Tracks & Sessions

Session 101 - Building an Effective Customer Service Strategy

Wednesday March 17 10:15AM - 11:15AM
In today’s evolving business climate, superior customer service is no longer a luxury but a necessity for survival. Building an overall customer service strategy has challenged many organizations…and it's not going to get any easier! Companies will continue to be challenged as the ever-changing face, preferences and profile of the customer and the people that serve them span four generations. Each of these generations has particular preferences and priorities that define how “customer service” needs to be delivered to meet their wide range of expectations. As our customers’ technical abilities continue to improve and expand, we need to ensure that our services allow us to best serve them they their way; not our way!

We must develop and execute a customer service strategy that serves both internal and external customers aligned with the Service-Profit chain. There is no ‘one size fits all’ model and all customers are not 'created' equally in terms of how services should be delivered. This session will examine the importance of research, planning, strategy creation and service execution. Charles will cover important foundational customer service concepts which then can be expanded and customized to encompass your ever-changing business environment, customer expectations and team dynamics.

Presented By

Charles McCann
Oklahoma State University Information Technology Division
Charles McCann is the director of Technology Support for Oklahoma State University and is responsible for the Helpdesk, Deskside Support, IT Labs, and Training. Charles has been working in the Information Technology field for over fifteen years. He began his career as a computer lab monitor in 1988 while he was working on his undergraduate degree in Computer Science. Charles holds a B.S. in Math and Computer Science from Missouri Western State College, a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of South Carolina, and an M.B.A. from Oklahoma State University. Charles is also a certified project management professional (PMP) and help desk manager (HDM). Charles is working on completing his Ph.D. in Management Information Systems, where his areas of research include Customer Satisfaction, CRM, Data Mining, and Process Improvement.

Link to this session.

Session 201 - How to Define and Value Services: the Cornerstone of ITSM

Wednesday March 17 11:30AM - 12:30PM
Defining and valuing services are the first two steps in ITIL v3 strategy generation, as well as the first steps in the service portfolio process. You simply cannot adopt ITIL or IT service management without defining and valuing your services. The problem is that ITIL does not tell you how to do this. There is a hint, however, in the complementary guidance buried deep within ITIL. Join Hank to uncover the secrets to IT service definition and learn how to define IT services in hours instead of weeks. Also learn an easy-to-understand method for valuing services that improves business IT alignment.

Key Takeaways:

Figure out where to start IT service definition (it’s probably not where you thought)
Understand how to define IT services in business terms
Learn the secrets of IT service definition, including customer- and resource-facing services and resources
Get going with service catalog development and service portfolio management in just a few hours
Understand where IT service value originates (it may not be where you think)
Learn the secret of IT value creation (business value at risk and the marketplace)
Determine how to prioritize your IT activities based on service value

Presented By

Hank Marquis
Global Knowledge
Hank Marquis leads the business service management practice area for Global Knowledge, the worldwide leader in IT and business training. He is responsible for BSM strategy -- integrating ITIL, ISO-20000, COBIT, Six Sigma, and project management into seamless solutions for clients. Hank has more than 25 years of information technology industry experience from both enterprise and vendor positions. He holds advanced certifications in BSM topics, is a senior member of the American Society for Quality, and has extensive experience helping IT executives implement IT governance and operational frameworks. He held operational management positions at MCI, was CIO at e-commerce financial services provider Celexis, served as VP of marketing and CTO at management software company Opticom, and rose to senior product management at Compuware. Hank has helped dozens of companies develop and implement ITSM best practices.

Link to this session.

Session 301 - Creating a Successful Sourcing Strategy

Wednesday March 17 3:00PM - 4:00PM
Deciding to outsource any function is not easy. Trusting an outsider with internal business responsibilities requires confidence in client service and performance. How do you develop that confidence? What traits and services you should be assessing when evaluating outsourcing suppliers? Anna will present recommendations to help IT business leaders assess potential IT outsourcing and managed service solutions providers including a list of outsourcing engagement requirements and a number of critical evaluation guidelines and suggestions.

You will learn:

How to vet potential partners thoroughly
How to weigh traits and services against needs and requirements
How to determine which processes to outsource and which to manage in-house
What to do internally to ensure outsourcing success

Presented By

Anna Frazzetto
Harvey Nash, Inc.
Anna Frazzetto has architected, implemented, and directed managed services and outsourcing initiatives at Global 1000 and mid-size companies. An outsourcing expert, she developed and implemented technology practices in numerous organizations while holding strategic responsibility for managing data centers, help desks and networking practices.

A recognized leader in managed services and infrastructure management, Anna heads development and implementation of IT solutions for Harvey Nash’s US network. She is a regular industry presenter and was recently named to the HDI Support Center Leadership Certification Standards (HDI SCLP) Committee. Anna holds a bachelor’s in computer science and mathematics from New York University.

Link to this session.

Session 401 - What the CIO Wants You to Know

Thursday March 18 10:00AM - 11:00AM
You’ll value your time with Broadcom Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Ken Venner as he challenges you to think like a CIO. Ken has been extremely successful at integrating Broadcom’s global IT organization into the business to achieve relevance, respect and business impact. Join Ken as he shares his experiences, insights and recommendations around IT management effectiveness. You will not want to miss this opportunity as Ken clearly and succinctly lays it out for his audience in terms of what it takes to be a successful IT manager in 2010 and beyond.

