surching4me

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surching4me

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I have been doing much consolidation of my web presence over to the official surching4me site. At the same time, I am diving in to the world of someone who is beginning to take my blog seriously. There are people out there interested in what I have to say despite the fact that on any given day I don't know what the hell I am going to write about.

In the end, if just one person finds the information I provide valuable, then I have done my work. So if you have a few, click on over and check me out at.....

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The Themes

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:06:48 GMT

Today is the last day of the itSMF Fusion event. Since this has been my first it has been interesting to see others in my field of work interact. Overall the event was probably larger than I expected in terms of the number of attendees. Facilities were good as was the city of Charlotte, NC.

On one hand, the event itself was put together rather well. There seemed to be plenty of do to keep one busy. I did find at times, it to be a bit overwhelming and an exercise in Calendar Management. There was definitely something for everyone. 8 Tracks to choose from in terms of sessions being conducted per track. I copped out and chose the first track. Seemed the easiest to follow.

In retrospect, I probably should have chosen some of the other tracks that were more in depth in terms of covering areas of ITSM and ITIL. What I found in most of the sessions I attended was more of Case Studies around implementing ITIL. The companies that were presenting were not on the same scale as our efforts, but it was good to hear that even at the small players they have some of the similar hurdles to clear on the road to implementation.

What has been one of the focal points of the event has been ITIL v3. Attendees are struggling with not simply what v3 means to their v2 efforts, but also what to do about certification. Whether or not to jump on the bandwagon being driven by some of the training companies pushing to be the first in the neighborhood to offer v3 courses. The tricky thing is that there are still questions around the certification process that still has to be worked out. The bridging from Foundation v2 to v3 seems to be the only one that has some solid focus.

However, to hear some of these training companies speak, terms like “We were the first to… bla bla bla.” I am not sure I want to be involved in the first round of this. Our organization has decided to hold off a bit. We’ll do the budget for ‘08 with a focus on v3 but will not commit to any training until at lease the first quarter of ‘08. For now, v2 is serving us nicely given the maturity of our efforts in deploying Incident and Problem.

So in a matter of hours the event ends for me. I do not regret attending, it has been a great opportunity to network with others who are focused on IT Service Management. The feeling of being alone in the effort has lifted. It was a good three days. I will probably attend next year as well as it moves to the Left Coast at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. I do know one thing. Next year I will be booking early to get one of the good hotels. No more staying in the boonies for me.

Signing off from Charlotte…

They're Just Not Getting It!

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:08:10 GMT

"They're Just Not Getting It!" Is often heard in response to trying to explain to someone in an organization who is being told what they need to deliver in the implementation of an ITIL Process deployment. As an IT Service “Do-er” they have often been in a position to develop their own processes and functions simply to get the work done. Whether that work is to restore a broken application, failed server or even replace a coffee drenched keyboard.

These types of events trigger a response to follow common-sensical approach to resolving the issue at hand. Nothing is written down it just gets done so they can move on to the next issue. The individual at this level of any organization generally doesn’t think too much about process or standardization, it is all about getting it done. Telling them that is going to change will illicit various responses depending on the approach presented by the implementer.

Most of the talk around ITSM or ITIL revolves around defining business requirement to drive IT Services. Processes or steps to providing these services in the most efficient and cost effective manner. It is also focused on proactive management of IT environments wether to predict and support future business growth, potential weak points in an IT function or service or simply eliminate potential areas which either inhibit the business or ITs ability to provide maximum availability.
These are all very valid points in delivering a true Service Management environment to any business. However, in order to achieve this, one area is consistently overlooked. I believe it is due to the fact that unlike processes or tools it is extremely difficult to discover, identify and document. It is the area of the individual.

Processes can be defined, people can’t. Many implementers whether internal to an organization or brought in from the outside to consult on what needs to occur to improve IT Service to the Business are very versed in the tactics needed to implement any of the areas of IT Service Management. OFten over looked is the process of convincing the individual that was is being presented is something that will inevitably make their lives easier.

