Maybe I'm biased because I'm currently engrossed by Jeff Jarvis' new book What Would Google Do?, which posits how a number of industries – including many old line ones – can both increase revenues and truly propel themselves into the 21st century by becoming open platforms for their customers and other stakeholders to use them as they desire.

Still, I can't help but think how even now, nearly 3 years after we recognized Rackspace Hosting for their industry-upending customer and employee engagement best practices – we named their Chairman, Graham Weston, as a Best Boss – the company continues to run virtually alone (or at least still best in class) in using transparency to propel their business and, more importantly and surprisingly given their public status for some time and greater chance for poachers to swoop in, best their competition.

Rackspace's most popular offshoot is arguably Mosso*, a cloud hosting service that has earned rave reviews for taking the Texas-based parent company's renowned "fanatical support" concept and applying it to help smaller organizations go about their online business.  Everyone from our local IT support person to technology startup and social media guru Chris Brogan has given Mosso their due.

I was not at all surprised, then, when I saw an email this morning from Mosso's Director of Special Operations, Robert Autenrieth, explaining in great (read: über techspeak) detail some problems with their cloud hosting that occurred earlier this week.  You can read a transcript of his email here.

It would be one thing if the company merely professed the now highly scripted mantra, "We care about you and want to continue to earn your business," which everyone else digs out during times of crisis, such as Mosso's that occurred this week.  But I know because of their day-to-day and week-to-week phone, email and livechat support with me that they really live and mean those words.  It's my sense that even in 2009, many of Mosso's (and Rackspace's) competitors have yet to deliver the following winning combination quite as effectively as they do:

1. Immediate access via phone to a support person (no dreaded e-tickets)
2. A support person who actually cares
3. A support person who can speak in plain English

So in short, my plea to other technology companies is: when it comes to your employee engagement and workplace team building, get your act together!  As Jarvis and many others argue, because the global marketplace and Big Box competition have all but leveled the ability to compete on price, smart firms – and especially smaller, more nimble, privately held firms – are competing on service, shaking up their value propositions so that customers know the whole story (at a minimum) and hold at least some of the power.

We are taking Jarvis' words and Rackspace's actions to heart as we use 2009 as an opportunity to give more decision-making authority than ever before to our online visitors, newsletter subscribers, and small business consulting clients and conference attendees.

How does transparency factor into your business model?  Your competitors'?  And in your employee engagement activities?

*In the spirit of transparency: Winning Workplaces has used Mosso for hosting since mid-2008.