Presented By

Ken Venner
Broadcom Corporation
Ken Venner is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Broadcom Corporation. He is responsible for all business system, computing and telecommunications infrastructure. Ken has served as Chief Information Officer since joining Broadcom in August 2000. In February 2002 he was elected a Vice President. Previously, Ken was Vice President of Product Management and Chief Information Officer of Rockwell Electronic Commerce from 1997 to August 2000. Prior to that, he held a number of information sciences/information technology management positions for over 11 years at Lucent Technologies/ AT&T Bell Laboratories. Ken received a B.E. from the Stevens Institute of Technology, an M.E. from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.B.A. from New Hampshire College.

Link to this session.

Session 501 - Creating a Virtual Support Strategy

Thursday March 18 11:15AM - 12:15PM
Support organizations today are challenged to increase team productivity while continuously looking at cost containment and reduction. With limited budgets for technology and resources, support leaders must change their support model in order to meet organizational objectives. Join us for an informative discussion on the changing trends in IT and the workforce. This discussion will focus on how to evolve your current support model into a Virtual Support Center, with your support professionals working from home. We will review the industry maturity of this model, forecasted trends, and challenges associated with the work from home service and support model.

The four key learning objectives for this session include:

Changes in workforce and company strategy regarding working remotely
Crucial business case objectives of establishing a remote support team
Process and technology considerations for remote models of support
Overcoming challenges to deploying a remote team

Presented By

Tim Dewey
B Virtual Inc.
Tim Dewey has been an active part of the service and support industry for over 15 years. Tim has been responsible for the Education and Certification business for the former STI Knowledge, and was their business unit head for sourcing solutions for over nine years. His leadership and insight positioned the company’s sourcing solutions in the upper right hand quadrant for Gartner’s Help desk Outsourcing Services three times this decade. He is now President and CEO of B Virtual Inc., the leader in Virtual workforce solutions for the service and support industry.

Link to this session.

Session 509 - Arise Ye Service Leaders, The Time is Now!

Thursday March 18 11:15AM - 12:15PM
Service leadership is about doing the right things for the right reasons and making fact-based decisions. It’s about challenging your staff, conventional wisdom and taking care of your customers and the people that serve them. Service leadership is a servant role that defines service as a business and delivers it creatively and innovatively, with a focus on industry best practices. Service Leaders strongly believe in treating every customer like they were their only customer. They challenge the rest of the organization to work with them to deliver consistent, seamless, relevant, timely and cost-effective services. This session’s focus is to optimize your service delivery organization and evaluate yourself, your team and how you deliver best-in-class support. Peter will cover the service leadership characteristics to ensure best practices become standard operating procedures. Join this session if you believe mediocrity is the enemy of greatness. Learn what it takes to create a service culture of accountability and encouragement that constantly measures, continuously improves and delivers over and above performance.

Presented By

Pete McGarahan
McGarahan and Associates
Peter McGarahan is the founder and president of McGarahan & Associates. Peter recently served as the Chairman of the IT Infrastructure Management Association, a sister organization to HDI. Pete offers 25 years of IT and Business experience helping IT organizations optimize their service delivery model to support business objectives. His value to the service and support industry and business is his thought leadership. As a practitioner, product manager and support industry analyst and expert, he has influenced the maturity of the service and support industry.

Link to this session.

Session 601 - Organization Readiness and Cultural Change

Thursday March 18 2:45PM - 3:45PM
This Organization Readiness and Cultural Change Panel facilitated by Peter McGarahan and including industry practitioners, analysts and thought leaders will address organizational readiness in implementing successful change. If there is one constant variable in business and technology – it is change. Yet most people and organizations resist change even for their own good. What are the barriers to properly preparing and introduce change into the organization? How can we best work though them? How can we make change stick? The panel will address relevant topics like best preparing an organization for change, assessing organizational readiness and then funneling that information into the execution of the change plan. We promise this session will keep you on the edge of your seats as we welcome audience participation in sharing cultural change experiences, what worked and what did not work and why! The organizational readiness for any change is critical in how change gets communicated and implemented so the organization can best absorb it into their daily work lives.

Presented By

Pete McGarahan
McGarahan and Associates
Peter McGarahan is the founder and president of McGarahan & Associates. Peter recently served as the Chairman of the IT Infrastructure Management Association, a sister organization to HDI. Pete offers 25 years of IT and Business experience helping IT organizations optimize their service delivery model to support business objectives. His value to the service and support industry and business is his thought leadership. As a practitioner, product manager and support industry analyst and expert, he has influenced the maturity of the service and support industry.

Link to this session.

Session 701 - Service Management TOP GUN: Learn What the Best of the Best Do

Friday March 19 9:00AM - 10:00AM
Welcome to ITSM Top Gun – Do you have what it takes to be a 1 percenter? That is, the elite one percent of ITSM practitioners who can prevail against all the challenges to deliver the value that ITIL offers? If so, why not become a 1 percenter and learn the 7 key steps that every ITSM Program is to follow to deliver ITIL’s inherent value to the enterprise. Be the best – these steps have been compiled from the successful and practical ITSM implementations at organizations of varying size. Few organizations successful complete all 7 steps and even fewer get them right. While each step has been successful in its own right, you can only imagine the success available to the organization that embraces all 7 steps, and you are the key to making the difference! This session is program manager / senior sponsor focused and leverages from successful Case Study experiences of how other organizations, like yours, have excelled in the areas of: Program Establishment, Program Governance, Process Design, Technology Alignment, Communications, Learning and Metrics. If you feel that you could improve in any of these areas there will be clear guidelines, tales from the front line and techniques provided that will help you deliver excellence.