The concept of IT Service Management accompanied with the ITIL Framework elicits many different responses from all levels of the organization. From the Management side, it is generally about “What will it cost me?” From Middle Management it is about “How will allocate resources?” and to the man or woman on the front lines it is “What are you thinking!?” The latter is always the voice that is missed in the focus area of communicating the benefits to the organization.

In doing so this communication needs to be tailored to the audience, much in the same light as you would with Management or even Middle-Management. There is also the benefit that needs to be explained. It is well known that explaining the monetary benefits and ROI to senior Management is key. As is explaining the effectiveness of Resource Management and Reporting to Middle Management. But defining the true benefit to the level that is tied up with daily projects, firefighting or disgruntled users is often approached as an afterthought.

The term “Grass-Roots” is often thrown around in various seminars and case studies on the implementation of ITIL Best Practices. But there are individuals who comprise this Grass-Roots element that are the key to moving forward in any attempt to become a high performance organization. True leaders realize this, successful programs are also ones that focus on this group of individuals.

So what is key in doing this? Some view a complete buy-in and enforcement from Senior Management by default, force the organization to comply. That may work in most instances and this is not to say that Senior Management buy-in and commitment is not important, but to get to that goal faster, having a motivated, mobilized workforce behind the effort will accomplish tasks and milestones more effectively if made to feel as if they are part of the solution and not part of the problem.

The truth of the matter is, everyone has their processes. Some good, some bad, but they are processes that they put time and effort into developing to make their own world in the organization better. Discounting these efforts by pushing new unfamiliar process framework from the top down is not necessarily the right approach to motivating staff. At the same time, there is always the concern of Job security. At first glance, many view a program on Process Improvement, standardization and efficiencies coupled with terms like improved resource management as buzz words which can be taken as ways to cut head-count if it is not communicated effectively.

If you are in the position of deploying an IT Service Management Agenda across your organization you have to take into account the emotional side of the deployment. Everyone wants to think that the workplace has no room for anything other than a Professional outlook to work. But the reality is that people take pride in their work and efforts and are hesitant to anything new or branded in a way to make their work seem “easier.” The term “easy” implies that I will have less to do because I won’t be working as hard. Common sense indicates that by doing so, means I can be replaced or let go since I am no longer required to play the role I previously did. Not good.

The right approach is a full explanation where the term “easy” is followed by “so you can add more value in ‘x’ position or role.” That latter bit never seems to make it across in the communication. It is critical that you provide comfort in the new processes as much as you do selling the need to implement new processes. Ignoring the Human factor in any implementation of process improvement will only cause delays and push back as walls are put up in sub-conscious efforts to protect the domain of the individual.

Much more thought needs to be placed in the soft-skills of the individuals who are the process implementors. Any more, simply being good at understanding and translating the ITIL Framework or Service Management in general is not good enough. Being able to “Dumb-Down” ITIL-Speak in a way that can be digested by the organization is critical.
It takes time and an understanding of who you are dealing with but that is time well invested in terms of moving the program ahead. It is always easier to form an alliance up front than to tear down walls later. I almost wish there was another ITIL Book that focused on the Soft-Side of implementing ITIL in an organization.

ITSM and the Near Death Experience

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:58:00 GMT

IT Service Management has many different views. Many of which revolve around the basic processes and tools required to manage IT more effectively. One Framework that is closely tied to Service Management is that of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

ITIL is just that, a Framework. It is not a set of cookbooks that lay out step by step everything you need to do to establish a well run, efficient IT organization. There are many elements to the framework that are very much open to interpretation. I have used the analogy of a person who has a near-death experience.

We all hear the stories of the glorious experience a person might have who has clinically died for a few minutes. The nirvana experienced. Generally this is the feedback received from these people. In reality, there is usually a horrific experience that caused them to enter this near death experience. You quickly begin to understand that there was much pain involved with getting to experience such peace and tranquility. At the same time, all you ever hear about it how great it was.

