This is the same way it works for SMI Suite. A lot of organizations are suffering within their IT organization hoping it will be an temporary problem and will be solved by time. And for all that they know they are suffering, they do not know exactly where the pain is coming from. After a while they realize that  a solution is not going to fall out of the sky. To find the cause of the pain they need to report on their IT environment and processes. Luckily for them, SMI Suite can help with finding the cause of the pain so the suffering organization will be relieved.
Martin

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

HP Service Management at the HP Universe 2010 in Washington DC:

If you’re planning on attending the HP Universe event, there are several activities and sessions taking place that might be of interest to you

1) Vivit training sessions

There are two special Vivit training sessions taking place:

- The first is called ” A practical approach to operational reporting from HP Service Manager and HP Service Center” (https://www.hpsoftwareuniverse2010.com/event/trainingandcert.html#4) and takes place Monday afternoon from 1pm to 5pm.

- The second is called “HP Service Manager advanced tailoring concepts and best practices” (https://www.hpsoftwareuniverse2010.com/event/trainingandcert.html#5) and takes place Tuesday morning 8am – 12pm.

2) HP Roundtable session on Service Management (https://www.hpsoftwareuniverse2010.com/event/roundtables.html#6)

3) Track Sessions – HP Service Manager falls under the umbrellas of both “HP Lifecycle Management” (https://www.hpsoftwareuniverse2010.com/event/tracks.html#2) and “Pragmatic IT Service Management” (https://www.hpsoftwareuniverse2010.com/event/tracks.html#15)

Aside from HP Universe there are several other Vivit events coming up with a focus on Service Manager:

1) The Chicago chapter is hosting an ITSM User Group (https://www.vivit-worldwide.org/chapters.cfm?id=122&action=event&chapterid=4&chaptereventid=538), taking place at the DoubleTree, Downers Grove, IL, on 10th March from 10am – 3pm

2) The Colorado chapter’s winter meeting (https://www.vivit-worldwide.org/chapters.cfm?id=122&action=event&chapterid=117&chaptereventid=536) includes sessions on HP’s ITSM roadmap for 2010 and reducing the cost and improving service levels of your help desk. The meeting takes place on March 5th, from 9am to 3pm at Denver Water on 12th Avenue in Denver.

3) The Greater Toronto chapter’s 8th Vivit GTA meeting on 9th March (8:30am to 12pm at HP Canada in Mississauga) will include a presentation by Robert Lee of Achievo on migrating to SM7, and a session on responding more quickly to incidents, by HP’s John Moore.

In other news:

1) Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for the IT Service Desk report (https://h10078.www1.hp.com/cda/hpms/display/main/hpms_content.jsp?zn=bto&cp=1-11-85^12473_4000_100__) pits Service Manager against its competitors

2) HP has released a new video focusing on ITSM: http://h30423.www3.hp.com/index.jsp?fr_story=6d59bb1b1c901defc095321a2717b0b9a87189d6&rf=bm

Other resources:

The HP Service Management SIG pages on the Vivit site (http://www.vivit-worldwide.org/chapters.cfm?id=122&action=content&contentid=1094&chapterid=186) includes a list of forums (or fora for those of you who had the benefit of a classical education) where you can discuss, ask and answer anything about HP Service Manager.

See you at HP Universe 2010!

Floris

But what does that mean: BI solutions that make life easier! Are customers looking for more out of the box reports, KPIs, analytics or for more functionalities within the BI tool? Or should the focus be on the back end of the BI architecture: the ETL layer and database? Of course, the answer is: both. However, looking at the number one priority according to “Gartner’s - 2009 CIO Agenda: improving business processes”, I’m convinced that in this economical downturn customers are most helped by making the back end as out of the box as possible.

The focus that I will have in my blogs is on the balance between adding value by improving the front end of a BI solution and the back end. Westbury’s focus has always been on making the BI solution for Service Management out of the box and to stay away from a datawarehouse architecture in which the dependency on SQL specialists and database developers is time consuming and expensive. But, again, what should be the right balance between out of the box capabilities for the front end of a BI solution and the back end? Does the CIO really care about the back end or is he or she only interested in the end results? Again, according to Gartner the focus of CIO’s will shift in 2009 to a more process oriented approach.

Keep you posted.

Floris