Presented By

Randal Locke
CA
Randal has more than 20 years of experience in IT Service Management. He has been instrumental in the development and delivery of ITIL solutions for large Clients in the Defense, Services, Manufacturing, Financial industries and within the Federal Government. He has performed these Service Management consulting services in North and Latin America and across Europe. Areas of expertise include Service Management/ITIL Consulting, Service Desk process and procedures, Incident, Problem and Change Management, Business Impact Analysis, Asset Management, Network and Systems Management and Business Process Reengineering.Randal is an ITIL Service Manager. Randal has also co-authored an ITIL Strategy book for international publication by Van Haren Publishing called “Service Management Process Maps.” He is also currently a member of the Help Desk Institute (HDI) and the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) and is a Certified Help Desk Director by HDI/STI Knowledge.

Link to this session.

Session 801 - Build your Technology Roadmap to Success

Friday March 19 10:15AM - 11:15AM
Customer support, whether internal or external, relies heavily on technology for success. But there are so many technology choices, vendors, and sourcing options! Limited budget, resources, and time compound those many choices and the challenges to make sure it all works together. Whether determining how to use existing technology most effectively or planning for changes or new technology, support organizations face many critical decisions. So how does a support organization determine which of the many things that land on the “wish list” should really be on the “to do” list? And how do you ensure effective planning and the right commitment to change? This session will provide the framework to ensure your success.

Learning objectives include:

Understand the importance of strategic planning in today’s world
Review a framework for building a plan and how to apply it to your world
Discuss key tradeoffs of different sourcing options
Understand some of the “hot” technologies to consider in your plans

Action ideas include:

Build a plan that will enable your operation to meet its goals
Define ways to use current technology better, as well as filter through the many technology choices

Presented By

Lori Bocklund
Strategic Contact, Inc.
Lori Bocklund is President of Strategic Contact, an independent consulting firm focused on helping companies optimize the strategic value of their technology and operations. Strategic Contact helps companies develop and execute plans tied to business goals. Lori is a recognized industry leader and published author. She has experience with a broad spectrum of systems, applications, and operational environments. Attendees of Lori's seminars and courses appreciate her enthusiasm, energy, and humor. She has a great ability to use her technical and industry knowledge, along with her excellent communication skills, to make today's complex technology environment more readily understood.

Link to this session.

Session 102 - Five Hallmarks of Help Desk Excellence

Wednesday March 17 10:15AM - 11:15AM
An effective help desk is easy to spot – you hear, see, and feel it -- in satisfied callers thanking personnel… in metrics that prove speed and successful problem resolution…and in environments where business processes are mapped and followed. While evidence of success is clear, often it’s harder to identify traits and practices that separate great help desks from average ones. The reality is that they come on all shapes and sizes.

Examine core management and operational elements and you will find five hallmarks of help desk excellence. Anna will present how companies might emulate these within their environments, including:

What comprises passionate leadership in the help desk environment
How ongoing training retains employees and customers
What a clearly defined business process is and what value it adds
How to incorporate innovation into a help desk environment

Presented By

Anna Frazzetto
Harvey Nash, Inc.
Anna Frazzetto has architected, implemented, and directed managed services and outsourcing initiatives at Global 1000 and mid-size companies. An outsourcing expert, she developed and implemented technology practices in numerous organizations while holding strategic responsibility for managing data centers, help desks and networking practices.

A recognized leader in managed services and infrastructure management, Anna heads development and implementation of IT solutions for Harvey Nash’s US network. She is a regular industry presenter and was recently named to the HDI Support Center Leadership Certification Standards (HDI SCLP) Committee. Anna holds a bachelor’s in computer science and mathematics from New York University.

Link to this session.

Session 202 - Metrics 101: What to DO with the Measurements You SHOULD be Collecting

Wednesday March 17 11:30AM - 12:30PM
Metrics for support organizations often fall into two categories; too few or too many, neither result providing appropriate information to enable good decision-making. Understanding what metrics to measure and how to achieve those measurements challenges both new and experienced managers. Determining the appropriate metrics is essential to managing a support center and leveraging its core function to contribute to an organization’s success. This vital information enables support center management to communicate the value of the organization and deliver the right services at the right cost. To accomplish this goal, support center management needs to understand the different types of metrics: qualitative, quantitative, efficiency, effectiveness, then identify which metrics are Performance Indicators (PI), Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and Key Results Indicators (KRI). Join John, a service metrics authority, as he showcases the various types of metrics needed to consider, the value of their purpose and how to use the right measurements to obtain results.

Presented By

John Custy
JPC Group
John Custy has more than 20 years experience in designing, developing, and implementing IT services management solutions, both as a practitioner and as a consultant. He has assisted many organizations in developing their service strategies and translating these strategies into functional business plans, resulting in improved IT services management practices. John is an ITIL-certified service manager and also holds ITIL Practitioner certifications in IT service management.

Link to this session.

Session 209 - Making Sense of Service and Operating Level Agreements

Wednesday March 17 11:30AM - 12:30PM
Service level management is a methodology for establishing agreed upon expectations with your customers and with all the other areas in IT support behind the scenes. While it sounds straight forward, there are many pieces that need to fit together to make it successful. The Service Level Agreement is one of the most visible pieces of the Service Level Management process, yet it is not the first piece that needs to be considered. To be effective, you must collect the customer Service Level Requirements (SLRs) and draft Operational Level Agreements (OLAs). Without these foundation pieces, Service Level Agreements are empty promises. To do this successfully, several fundamental elements need to be in place. Additionally, effective communications and relationship building within IT and with business partners is necessary. This session gets “back to basics” and covers the fundamentals of Service Level Management and provides tips for managing relationships and improving service levels on a continuous basis.