In some ways the tranquility of organizations who have reached a level of IT Service Management nirvana are always preaching about how great it is to be efficient and operating at a level that allows true streamlined IT Operations. This to the dismay of any organization attempting to achieve it. In reality, there is much in the way of pain that needs to be endured before you find that light and enter into it.

Like the near death experience, there are numerous events and steps that put you on this path to enlightenment. Whether it is a car accident, suicide attempt, murder or natural causes, you always end up in the same position. In many ways, within an IT organization there are many reasons which cause a business to begin to seek out that existential existence.

The problem is, that with a Framework that outlines what one should focus on achieving at a high level, does not tell you what you need to do to achieve it. There is no silver bullet, no standardized roadmap. Just a view of what life could be like with the right processes and tools in place. How you get this is as much a mystery as the person lying on the table hanging on a thread.
Even though there is that place where everyone wants to be and is searching for. You should always think about the fact that there will be pain, there will be work, there will be a level of commitment that is required to make the inevitable leap of faith that is required as you begin to attempt to move in a direction of a better existence.

Many organizations are now realizing the need to focus on achieving this goal. The question is, whether or not there is a clear understanding of the pain that is required to get you there. To hear many speak it is about the tools, automation and processes. In many aspects they would be correct. But what it really missing in many of the discussions I have been in as of late is that of the individual. The person who will be asked to sacrifice time and effort to achieve this goal.

My next blog will dive into this area which seems to be looked at only in terms of “Resources” or training. Never about the emotional side of driving down that path to IT enlightenment. The truth of the matter is, we all get the religion of IT Service Management, we have the frameworks to guide us, but how do you drive this change in the organization at the human level?

itSMF Fusion300 Images

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:57:25 GMT

I have been snapping pictures with the iPhone over the past few days and finally had some time to post them into a gallery from iPhoto. If you want to see what I see check them out! I will continue to update them over the next couple of days.

itSMF USA Fusion300

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:01:22 GMT

Uniting the World of IT Service Management, the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) USA is hosting its annual event in sunny Charlotte, North Carolina and I have a front row seat in the Pit. Why the pit? Well that is the theme for the event, NASCAR. Not sure why it is Fusion 300, I will have to ask someone about that.

I must say first of all that I am quite impressed by the City of Charlotte. It is very clean, modern and inviting. The Conference hall itself is also on par with most modern conference facilities out there. Day 1 registration occurred yesterday with several pre-conference events being held. I personally did not arrive until later in the day, therefore had only enough time to register and attend the door opening on the exhibition hall floor.

As expected all of the big players are here. Microsoft, HP, IBM, EMC, PepperWeed, CA, and ton more companies all here to promote their products and services designed to support the world of IT Service Management. Along side these companies with products are others promoting some of the more soft-skilled contributions such as consultancy or training.

These last two are big dollar makers for companies this year given the move from ITILv2 to ITILv3. This was acutally surprising to me given the still foggy playing field for how the various exams and programs in ITILv3 will differ from ITILv2. The only training element that everyone is fairly comfortable with right now is the bridging course to move anyone with an ITILv2 Foundation certificate to ITILv3 Foundation.

More on that topic later, back to the first impressions of the conference. It has been only a day and a half, but so far I am very impressed with the coordination and set up of all of the events and sessions. Almost too many to think about really. In keeping with the theme of the event, there are 8 different "Tracks" to run on. I decided to follow the Track 1: Start your Engines - Design and Develop an ITSM Program. It is not that one track is more complex than another but the focus for each is different.

With each track comes several break-out sessions throughout the week where guest speakers will discuss various topics around ITIL and ITSM. Others will present Case Studies from their own organizations on how they implemented ITIL or ITSM processes. At this point I can say after attending a full day of sessions that some are good and others, well I struggled to make it through. All in all everyone is still confirming that ITSM and ITIL are the way to go.

It is almost like those people who have near-death experiences. Something horrible happens to them, they die, are revived and talk of the nirvana on the other side. You don't want to go through pain to get to that nirvana but you know the only way to that light is to experience the pain. Of course there are varying degrees of pain and discussions abound on how to reduce the pain (Management Sponsorship, Enforcement, Training, Evangelism etc...)

