Sunnyvale-based AMD designs and produces a wide variety of innovative microprocessor, graphics and media solutions for the computer, communications, and consumer electronics industries.

Founded in 1969, AMD has become a global industry leader by delivering innovative, customer-centric solutions that empower businesses with minimum disruption. In today's booming market, where everyday devices demand more and different kinds of processors, AMD consistently grew in commercial acceptance throughout 2006.

Since this is AMD's tenth anniversary as a CustomerSat client, it's a good time to discover how they respond so quickly and effectively to their customers' constantly-shifting needs.

Kevin Morgan, Program Manager of the Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Improvement Program (CSI), credits AMD's enterprise-wide philosophy of customer-centric innovation. "Our customers' success is our success," Morgan said. "Breakthrough creative ideas and solutions are essential, but our products are always developed with our customers' needs in mind — not simply innovation for innovation's sake."

AMD innovation is fueled by accurate, actionable customer intelligence. Morgan and his team rely on CustomerSat Enterprise™ and CustomerSat Professional Services experts to capture, understand, communicate and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. "Whenever I need them, CustomerSat always comes through," he said. "I am confident that they’ll deliver."

By listening to the Voice of the Customer, AMD designs and delivers what customers need. Currently, the company is in the process of shifting its focus to be even more customer-centric than before. "We're strengthening our business processes, metrics and systems to be more customer focused" explained Morgan. "Our goal is to empower AMD employees to make decisions in the best interests of the customer."

AMD's recent acquisition of ATI, the graphics and chipset manufacturer, is one example of how customer feedback drives innovation. Survey answers and customer comments from major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM’s) and resellers and system builders told AMD they needed a stronger chipset strategy. Response was swift. The CSI team brought this customer feedback to senior management’s attention which helped influence the decision to pursue the acquisition of ATI. It all happened in a matter of several months.

Customer feedback keeps AMD light on its feet. CustomerSat's comprehensive survey functionality and real-time analytics enable them to hear the Voice of the Customer, quickly disseminate the feedback throughout the enterprise, and take well-aimed action.

This propels AMD toward maximizing share of each customer’s spend, and becoming the supplier of choice.

Assessing Customer Satisfaction and Brand Perception

AMD depends on CustomerSat Enterprise for its semi-annual Customer Relationship survey. Almost 14,000 invitations are sent to a mix of OEMs, Original Design Manufacturers (ODM’s), distributors and resellers. Questions probe over 50 attributes in supplier selection, design and manufacturing, and ease of doing business, then compares them to previous periods. Twenty-one of these 50 attributes also measure their competitors. Although there are over 150 questions, CustomerSat's "branching" process means customers only sees the dozen or so most relevant to them. Results are aggregated into a Customer Loyalty Index.

A separate Brand Perception survey gauges how the AMD/ATI product line is perceived by customers.

Survey results are analyzed by multiple variables and the data is translated into concise "report cards" that grade AMD’s performance in each important area.

Overall satisfaction and loyalty have steadily increased, Morgan said. "Our surveys show our customers recognize AMD’s value, technical leadership, product quality and reliability, as well as the courtesy and professionalism of our people."

The most recent Customer Relationship survey, taken in May 2007, yielded many positive comments about AMD’s acquisition of ATI. "We read every single comment," Morgan said, noting that customers already see many potential benefits of the pairing.

Despite its steadily rising survey scores, AMD continues to strive for perfection. New questions are already being added, and existing ones fine-tuned to probe more deeply and widely into customers’ brand perceptions of AMD and its product lines.

Extending AMD's Capabilities

AMD's long history of innovation and technology leadership includes many significant milestones:

• AMD was first to demonstrate dual-core x86 processors (2005).
• AMD was first to introduce a 64-bit x86 processor for servers when other chipmakers still offered only 32-bit computing. When introduced in 2003, the AMD Opteron™ processor not only increased performance, but minimized disruption because existing software did not need to be rewritten to run on the new chip.
• AMD’s innovation to connect the processor directly to memory, called Direct Connection Architecture can deliver a significant performance boost in numerous applications.

AMD's pioneering breakthroughs have not gone unnoticed. In surveys, customers frequently praise their improvements in industry leadership, product performance and technical reputation.

AMD is now extending its capabilities and reach in three main areas:

• Broader international scope. With customers all over the globe, AMD's customer feedback capability has been pushed into multiple regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East/Africa, South Asia, India, China, Korea and Japan. CustomerSat translates AMD surveys into nine languages.
• Streamlined communications. Periodic workshops and reviews disseminate survey data, comments and analytics by region, business unit, account type and functional unit. In turn, each unit offers feedback and ideas that lead to further improvements. Survey data are also integrated into Salesforce.com, the enterprise's CRM solution, for access by the sales and marketing organization. Forty different reports provide rich data mining.
• Process improvements. Over 120 action items were harvested from the last set of workshops and discussions. Action, owner and timeline for each action item is documented and tracked, and can be reviewed on a special CSI (Customer Satisfaction Improvement) intranet.

Action Orientation

CustomerSat's information is the foundation for AMD's responsiveness and innovation. Morgan offered another example of feedback driving action. "A recent survey uncovered a supply/demand issue affecting AMD's ability to meet customers' product delivery needs," he said. "We discovered that our customers wanted more flexibility and immediate commitments about when they would receive product.”

AMD responded with immediate action plans:

• Supply Chain Transformation to ensure that customers get what they want, where and when they want it.
• AMD’s e-Business Capability to help customers easily manage their own business needs through a web-based medium.

Benefits

Hearing the Voice of the Customer gives AMD intimate knowledge of each customer’s business, what they want and what they value. That awareness nourishes AMD's growing customer-centric viewpoint, driving action and process improvement.

Result: Overall customer satisfaction and loyalty have grown steadily. AMD's passion for innovation has fueled many design wins, resulting in more shelf space for AMD products. No wonder AMD grew in commercial acceptance every quarter last year.

In short, customer feedback keeps this giant global enterprise nimble and swift on its feet, ready and able to respond quickly to the changing needs of its customers.