Presented By

Rae Ann Bruno
Business Solutions Training
Rae Ann Bruno is an ITIL-certified instructor with more than 15 years of management experience emphasizing process reengineering, employee development, and business alignment of IT services. Formerly the vice president of strategic relations for Previo, Rae Ann consulted with Previo customers on process re-engineering and best practices and trained support professionals on industry best practices. Additionally, Rae Ann has authored many industry articles and white papers. Prior to joining Previo, Rae Ann was the director of IT customer service for Siemens Energy & Automation (SE&A).

Link to this session.

Session 302 - Keep Training Alive Without a Budget

Wednesday March 17 3:00PM - 4:00PM
We all know that one of the first budgets to go in hard economic times is the training budget. Deborah shares her experience in facilitating adult learning to this session to give you ideas to keep training alive, motivate your staff and create competitions that will increase teamwork, buy-in and production with a limited budget. Interaction will help us to hear your ideas of what has or has not worked in your organization.

This session will provide you with:

A brief understanding of adult learning theory
Ways to create small exercises in your team meetings to embed the knowledge you want your team to retain
Ideas for competitions to increase peer pressure for great performance
Help for continuing your staff’s learning and accountability to what they have learned
Inexpensive resources to engage your staff
An understanding of to how to deliver a “Keep It Alive Track” TM

Presented By

Deborah Monroe
Ignite Achievements Int'l, Inc.
Deborah Monroe, President of Ignite Achievements Int’l, is one of few Master EQ Practitioners in the world working specifically to change workplace behaviors and patterns. Deborah works with all levels of executive leadership, management and individual contributors while concentrating on integrating humans and processes for a balanced working environment. Her aim is to create understanding and empathy building a positive bottom line through employee and customer engagement and retention. Deborah is an HDI Faculty Member and well-known speaker at conferences delivering certification courses and exciting sessions with great takeaway’s that are easy to implement.

Link to this session.

Session 402 - Performance Management: Rewards, Rework and Replace

Thursday March 18 10:00AM - 11:00AM
In today’s volatile employment market, creating and maintaining a productive, cohesive team is a challenge. After the “honeymoon”, sometimes the performance of new hires can be a surprise. Performance of inherited team members can be just as challenging once the honeymoon is over, it’s time to deal with the “good, the bad and the ugly”. This session is designed to address creative, yet HR approved, strategies on keeping the good, developing the bad into the good and working the ugly out of your organization. We’ll discuss how to define what good performance looks like to your organization, how to communicate this to your team, holding people accountable in a positive supportive fashion and how to address performance that continues to miss expectations.

Learning Objectives:

Define a process to identify and describe specifically what “good performance” is
Develop a feedback process for staff to regularly communicate your evaluation of their performance
Create a motivational environment for good performers to continue to grow
Create performance improvement action plans (informal) for areas needing improvement
Understand how the disciplinary process works and how to be effective in its use

Action Ideas:

Define good performance and create monthly feedback forms for team members
Implement monthly 1-on-1 performance feedback meetings

Presented By

Mary Cruse
Genzyme Genetics
Passionate about customer service, Mary Cruse has led teams for Fortune 500 companies for 25+ years in the airline and healthcare industries. She has extensive experience in both technical and non-technical customer service centers, with an expertise in software implementation, call center design and technology, workflow definitions and design, and people leadership and development. At Genzyme Genetics, Mary leads 5 external customer support centers, supporting the medical community in ontological and prenatal diagnostic testing, with 50 customer service representatives in her centers around the Southwest. Mary carries the HDI certifications of HDA, HDM and Certified Training Instructor as well as the CIAC Call Center Operations Manager Certification. Mary is President of the Los Angeles Chapter of HDI, Chairman Emeritus of the Global Member Advisory Board and past member of the Strategic Advisory Board of HDI.

Link to this session.

Session 502 - Service Level Management: A Journey of Baby Steps with Big Results

Thursday March 18 11:15AM - 12:15PM
IT Transformation is no easy task. This session will identify areas that you can turn into quick wins for implementing, maintaining or improving Service Level Management within your organization. Within every organization, there are projects or initiatives where adoption of best practices can assist you in gaining the needed traction to reap the many benefits of Service Level Management. This session follows a BJC HealthCare case study and documents how Service Level Management was formally introduced, subsequently implemented and which currently thrives within the current environment. You will be introduced to the successes and many challenges encountered along the way. You will walk through a detailed gap analysis, 24-month road map, and how culture change was identified and addressed in order to gain the endorsement needed from customers, staff, and management.

Key learning objectives will include:

Collaborating with other established processes/initiatives within your organization
Promoting positive culture change
Endorsement of senior IT management
Providing drivers needed to sustain momentum

Presented By

Chris Kientzle
BJC HealthCare
Chris has been an IT professional for 13 years and currently works as Service Level Manager for BJC Healthcare. Her certifications include ITIL Service Practitioner’s Agree and Define, ITIL Foundations, HDI Helpdesk Manager, and Six Sigma Yellow Belt. She is the Gateway Chapter (St. Louis) President and has held previous offices of Membership and Programs. She is also an active member of the HDI HealthCare Provider’s Forum. Chris is passionate about Service Level Management and enjoys sharing her experiences and successes with others.