This week will continue to be interesting as I weave my way in and out of the various sessions and Keynote events. One of which is Cal Ripkin, Jr. and his titled "The Keys to Perservance." That comes tomorrow. Sports figures are interesting at evens like this. I attended the Borgata event in Atlantic City last spring and Phil Simms of New York Giants Fame was the Keynote Speaker. His talk about Leadership was quite entertaining, but I still found it difficult to tie into the world of IT Service Management or ITIL.

Today's Keynote Speaker, however was a different story. Completely applicable to the event and still upheld the concepts of attention to detail, leadership and other key traits of the soft-skill side of the busines. His name is John Foley. John's presentation was titled "High Performance Climb: Lessons from a Blue Angel."

Now that might not make sense to many, but to me I was excited to hear him speak. The Blue Angels are the U.S. Navy's (hence the Marine Corps') Premier flight demonstration team. John is the Former Lead Solo Pilot for these guys which means he is not only a bit twisted, but a consummate professional. He is one of the elite who are accepted to become Blue Angels. His speech was passionate and peppered with video clips from what I believe was one of those Discovery Channel specials on the Blue Angels from back in the day. John was featured in many of the clips speaking on what means to operate as a Blue Angel.

It takes much more than most people think. The one point he made was that on average the amount of focus, drive and commitment combined with trust is needed in an organization like the Blue Angels to allow them to fly 36" apart. "Hold out your arm..." "That is the distance between the planes..... UPSIDE DOWN!" He somehow began to tie it all into what is needed in not only a high performance organization, but the high performance individual to begin to shatter beliefs and move further than you every imagined, or believed you could.

I will say that if you ever have the opportunity to hear John speak you definitely should. Well I will sign off for now. There are a few events that I need to get ready for this evening that will revolve more around networking with others in my field. It is good. You never know what you will learn from others. The upside is you always run across someone who is in a worse state than you think you are in your own organization which makes you walk away feeling a bit better about the work you are doing.

My Company Makes Uncommon Headline

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:58:06 GMT

Known for being in the headlines of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, it is rare that you see the name of Morgan Stanley in a technology related trade related news article. but here it is, in all its On-Line Glory. The fact that we have been utilizing some pretty cool technologies internally have finally begun to creep outside of the Banker's Box and into the halls of Geekdom!

del.icio.us Tags: Morgan Stanley , Web 2.0

Why is it?

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:16:20 GMT

Why is it that every time I seem to be into working on something when my machine decides to want to restart due to some system maintenance installation that occurred in the background. Is there not some way for these automated maintenance scripts to detect keystrokes to determine if someone is actually using the machine?

In tonight's case, I was working on a PowerPoint presentation needed first thing Monday morning when I was prompted to save all work as a shutdown was commencing. Does anyone understand how utterly frustrating this can be? I would think this would have been something experienced by anyone who works in a networked environment. In an Enterprise environment such as mine, this type of thing is both necessary and critical to maintaining a healthy environment.

Believe me, I understand the need to keep the Windows environment as up to date and protected as necessary, but in terms of impact to productivity, I would think that at some point, and I know I may be pushing the envelope of the individual user's needs here, it would be nice to not to have work interrupted by some reboot script.

I wonder if this would be the first in a long line of "nice to haves" in terms of an software Service friendly environment. Who knows. I do know that I am more than likely not the only individual out there who has not either lost work due to an unexpected reboot or been interrupted by one that was kind enough to give you time to save your work.

del.icio.us Tags: Windows Service

All Locked In for itSMF Fusion 2007

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:45:13 GMT

Well travel has been booked for the first trip in the next 30 days. I will be off to Charlotte, NC to attend the itSMF Fusion event. I will be blogging various sessions from the conference so stay tuned to that. I think actual registration may be tight and hotels darn near impossible to get now, however if you are interested in seeing what this even is and what the IT Service Management Forum (USA) has planned head on over to the event site.

del.icio.us Tags: itSMF

Skills and Partnership

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:58:23 GMT

IT Service by it’s very nature is a “people” business. It is here that the gap between business and technology is filled with individuals who not only understand and support technology when it fails, but also understand the impact to the business when it does. They have the ability to empathize with the users who are unable to perform their normal business duties due to a failure, which they are not required to, nor want to understand. In the heat of the moment, from their view, IT has once again prevented them from doing their job.

