In particular we wanted to know what challenges they were seeing among their customers when it came to ITSM reporting, and their answers were pretty illuminating, especially when you bear in mind that we didn’t even buy them a beer by way of thank-you for waxing lyrical on camera.

Many thanks to the participants:

Steven Kiss of Achievo

Emily McMullin of Techport Thirteen

Ken Herold of Melillo Consulting

Tom

The session was well attended – not only in terms of numbers showing up, but also in the quality of discussion and input from the attendees.

The goal of the session was to identify challenges that people were having in reporting from ServiceCenter and Service Manager, and then to look at the solutions available, including Crystal Reports and – of course – SMI Suite.

David vH led the session, assisted ably by Richard and David dSA. We’d like to thank everyone who attended for their participation and input – and we hope the session was useful.

Tom

As I type, David vH, Richard and David dSA are hosting a training session (in association with Vivit, the official HP user group) around reporting for HP Service Manager and HP ServiceCenter.

Tomorrow the show proper kicks off and we’ll be manning booth 409 in the exhibition hall – make sure you stop by and say hello.

Throughout this week I’ll be blogging – including some video blogging if I can get my laptop to play nice  – and we’ll be tweeting more than than Ashton Kutcher, Diddy and Stephen Fry put together. Watch this space!

Tom

But sometimes you have to embrace change. Like, when Westbury launches a brand-spanking-new website and Westblog site on the same day. Sure, everything’s new and different and you didn’t think there was anything wrong with the old sites, but you can’t stand in the way of progress.

The new main site – http://westbury-it.com – has been radically redesigned, from the bottom up, to more closely match our main marketing message – that we’re the vendor behind the operational reporting solution for HP Service Manager. We’re trying to keep things clear and simple, so the look and feel of the new site is also clean and spare, with some subtle gradients and limited use of bold color.

The Westblog site picks up where the main site left off, but with a few different touches to make it clear that you’re looking at a separate site.

The timing for the launch is no coincidence – we’re ramping up for the HP Software Universe 2010 show next week, and we’re hoping that many of the show’s attendees notice and take a look at the new site.

We’d love to know what you think about the redesign – let us know in the comments below or tweet us @westbury_it.

Tom

For anyone not in the know, HPSU is an annual conference organized by HP for users of its software, featuring a slew of interesting keynote speakers, seminars, training workshops and an exhibition space where HP partner vendors – like Westbury – can interact with attendees, show off our solutions and do as much networking as possible.

If you’re headed down to the show, you can find us at booth number 409. Here’s the official HPSU map, which has in no way been doctored or altered by us:

I guess they’re just really excited to have us there….

In all seriousness, there are going to be some other really interesting vendors there, and you should definitely check out all the stands as soon as you’ve finished visiting booth 409.

For users of HP Service Manager, there are a lot of interesting sessions taking place throughout the conference:

Tuesday, June 15             3:30 PM                4:30 PM                National Harbor 4
Core Media Technologies: becoming a service-driven provider to meet the dynamic needs of an advertising conglomerate

Tuesday, June 15             5:00 PM                6:00 PM                National Harbor 3
Volkswagen Credit:  moving from HP ServiceCenter to HP Service Manager with a shiny new Service Catalog

Wednesday, June 16      9:00 AM               10:00 AM             National Harbor 12
Release synergy: automating release management with HP Service Manager,  Release Control  and Server Automation

Wednesday, June 16      10:30 AM             11:30 AM             National Harbor 10
Sprint and beyond: tips on integrating HP IT service management and business service management software

Wednesday, June 16      3:30 PM                4:30 PM                Potomac 3-4
BCBS improves audit compliance and minimizes risk by implementing an ITIL-based change management solution

Wednesday, June 16      5:00 PM                6:00 PM                National Harbor 11
HP Enterprise Services (formerly EDS): HP ServiceCenter to HP Service Manager data migration in a massive multi-tenant environment

