,000-square-foot office downtown on Second Street, twice the size of its original office in North Seattle.

Since then, the company has been scrambling to hire and train 250 technicians in Seattle to field what is expected to be a barrage of telephone calls from Windows 95 users.

"I think the word `crazy' is most appropriate," said Scott Owen, Keane's Microsoft project director. "Everything is changing so rapidly. Over a matter of months, we're growing from being a small branch to a huge branch, literally one of the largest in the company."

Although Keane's Seattle operation provides consulting and help-desk services to several other clients, it has devoted an entire floor to the Microsoft project. In recent weeks, the company has updated its telecommunications facilities, installing 400 telephone cubicles and 500 personal computers to handle customer calls.

Equipped with headsets and their own computer terminals, the new hires have been honing their technical and interpersonal skills while taking calls from beta testers - people used by Microsoft to test Windows 95 before its official release. Even now, the aisles are filled with action as employees scour program manuals and shout over partitions to get help on difficult problems from the person in the next cubicle.

But they're not half as busy as they're going to be.

An estimated 40 million people are expected to buy Windows 95 by the middle of next year.

"Even if we get calls from only a fraction of those people, it's still an astronomical number," Ayres said.

Microsoft's decision to seek outside help, Keane executives say, was prompted by the lessons it learned in 1990 with its release of Windows 3.0. Having seriously underestimated how popular the software would be, the company's support team was caught unprepared and understaffed for the blast of calls to its help line. As a result, for six weeks few customers could get through.

But Keane believes the additional support Microsoft now has will help cushion the impact of the initial release by increasing efficiency and cutting wait times.

"Back when Windows was first released, they didn't outsource at all, and it was literally a zoo within the industry. Anybody who had a support center watched their call-times double and their hiring go through the ceiling," Owen said. "This time, there are five launch partners and the calls are going to be distributed equally by Microsoft."

Microsoft's call for outside assistance, in fact, marks a trend among software producers to adopt outsourcing as a more practical and less costly way of getting the job done, Ayres said.

"Historically, software companies have always supported their products themselves. That's a fairly large drain on their resources, and it's not a core competency for them," Ayres said. "In recent years, though, it's become more acceptable for them to get help from outside companies that can do the job more efficiently and cost-effectively so that they can focus on what they do best - producing and selling software."

Keane, founded in 1965, has more than 40 offices in the United States and Canada. Its first Seattle office opened in 1993.

The company, one of the country's largest help-desk outsourcers and the only one of Microsoft's five solution partners to be based in Seattle, was selected by Microsoft last year from about 25 companies that bid for the sought-after contract.

After the Windows 95 warranty period expires, customers will have the option to sign up for continued support with one of the service providers. Customers who enroll in Keane's service can pay on a per-call basis or in advance for a block of calls. Each call will cost about $30.