Link to this session.

Session 602 - Project Leadership for Support Center Professionals

Thursday March 18 2:45PM - 3:45PM
"Okay. I've been handed this project. Now what do I do? I've never done this before." Sound familiar? Because of current economic conditions, many individuals are being thrust into roles within their companies that they may or may not be prepared to perform. This session will provide basic skills on how to avoid pitfalls while implementing change in your support environment. You'll learn how to approach a project and where to begin with the five-step roadmap. You'll get practical, everyday methodologies to get the job done on time, on budget, and within specific guidelines.

You’ll also learn:

Basic project management terms
How to quantify needs for your team
How to gain buy-in for your ideas
How to approach a project and where to begin -- the five-step roadmap
How to select the right resources
How to define success criteria for a project team

Presented By

Mary Cruse
Genzyme Genetics
Passionate about customer service, Mary Cruse has led teams for Fortune 500 companies for 25+ years in the airline and healthcare industries. She has extensive experience in both technical and non-technical customer service centers, with an expertise in software implementation, call center design and technology, workflow definitions and design, and people leadership and development. At Genzyme Genetics, Mary leads 5 external customer support centers, supporting the medical community in ontological and prenatal diagnostic testing, with 50 customer service representatives in her centers around the Southwest. Mary carries the HDI certifications of HDA, HDM and Certified Training Instructor as well as the CIAC Call Center Operations Manager Certification. Mary is President of the Los Angeles Chapter of HDI, Chairman Emeritus of the Global Member Advisory Board and past member of the Strategic Advisory Board of HDI.

Link to this session.

Session 609 - Developing an Effective Service Delivery Model

Thursday March 18 2:45PM - 3:45PM
If you are one of the many support center managers trying to gain control of your service delivery model as a result of mergers, acquisitions and other market-based adjustments, this session will answer the ever-growing questions surrounding the type of service delivery model to best meet the needs of your customers. We will examine in detail the elements of successful customer interactions and examine the overall impact to SLAs and cost.

What should we consider before we accept a new support initiative?

What are the best-known methods to allow the customer to reach the service desk? When to use phone…email…chat?

What are the efficiencies gained or lost with these support methods?

This session will provide you with a framework to educate your stakeholders and gain the information and resources you need to be successful. You will learn:

What first initial contact resolution ACTUALLY means to you and the business.
Understand the drivers that aid in the selection of the best methodology for customer contact.
Understand how these service delivery methods affect your service level agreements.
Understand the financial impact each of these methods offers.

You will understand the financial impact each of these methods and takeaway checklists you can use in your own environment in order to drive standards for success.

Presented By

Rick Joslin
HDI
Rick Joslin is the author of the HDI Focus books on Knowledge Management, the Knowledge Management Maturity Model, and is the contributing writer for the HDI Service and Support Handbook. He is a certified KCS instructor and guides organizations with the implementation of KCS. He is also a certified instructor for the HDI certification courses.

Link to this session.

Session 702 - Making the LEAP from Helpless to Helpful

Friday March 19 9:00AM - 10:00AM
Seven years ago, Highlights for Children had no centralized Help Desk. As part of a major reorganization, a central point of contact was created that has evolved into the Desktop Services Group. Follow their journey as they struggled to determine their place within the Information Systems department, their goals, their methodology, and their acceptance by both user and their own department.

As a part of that journey, they implemented a process of learning, experimenting, analysis, and partnership (LEAP). You will hear how they dealt with the possibility of outsourcing, and how they utilized information from HDI meetings (both local and national) to expand their responsibilities to include training, asset management, and setting software/hardware standards.

Learning Objectives:

Using LEAP to improve the performance and responsibilities
Ways to Use HDI as a resource for your Help Desk
How to better utilize the hardware/software already available
Tips on creating partnerships with customers

Action Ideas:

Learning more about your current tools and processes
Partnering with your customers

Presented By

Tom Lewis
Highlights for Children
For 27 years, Tom Lewis has been a member of the Information Systems department. When his company decided to create its first Help Desk, Tom requested the opportunity to manage that group. With the help of HDI and the local chapter, Tom has turned the Desktop Services group into an important cog in the Information Systems department.

Link to this session.

Session 802 - The Mechanics of Empowerment and Delegation

Friday March 19 10:15AM - 11:15AM
Leaders no longer have to struggle with the apparently opposing forces of alignment and empowerment. Individual contributors can resolve their perpetual frustration with the lack of autonomy in the age of accountability. Through the use of a simple framework and two easy-to-employ techniques, teams and organizations will find themselves in the enviable position of gaining everyone’s best contributions towards a set of agreed upon goals. This empowerment framework provides a vocabulary for situational role clarity. This role clarity is further enhanced by a progressive hierarchy of leadership activities and a proven technique gaining rock-solid alignment while promoting empowerment. The framework is also suitable for use as a performance management tool.