It is the IT Service professional who understands how IT appears in the eyes of their users. Who feels the frustration of that person and not only works to resolve the issue at hand, but accepts the responsibility to manage the situation back to normal operation. It is during this period where the successful support analyst demonstrates the ability to manage the emotions and expectations of their clients in ways that prevent the situation from escalating into a completely unproductive encounter.

Patience, commitment, enthusiasm, trustworthiness, vision, passion, drive and commitment are only a few of the traits stored in the IT Support professional tool-kit. However, with the growing focus on providing a process driven technology environment, it becomes imperative for the support analyst to develop skills such as Project Management, Data Analysis and Process Engineering which will allow them to start to contribute strategically to both the technology mission as well as the business strategy.

Although in this era of renewed IT Management focus on leveraging metrics and processes to align IT with the business, they must also come to the realization that leveraging the support teams more strategically, can only nurture an environment of partnership by viewing the business users as stake-holders in their own technology solutions. An additional benefit is the sense of ownership and purpose though understanding the business mission, which can become viral, across all of IT. In both cases, it is an example of vested interest through ownership.

Del.isci.ous Tags: ITIL, itSMF, SOA, Six Sigma

Introducing Process

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:57:09 GMT

Technology is evolving. By its very nature, technology is an industry that is full of processes that are dependent on other processes. Whether you are writing code where sub-routines are dependent on other sub-routines or setting up a network where IP Addresses are depending on Routing Tables there is always a need for order and process. This is not different in the world of IT Service.

The shift towards viewing IT as a business service has introduced the concept of IT Service Management. This is a time when Technologists at all levels are exploring various methods of operating as a process driven organization. Frameworks or methodologies such as Service Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) are becoming all the rage. What is also occurring in the environment is that individuals who for years have performed the fire-fighting roles of IT Service are now being recruited to fill structured roles within a process driven environment.

For the most part this is a great career opportunity for the individual who thrives on providing quality service to their clients, however not all members of the Service community are in it for the sake of providing quality service. These individuals who were not suited for Service as a career to begin with, will more than likely not be suited for operating in a more structured environment designed to align technology with business goals.

Del.isci.ous Tags: ITIL, itSMF, SOA, Six Sigma

The New World Order

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:39:45 GMT

Downtime kills a business and for the first time, businesses are beginning to realize that technology is not simply a tool but a strategic business line to be invested in. The simplistic view that technology is simply an application that lives on a server accessed across a network is one that is shifting due to the pain realized from technology failures. As a result businesses are moving away from looking at IT as a means to an end and more as a business in and of itself. The key to doing this involves developing and supporting the proper implementation and management of IT no differently than a sales force or any other business line.

So what you now have is an environment where the business understands the impact technology has on its bottom line. You also have IT management breathing a sigh of relief that they now have the attention of the business. The challenge for IT is to now change direction from focusing on "time to market" growth demands to a demand for stability and strategic growth in a reasonable amount of time. In most industries this amounts to a shift from a "whatever it takes" mentality to one that is very much structured and process driven. The latter also introduces a new era of two way communication between IT and the business.

In a very real sense the skills needed to succeed in technology are also shifting. Of course the demand for core technology specialists is still required, however, at the same time a hybrid specialist is needed to fill the gap in areas of technology that are process and strategy driven. An individual who is very much aligned with the business vision to assist technology in realizing the contribution to the overall goal while at the same time, someone who can also introduce new technology to the business which outlines the value add of implementing the new technology.

