We’re running a competition on the Westbury booth at HP Discover to win an awesome t-shirt.

You just have to guess how many chips are in our big jar of chips, and the 10 best guesses each day win a shirt.

Monday’s winners were:
Anoush Dadgar
Elise Nadeau
Martin Hebert
Jan Meinster
Fred Kenworthy
Michael Smidt
Star Carnes
Satish
Billy Gilchrist
Harold Baker

To enter, simply swing by the Westbury booth – we’re right next to the Vivit community lounge – and make your guess today!

We took our camera and wondered around the HP Discover show.

If you can’t be here this week, this should give you a good idea of the flavor of the show.

Yesterday we ran our Vivit training session at HP Discover 2011, and at the end we asked one of the participants for his thoughts, which he was kind enough to share on video – thanks Michael!

Here at the HP Discover 2011 show in Las Vegas, blogging is king. It’s like it’s 1999 all over again – maybe the DJs on the colossal mainstage could spin Dancing in the Moonlight to complete the mood.

Yesterday’s blog from Yvonne Bentley all about HP Service Manager 9.30 was a great read – and if you don’t take my word for it, you can find it here: http://h30501.www3.hp.com/t5/IT-Service-Management-Blog/HP-Service-Manager-9-30-coming-July-2011/ba-p/34999

Of course, for us it was a great read because one of the key new enhanced functionalities announced was:

Easier (and better) reporting: Service Manager’s new partner extension solution for reporting, Westbury’s Service Management Intelligence (SMI) Suite, removes the complexity out of reporting and at the same time provides better operational data.  Even a non-technical user can create meaningful, accurate reports that can be used to objectively analyze IT service delivery performance. IT can distill and demonstrate its value to the business and also identify areas for service improvement.

All of which is very true!

As we speak, David vH – ably assisted by Richard and Jason – is delivering a Vivit training session at HP Discover 2011, entitled A practical approach to reporting from HP Service Manager.

The session is a mixture of presentation – looking at the various options for reporting from Service Manager – followed by a hands-on exercise in which the trainees build their own reports using SMI 2011.

We’ve run this session before – in fact we ran it at the HP Software Universe show in D.C. this time last year. It’s a great way to spend a significant chunk of time with people, getting some in depth, hands-on time with SMI 2011 and explaining exactly how the various reporting options stack up against each other.

Tom

Here at Westbury we’re gearing up for next month’s HP Discover show in Las Vegas, NV, where we are a bronze-level sponsor.

As such we’ll have a booth on the exhibition floor and we are chomping at the bit to get there and take part in what looks to be a fantastic – and utterly massive – event.

Our focus for the week will be to get as many people as possible in front of a screen so we can show them SMI 2011 in the flesh. We’ll also be paying very close attention to some of the track sessions focusing on HP Service Manager 9.2, particularly Jacques Conand’s session on the roadmap for Service Manager.

We’ll also be keeping it fun: if you stop by the booth you’ll have the chance to win an awesome limited edition, Vegas-themed t-shirt by taking part in our business intelligence challenge – I’d reveal more but that would ruin the surprise.

You’ll find us at booth 455 and we’re usually pretty easy to spot because we wear a lot of orange. It’s not a look most people can pull off, but we think we just about manage it. We’d also love to hear from you in advance if you’re going to be at the show – either leave us a comment here or tweet at us (@westbury_it) letting us know that you’re going.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Tom

We never get tired of having fantastic things to announce – good job, because after the excitement of last week’s SMI 2011 announcement, we have another major feather to stick in our collective, metaphorical cap.

After a period of extensive testing, the folks at HP Software have bestowed upon SMI 2011 the first ever ITSM Product Quality Certification.

For us, this is huge news.

It means that our product, which is only for HP users, has proved itself to HP, and that the HP people are happy to endorse SMI 2011 as a reporting solution for Service Manager. We’ve always had an excellent working relationship with HP, but this represents a significant strengthening of that relationship.

The man responsible for the certification is Jacques Conand, Product Management Director – Service Manager at HP Software. He said:

“We’re excited to renew and strengthen our partnership with Westbury by certifying SMI 2011 for HP Service Manager. We see Westbury SMI 2011 as a key off the shelf solution for HP Service Manager customers. It provides ad-hoc, operational reporting that is powerful, user friendly and flexible. There is a wealth of ITSM information in HP Service Manager and Westbury SMI 2011 is its ideal complement to get at that information.”

We understand HP will be making their own announcement about the certification, and when they do we’ll post the link up here.

Tom