The four key learning objectives of this session are:

Learn and be able to describe to others an empowerment framework divided into four “Empowerment Zones”
Learn to recognize different barriers to empowerment, and understand the key behaviors for empowerment
Learn and use a simple coaching and leading technique that erases ambiguity
Adapt a planning and performing mechanism that constantly increases alignment

Specific action ideas resulting from the session include:

Begin to use two techniques that enhance your leadership activities
Incorporate the empowerment model into your team’s vocabulary

Presented By

Bill Payne
Amylin Pharmaceuticals
Bill is a results-driven Information Technology leader with 25 years of diverse professional experiences. He is an expert in the design, delivery, and support of cost-effective IT solutions that deliver quantifiable business benefits. At companies such as Pepsi-Cola, Dell, and Whole Foods Market, Bill has proven himself to be a principled, supportive, and open-minded leader. His previous roles have included: data communications consulting, messaging systems analyst, managing multiple infrastructure engineering teams, medical information systems deployment, and retail and infrastructure systems management. Bill is currently fulfilling an IT Director role at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, leading the IT Operations Services and Support group.

Link to this session.

Session 103 - Service Desk + Continuous Improvement = Energized Results

Wednesday March 17 10:15AM - 11:15AM
Service Desks face the perfect storm of decreasing budgets, reduced capital, shrinking FTEs, and increasing workloads. With limited resources and no change in the foreseeable future, what can you do? Your secret weapon is implementing a continuous improvement program for your staff at the Service Desk. Dan will share how a Kaizen event turned a disastrous system upgrade into a service desk miracle with zero daytime abandon calls. World class companies such as Toyota and others recognize that continuous improvement programs improve quality, raise morale, eliminate waste, and open the door to employee creativity and productivity. Come and learn how continuous improvement can energize your Service Desk.

In this session, you will:

Understand the basics of continuous improvement
Learn continuous improvement methods such as Quick and Easy Kaizen and the Kaizen rapid improvement event
Discover why every employee should be involved in improvement activities
Review case study data on continuous improvement results at Alverno Information Services Help Desk

This session will equip attendees to implement the following techniques:

Start a simple Quick and Easy Kaizen or continuous improvement program for Service Desk employees
Use the “Kaizen workout” technique in your department staff meetings to generate improvement ideas

Presented By

Dan Lafever
Alverno Information Services
Daniel C. Lafever brings over 20 years experience of IT support and 10 years of process improvement to his current position as Help Desk Manager and “Chief Kaizen Officer.” He has worked for IUPUI, City of Indianapolis, Lock Reynolds Boyd and Weisell, and Alverno Information Services. He has been a catalyst for implementing Knowledge Centered Support, VOIP, Lean Six Sigma, and HDI training to support for over 20,000 users in the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services system. Dan has received Six Sigma champion and green belt training, and is a certified in ITIL Foundation and as a HDI Help Desk Manager.

Link to this session.

Session 203 - Don't DO That: 50 Things That a Service Desk Should Never Do!

Wednesday March 17 11:30AM - 12:30PM
The saying goes, ‘experience is something that you get just after you needed it’. Here, we want the experience before we need it! This session is unique because it starts with NO SLIDES and NO PRESENTATION. This session is totally INTERACTIVE driven by FUN NETWORKING. It starts with a GREAT BRAINSTORMING session of sharing experiences and traumas. Teams will work together to talk about all the things they’ve been through and how we can bring it all together so everyone can avoid making the same mistakes. Then, we will create the slides during the session and download them later so everyone can have the benefit of the combined brainpower! If you like to learn by exchanging views and networking with your peers then this is the session for you.

Presented By

Malcolm Fry
Fry Consultants
As a recognized IT industry luminary with over 40 years experience in Information Technology, Malcolm Fry serves as an Independent Executive Advisor, and brings an unparalleled breadth of knowledge and experience in IT business and technical issues. Malcolm is the author of many publications on IT service and support, has had numerous articles and papers published, and is regularly contacted as a source of information by technology journalists. His latest publications are 'A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a CMDB’ and a new ITIL complementary book 'How to Build a Service Management Department'. Malcolm was also a member of the v3 Advisory Group and a mentor for the 'Service Operations' book. In April 2009 he was awarded the prestigious ‘Ron Muns Lifetime Achievement Award for IT Service and Support.’

Pete McGarahan
McGarahan and Associates
Peter McGarahan is the founder and president of McGarahan & Associates. Peter recently served as the Chairman of the IT Infrastructure Management Association, a sister organization to HDI. Pete offers 25 years of IT and Business experience helping IT organizations optimize their service delivery model to support business objectives. His value to the service and support industry and business is his thought leadership. As a practitioner, product manager and support industry analyst and expert, he has influenced the maturity of the service and support industry.

Link to this session.

Session 204 - Call Effectiveness Monitoring…Scoring for Success

Wednesday March 17 11:30AM - 12:30PM
This presentation will provide you the tools you need to shower your agents with praise when they perform successfully… but also the ability to sit down with each of them and work on their weaknesses. The expectations you set with your agents will go a long way towards allowing them to achieve the perfect call. In this session, you’ll be presented with the tools to help turn your team members into quality service agents.

Key questions answered throughout this presentation are:

How does an analyst know they have successfully wrapped up a call and satisfied the customer?
What kind of guidance and direction are you providing to your analysts?
Is the leadership you provided documented?
Are you providing reasonable and specific objectives?

Once you leave you this presentation you will have a template ready and waiting to enter numbers and calculate a score for every call.

