Kearneysville, WV. January 18, 2005 - U.S. Coast Guard Operations Systems Center, Customer Support Division in Kearneysville, WV received its second certification from BenchmarkPortal and Purdue University’s Center for Customer-Driven Quality, a premier benchmarking organization within the call center industry. The certification compares best practice metrics from the world’s largest database of call center performance information and is presented to an elite group of centers that demonstrate the highest standards of efficiency and operational effectiveness. To receive the award a call center must place in the top 10% of all call centers included in the database (currently more than 20,000 call centers).

“We certified the Operations Systems Center’s customer care operations as a Center of Excellence after evaluating the company’s effectiveness and efficiency in interacting with their customers,” said Dr. Jon Anton, Founder of Purdue University’s Center for Customer-Driven Quality. “We applaud their commitment to superior customer service.”

Purdue’s and BenchmarkPortal’s certification process is unique in that it focuses on quantitative results and is based on an objective scorecard. Representatives used 12 months of operational data for the assessment and entered it into a comprehensive database, comparing it to thousands of other call centers similar to OSC CSD in size and call type.

About Operations Systems Center
The Operations Systems Center (OSC) is a government-owned, contractor-operated unit with the primary function of providing software development and full life-cycle support for operationally focused Coast Guard Automated Information Systems. These systems support the Coast Guard’s five strategic missions: Protection of Natural Resources, National Defense, and Maritime Safety, Mobility, and Security.

About BenchmarkPortal
BenchmarkPortal (BMP) is the custodian of the database of contact center performance metrics in conjunction with The Center for Customer-Driven Quality™ at Purdue University. This is the largest database of best practice metrics in the world. BMP provides peer group reports, industry reports, and services for contact centers in the areas of operational metrics, customer satisfaction measurement and agent satisfaction measurement. In 2005, BMP received a U.S. Patent (#6,877,034) for its unique methodology of contact center performance benchmarking through metric gap analysis. BenchmarkPortal’s Web site can be found at: www.BenchmarkPortal.com.

For additional information about BenchmarkPortal contact:
Susan Hampton
BenchmarkPortal, Inc.
(805) 614-0123 ext. 36
SusanHampton@BenchmarkPortal.com