It would appear that the only individuals who are living in this space between the business and technology are the ones who already have the skill set needed to fill a more strategic role in the organization. These are the IT Support professionals. The new world order is expanding their previously over looked value to the organization in bold, new, career enhancing ways.

As an individual whose second career has evolved from swapping Ultra 5s and 21" CRT monitors on a trading floor, managing an IT service desk, managing IT vendor relationships/contracts, back to the IT Support Account Manager for the previously mentioned trading floor and now to a role that is part of this new world order, I can only see further growth in my career upwards.

Del.isci.ous Tags: ITIL, itSMF, SOA, Six Sigma

How Business fails IT

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:58:01 GMT

With the introduction of strict regulatory requirements being imposed on most industries today, the curtains allowing corporate technology to operate in a vacuum are being drawn back to expose some interesting landscapes from which technology operates, or doesn't in some cases, as a business.

Another reason for change is a direct result of technology's impact to the bottom line in terms of stability and failures. Failures which occur due to bad software development or hardware failure contribute to millions, if not billions of dollars annually in lost opportunities, revenue streams and downtime of personnel unable to perform their work. A very painful example of where business suffers when technology goes wrong.

But who is to really blame? There is a term called "Time to Market" In a business environment where margins are shrinking and more competition is vying for the same customers, getting your product out the door and on the street first is the one way where you can quickly gain competitive advantage over your competition. As a result, technology is sometimes forced to do whatever it takes to get it done.

The shortcuts taken or processes skipped are sometimes viewed as acceptable risks to get to market. The view that once the short term goal is achieved, time can then be taken to go back and work to reduce the risk of stability introduced. When a technology failure occurs, IT is always accountable to the business. But in most cases, it is the business who has failed technology.

For the past 20 years the pace at which technology has evolved has been mind-boggling. Because of this evolution there has been an equally aggressive push by business to take advantage of new technology to increase the bottom line. The problem is that the speed of thought will always surpass the physical world, which is to say that technology has, in many instances, sacrificed proper design and implementation processes which take time, in order to meet an aggressive time to market as set by the business.

Del.isci.ous Tags: ITIL, itSMF, SOA, Six Sigma

A Face and a Voice

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:11:39 GMT

IT Support is a vital element of any technology organization to get right. The problem is that this role's true strength is not in core technology elements. The true value and power of an effective IT Support professional is his or her "Soft-Skills". Communication, organization, stress management all valuable skills that are not thought of as being an essential part of a core technologist. "Can you program in C#, Java, Perl?", "Can you setup a Raid 1 storage configuration?", "Can you Debug a Kernel?" these are all questions that most would consider asking a technology candidate. The same questions that are posed to the individual who is expected to deal with business users and manage technology as a business partner.

Of all of the possible "Soft-Skills" needed by the IT Support professional, the most critical is the ability to communicate. Not by simply speaking to people but the art of understanding people and empathizing with people. The ability to act as translator of techno speak to a business user also helps at keeping the noise down when things don't go as designed.

The key thing for management to always remember is that this individual does not fully operate in the business environment, but is very aware of the business goal and stragety. Nor is the role as deeply focused on core infrastructure or development areas, but again, in varying levels, is familiar with the technology employed. This is the hidden value add to both the business as well as technology. The role of IT Service Professional should never be seen as a generic, non-critical function which adds limited value to an organization. It is the role that is both the "face of technology" to the business, while being the "voice of the business" to IT.

Del.isci.ous Tags: ITIL, itSMF, SOA, Six Sigma

The Bridge that Binds

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:51:46 GMT

There are mainly two core elements to technology; infrastructure and development. The deployment of these elements and understanding how they are leveraged is key to any successful organization. Each contains various flavors of implementation that are fundamentally designed to service the business mission. Some provide competitive advantages; others are generally designed to keep the plant operating and are not unique to a corporate business process.

Infrastructure is the true foundation from which all technology rides. In many ways it is not unlike the plumbing, electric, foundation and framing of a house. It is the framework that technology depends on to exist. For a start-up business simply getting the business off of the ground distracts from the longer term vision for the company. A technology trap many fall into.