Learning Objectives

Tips on how to manage phone calls
Teach your analyst how to listen to the customer
Become proactive during your call and anticipate the customer’s request
Provide direction and next steps to the customers

Action Items

Action plans improving quality of customer calls
Templates and step by step implementation

Presented By

Eddie Vidal
University of Miami
Eddie Vidal has 20+ years experience in a variety of areas in Information Technology focusing on service delivery and support for IT infrastructures. In his current position as Manager of Customer Service and Support for the Telecommunications department at the University of Miami, Eddie supports over 35,000 faculty, staff and students. He has transformed the Help Desk from a dispatch environment to a Customer Centric Support Center. Prior to his current position at the University of Miami, Eddie was Assistant Director of Professional Management and Planning Services at Florida International University. At FIU, Eddie was responsible for transitioning the desktop support team to the Support Center, setting computing standards, managing software licensing and creating a Project Management Office. His accomplishments in various organizations include managing multi-million dollar budgets, the construction of a 500 seat call center, creating Service Level Agreements, implementing customer service initiatives, deploying applications, and re-engineering organizations. He currently serves as President of the South Florida HDI local chapter. Eddie has earned certifications for ITIL Foundations and HDI Support Center Manager.

Link to this session.

Session 303 - How to Create an Actionable Service Catalog

Wednesday March 17 3:00PM - 4:00PM
This session will cover best practices in creating an actionable service catalog, including template design, service level management, service request management/fulfillment, service financial management (pricing, costing, chargeback, and accounting), and service demand management. This interactive session will clear up the confusion surrounding the topic of Service Catalog and Portfolio management, helping attendees with practical and tactical advice and tools to provide immediate benefits to their organizations. This session will share real-world examples of both successful and failed service catalog implementations and lessons learned. We will cover action plans for where and how to get started and show quick wins for continued business support and long-term success.

This session’s four key learning objectives are:

How to avoid common mistakes and pitfalls
Tips and techniques for building your business case and ROI
How to set the proper project goals and achieve desired results
Evaluation and understanding of methods (Do-It-Yourself vs. software, available tools and resources, etc.)

Action Ideas:

Empower user self-service and mimic the Amazon.com success/business model
Ensure real-time interactivity and actionability by your users/customers

Presented By

Andrew Kramer
PMG
Andrew Kramer has been an IT leader for over 15 years. Though he began his career in finance, he quickly shifted to technology, becoming an engineer, manager, and ultimately the founder and CEO of a successful network management software company. His career spans leading companies, including British Telecom, Hitachi, Cisco, the Federal Reserve Bank, and Bank of America. Andrew is currently VP of Customer Solutions at PMG, the current market leader for the red hot ITIL-compliant Service Catalog market. PMG’s Service Catalog Suite helps customers achieve the ITILv3 vision of continuous process improvement and measurable cost savings.

Link to this session.

Session 403 - Bridging the Gap between Incident and Problem Management

Thursday March 18 10:00AM - 11:00AM
This session will review ITIL Incident and Problem Management at a high level and show how Incident Matching and Trending can be used to analyze Incident resolutions to determine if permanent solutions should be investigated through Problem Management. Incident Matching and Trending provides statistics on the amount of Service Desk and End-User time that can be recovered if a permanent fix is implemented. These statistics can also help IT organizations better prioritize production support work by providing statistics that show the impact to the business.

Key Learning Objectives

Review the concepts of Known Errors and acceptable workarounds. Learn why it’s OK to use workarounds as long as the business impact of these resolutions is analyzed
Learn how to show the potential to recover both Service Desk time and end-user time by resolving Known Errors through Problem Management
Learn the importance of post-implementation trending to verify problem resolutions
Learn how post-implementation trending can ensure Incident Management processes are modified to appropriately handle future incidents

Presented By

Tony Krasinski
Erie Insurance Group
Tony has 25 years of IT experience in a variety of areas from programming to Service Desk Management. Along with the rest Erie’s IT Service Management Team, Tony has helped lead the ERIE Service Desk through ITIL Incident, Problem, Change and Asset Management implementation. Most recently, Tony led an effort to revise Erie’s Release Management process using ITIL V3 as a guide. In addition to these ITIL processes, Tony has introduced significant improvements in call handling and Agent performance that have led to world class performance by the ERIE Service Desk with reduced head count.

Link to this session.

Session 404 - Cataloging our Services: A School District’s Adventure in ITIL

Thursday March 18 10:00AM - 11:00AM
Not sure where to start with your Service Catalog? Wondering how to create a catalog with limited resources? This presentation will provide a case study of how the Arlington, Virginia Public Schools (APS) developed and implemented their Information Services Service Catalog. You will hear about the key elements APS put into place to implement this project; and see samples of the service catalog policy, entry templates, entry review rubric, and process workflows. You will learn about the challenges APS faced, and the fundamentals they needed to put in place to prepare for this important work. As one of a handful of public school systems implementing ITIL across the nation, APS will also share its goals, benefits and lessons learned.

Key questions answered throughout this presentation are:

How do you get the necessary high level buy-in to allocate resources to a Service Catalog?
What steps do you take in creating a Service Catalog?
How do you apply the ITIL framework to public K 12 education?

Learning Objectives -- At the end of the presentation the participants will be able to:

describe what is needed to begin this process internal to their organizations
identify key success factors in implementing a Service Catalog
apply ideas and lessons learned from the Arlington experience to other Service Catalog projects

Presented By

Dana Smith
Arlington Public Schools
Dana Smith has worked for 13 years in technology management and professional development in Arlington, Virginia Public Schools. Dana*s team provides training and desk-side support for the district student information system and Oracle ERP solution. Prior to this, Dana supervised the district Help Desk and served as Instructional Technology Training Coordinator for teachers. Dana is the Director of the North TIER Partnership of 15 Northern Virginia school divisions, working with the State Department of Education to provide resources and support that promote the integration of technology across school districts. She has a Master of Arts in Teaching and certifications including HDI Service Center Manager and Knowledge Centered Support; ITIL V3 Expert; and Total Trainer.