Thursday, June 17            9:00 AM               10:00 AM             National Harbor 11
UnitedHealth Group: lessons learned from a very large-scale HP Service Manager migration and implementation

Thursday, June 17            10:30 AM             11:30 AM             National Harbor 2
Case study: building a solid configuration management foundation through HP Universal CDMB federation with HP Service Manager,  Release Control and Server Automation

Thursday, June 17            1:30 PM                2:30 PM                National Harbor 3
America First Credit Union: HP Universal CMDB and Service Manager providing a 360 degree view of IT

Thursday, June 17            3:00 PM                4:00 PM                National Harbor 5
Playtech: how this company minimized costs and risks in a hosted HP Service Manager implementation

Thursday, June 17            4:30 PM                5:30 PM                National Harbor 2
The rubber meets the road: HP Service Manager and ITIL best practices converge in real-world implementations

Friday, June 18  9:00 AM               10:00 AM             National Harbor 12
HP Service Manager new release details,  roadmap and demo

Friday, June 18  10:30 AM             11:30 AM             National Harbor 3
Meet the Service Manager developers

And last, but by no means least, Westbury’s own Richard Verburg and David van Heusden are going to run a workshop in association with Vivit, the official HP user group, entitled ‘A Practical Approach to Operational Reporting from HP Service Manager / HP Service Center’, on Monday 14th at 1:00pm in Chesapeake 4.

If you haven’t already signed up for the show, we strongly recommend it. If you are planning to go, let us know in the comments here, or tweet us @westbury_it. We’ll be actively blogging and tweeting throughout the show (using official hashtag #HPSWU), and we hope to see you there.

Tom

Anyway, the news is that HP has a great blog all about IT Service Management, which features a few different contributors and a nice mix of news items, opinion pieces, tips and tricks and so forth.

The blog seems pretty active – three entries on Tuesday alone. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

On a vaguely related note; we’re increasingly using Twitter (I know, I know… sooo 2009!) as a means of opening up communication channels with partners, ITSM experts, potential customers and other interested parties. So please follow us @westbury_it and retweet anything we mention that piques your interest.

Tom

We are, in fact, the Lindsay Lohan of ITSM reporting, without the daddy issues and suspiciously white nostril hairs.

To prove the point, we’re going to be involved with a whole slew of events over the coming months and we’d rather like it if you came along.

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Vivit Kansas City Local Interest Group Event – May 4th

Vivit’s local interest group in Kansas City, MO, is having an all-day event all about ITSM on May 4th – for users of HP Service Manager, HP ServiceCenter and HP Service Desk. The full agenda is still being finalized, but you can find more details over on the Vivit website. Our very own David de Swaan Arons will be presenting a session on ‘Best Practices surrounding ITSM Reporting’ from 2:00 – 2:30, although I’m sure the whole day will be extremely valuable. If, like me, you’re easily confused, try not to focus too much on the fact that it’s actually taking place in Olathe, which is outside Kansas City, but is actually in Kansas state. Unlike Kansas City, which is outside Kansas state, in Missouri. Too much for my tiny mind, I tell you.

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Arrow Partner Event – Dallas, TX, May 11th – May 14th

Arrow Electronics (http://www.arrow.com/) is having an event in Dallas, TX on May 11th – 14th and we’re going to be exhibiting. If you’re attending the event please stop by and say hello, and if you’d like to set up a one-to-one session, please email Floris at floris.verschoor@westburyusa.com.

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Minnesota HP ITSM User Group – May 21st

Details aren’t yet 100% clear yet, but there will definitely be a meeting of this user group – which is for users of HP Service Manager, HP ServiceCenter and HP Service Desk – on May 21st at a location yet to be determined. We will definitely be there and we’ll keep you updated on details as they emerge. Also keep your eye on http://mnhpitsmusergroup.com/, the user group’s own website.

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ITSMF Greater LA Local Interest Group Event – Long Beach Westin, May 25th

ITSMF’s LA chapter are meeting in Long Beach at the tail end of May, looking at excellence in service management, and we’re going to be there to present and share our inimitable wisdom on the subject. Other details are currently hard to track down, but you can find out more – and register – over at http://itsmfusa.org/gla-lig-excellence-in-service-management-conf.