As with a home, designing the right infrastructure will make or break how your technology evolves to meet the business need both in the immediate and longer terms. Imagine designing and building a one bedroom home for a newly married couple. It suits their immediate need in starting their new life together. But what happens four years when they are planning on their second child? That two bedroom begins to not seem as appealing as it once did. A true problem of capacity planning.

Infrastructure planning and design is critical not only from the immediate perspective, but also from a longer term strategic view. If you don't get this right, chances are the results will be both painful from a business standpoint as well as from a monetary one. Infrastructure in general has an image problem. The power of infrastructure lies not with what the business or end users can see, touch or experience and because of this it is often overlooked in terms of investment and planning. This fault is usually what bites most businesses in the behind when an outage occurs.

Development on the other hand, is usually the most visible and highly celebrated. It is these products that ride on the user's desktop and provide the core business functionality needed to complete the corporate mission. Whether that development is provided internally, via large commercial software houses or 3rd party vendors, the role is clear: Provide the functionality to provide and support core business processes.

Developers usually understand the business processes and are able to work it into their design to develop effective solutions. Internal development takes that concept even further as these are groups employed by the company to provide custom solutions that competitors generally do not have access to. For those companies who can afford this option, competitive advantage is just one idea away. The advantage is clear proprietary applications that may contain functionality based on processes developed from within. The disadvantage, is that like the Infrastructure, when a critical business application breaks, there is usually a direct impact to business.

Unlike Infrastructure and Development, there is a third element to IT which, like the Infrastructure, goes relatively unnoticed until something breaks. This is not software, nor it is hardware, let's call it what it is; People. IT Support is often undervalued and overlooked as being a critical element to an effectively run technology environment when this group of individuals need to be recognized as the bridge that binds a business to its technology.

Del.isci.ous Tags: ITIL, itSMF, SOA, Six Sigma

The IT Service Professional

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:03:19 GMT

Service and Support, long the beaten down step-child of any industry, has taken no more public abuse and ridicule than in the world of Technology. In today's modern internet driven society, the presumed "elite" are those who can write code, de-tangle the inner workings of a UNIX kernel, design and manage a Relational Databases or design a global WAN. However, when all hell breaks loose with those core technologies, who is that one person responding to a business user to take the bullet for the failure? It is the Service Professional who is dispatched to take up the challenge of facing the end user impacted by the failure.

By no fault of the industry as a whole, the relatively young business of technology has been one designed to enable the business as quickly as possible to provide the business with a technological advantage over its competition. Over the years this has meant a rapid deployment mentality which meant throwing out all sorts of technology solutions with little thought being given to how that technology would be supported after it is in place. The result of which has been an environment which has spawned a culture of reactivity.

The goal of this blog is not to address the importance of the technology nor the business, as the concept of Service can be applied across any industry or technology, but rather the Service minded professional that is long overdue in being recognized for their contribution to industry. The IT Service Profession is a field that many feel can be performed by any person with a deeper than average interest in technology. What is being realized as of late is that the Service-minded individual is one that not simply understands technology, but has a unique view of how it should be implemented in a manner that may be more effective than that of the core technologist or the pure business individual.

A cultural shift is in the works within most technology dependent businesses today. The ability to stop viewing technology as purely a body development and engineering elements, but also that third piece which is a people driven function outside of those core roles. We all know technology breaks. It is the management of those breaks through to the restoration of business processes in which the true value player can be found..... The IT Service Professional.

Del.isci.ous Tags: ITIL, itSMF, SOA, Six Sigma

Blog list: Fav's

Sun, 25 May 2008 18:50:28 GMT

Fav's

BufferOverrun
Brian's Space
surching4me
Opinion on everything from IT Service, Apple, life, travel, photography and current events can be found within. Literally, there is something for everyone in here. No topics are off-limits and no amount of feedback will be ignored. It is about seeing life

Blog list: myPhotographs

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:40:01 GMT

myPhotographs

LensFlare
The site for my Digital Photographs