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Vivit Chicago Local Interest Group Event – Chicago, June 2nd

We’re actually going to be sponsoring this event as well as presenting at it. The registration form is not yet available, but keep your eye on http://www.vivit-worldwide.org/chapters.cfm?action=allevents, and also follow us on Twitter (@westbury_it) where we are sure to be promoting it some more.

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HP Software Universe – Washington, DC, June 14th – June 18th

Otherwise know as ‘the big one’, if only because there’s a chance I might be there in person. Pretty exciting, I know.

The official website has a ton of information (http://www.hpsoftwareuniverse2010.com) but don’t be fooled by the dates they post. There’s going to be lots of interesting things happening before the official start of the show, including a session on Monday 14th at 1:00pm in Chesapeake 4 at the Gaylord National Harbor Hotel (the same venue as the show proper), in which our own Richard Verburg and David van Heusden (both Westbloggers in their own right) will run a session called ‘A Practical Approach to Operational Reporting from HP Service Manager / HP Service Center’. You can find more details over https://www.hpsoftwareuniverse2010.com/event/trainingandcert.html, under the ‘Vivit training’ session.

We will also be exhibiting at the show and I will be running around with a video camera trying to capture as much of the event – and its attendees – as possible. If you see me (I’ll be the handsome one in orange), make sure you come and say hello.

Tom

Fast forward a few months and another Gartner magic quadrant is out and again it’s looking at an area pretty close to Westbury: BI tools.

Our relationship with SAP Business Objects isn’t quite the same as our relationship with HP. After all, we’re an OEM reseller of Business Objects – it’s part and parcel of our Service Management Intelligence Suite product. But our solution is also somewhat platform independent when it comes to the BI tool – if you’re standardized on Cognos, for example, we can work with that, and SMI Suite is still very relevant.

So what’s the upshot from Gartner’s exercise in compare and contrast? Well, on their quadrant’s x-axis (“completeness of vision”), SAP Business Objects falls second only to IBM – quite an achievement in a field of fifteen big players. But on the y-axis (“ability to execute”) Gartner has it seventh – still good, but not as good. Overall this places Business Objects in the “leaders” quadrant.

On a more detailed level, Gartner says that “BusinessObjects’ reporting and ad hoc query capabilities continue to be cited as its top strength by its customers,” and that it provides “leading-edge capabilities, many [of] which complement its BI platform, in the areas of collaboration and decision support, text analytics, in-memory analytics, OnDemand BI (SaaS), search coupled with BI, data integration with lineage and impact analysis, and data quality.”

In the “cautions” column, however, Gartner warns that “customer support ratings for SAP are lower than for any other vendor in our customer survey”

Overall SAP comes out as one of the better, more established players, albeit with some areas to improve on.
Read the full report here: http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/reprints/oracle/article121/article121.html

Tom

ITSM Uncovered (http://www.itsm-uncovered.com/) is a fancy-schmancy looking blog with some pretty interesting things to say. Recent entry titles include “Success or failure is determined in the middle of an organization, not at the top or bottom” and “The Organizational Evolution of Technology Management.”

Core ITSM (http://coreitsm.blogspot.com/) may look more like Kyra Sedgwick to ITSM Uncovered’s Keira Knightley, but is no less interesting for that. From the horse’s mouth: “Core ITSM is an approach to ITIL, COBIT,ISO 20000 Service Management and ISO 38500 that focuses on the key requirements of successful Business IT alignment.”

Vigilant Tips by Matt Hooper a.k.a. “Vigilant Guy” (http://getvigilant.blogspot.com/) is  nowhere near as menacing as it sounds. In fact, it’s all about ‘Tips that will help you take your IT organization to the next level of maturity. Best practices that will help you optimize the way you deliver your IT services.” Not a pool-ball-in-a-sock in sight. Phew!

Tom