Rae Ann Bruno
Business Solutions Training
Rae Ann Bruno is an ITIL-certified instructor with more than 15 years of management experience emphasizing process reengineering, employee development, and business alignment of IT services. Formerly the vice president of strategic relations for Previo, Rae Ann consulted with Previo customers on process re-engineering and best practices and trained support professionals on industry best practices. Additionally, Rae Ann has authored many industry articles and white papers. Prior to joining Previo, Rae Ann was the director of IT customer service for Siemens Energy & Automation (SE&A).

Link to this session.

Session 503 - Eliminate the Big Impacts: Leverage Problem Management

Thursday March 18 11:15AM - 12:15PM
This session will present a practical approach to implementing a problem management process within your organization. It will discuss specifically the benefits that can be derived in building out a solid problem management process and integrated it with incident and change management. It will discuss how our company went through multiple levels of a problem management process to get to the point where we are today. More specifically, the session will discuss the components that should be considered when attempting to build out a problem management process; as well as how the ITSM tool was customized to fit these components.

Some of the key components that will be reviewed within this session are:

The possible entry points into Problem Management
Categorization and prioritization of problems
Assessing problems
Roles and responsibilities
Levels of cause analysis
Criteria for cause analysis
Key performance measurements for determining the success of the process as a whole

This Session is complimented well as the follow-up Session to “Bridging the Gap between Incident and Problem Management.”

Presented By

Andrew Abramczyk
Erie Insurance Group
As part of the support industry for close to 20 years, Andrew has been in every type of support position; from front-line to tiered support to mgmt and now to director of a service management organization. His organization supports close to 15,000 internal and external customers. He is part of a key team that has made their service desk world class. In addition, Andrew’s organization has expanded its scope from not only a service desk but also a Service and Systems Mgmt group, responsible for systems monitoring, desktop mgmt, asset mgmt, and ITSM tool administration. He has been the lead or an integral member in implementing several ITIL processes within his organization. He is a certified Help Desk Manager and ITIL foundations certified.

Link to this session.

Session 604 - Engaging PM Communications Techniques for Bulletproof Support Relationships

Thursday March 18 2:45PM - 3:45PM
This session will cover how using the concepts and PM principles of a Communication Plan can easily be broken down into tangible benefits for your Help Desk operation. Learn how the many things learned as a part of creating and implementing a communication plan can (and should!) be easily reused as active knowledge for use in a knowledge base or for a “Standard Operating Procedures” manual. Too often a project is rolled out and the event is over, ending any opportunity to apply “lessons learned” in a formal manner for your support staff. As a Manager or Lead, if you can get a hold of the communication plan for a project, you will see who the stakeholders were and you can continue the dialog to make sure you get the best quality information from those truly in the know.

Key Learning Objectives:

Learn and Apply Communication Skills
Understand when and how to “translate” for your staff and users
Pick up and cater to your Audience’s Needs quickly
Enable your staff easy access to background “and foreground” information

Action ideas:

Analysis of Communication Plan v Standard Operating Procedures
Create a more “projectized” support center using an analysis of bullet #1 and how your current support processes are communicated, categorized and distributed

Presented By

Julia Forbes
Brown Rudnick LLP
A Project Management and Training professional with over twelve years of experience in medium to large law firms, Julia has managed staff and projects large and small, all with a keen eye to elevating the quality of support and service impact provided to the organization. Julia is an active member of the International Legal Technology Association where she has spoken and contributed to articles.

Link to this session.

Session 703 - Process Design Simplified

Friday March 19 9:00AM - 10:00AM
Far too many process designs sit on the shelf – never to be used. A good process design engages the stakeholders, identifies the requirements, and enables automation… which leads to efficiencies gained. In his review of his Process Design Approach, David will demonstrate the importance of good process design and give you some tactical and practical tips to use in your organization. David will go over his Process Design Approach and give some suggestions from experience, things to watch out for, tips for implementing tools, the importance of education & governance.

Learning Objectives:

Assess weaknesses in the current design using a structured approach based on best practice

Design to address weaknesses - use the results from the maturity assessment to design more complete processes,

Elements of a Process – effective process design requires much more than a Visio diagram! David will identify the key elements required for a robust process including policies, governance and metrics

Tool and data requirements -an effective process design must include the elements required for automation

Develop -Translation of tool and data requirements into functional specifications for tool implementation

Building out a solution that fully aligns to and supports the process design

Deploy your solution effectively with the proper process governance as well as education and training for stakeholders

Presented By

David Mainville
Consulting - Portal
David was the principal architect of Consulting-Portal’s IT Service Management methodology and ITSM services. As CEO David remains very “hands on” and spends a significant amount of his time working directly with clients and project teams in the design and implementation of IT Service Management programs and processes. David has an extremely comprehensive vision of IT service management, one that is based on over 25 years of practical IT experience primarily in the areas of IT support, operations and Enterprise Systems Management (ESM). David’s career started with front line technical roles leading to progressively senior technical and management positions. He has held the following positions: National Manager of Professional Services, ESM Practice Director, ESM Solutions Architect, Senior ESM Consultant, Field Operations Manager and Senior Field Engineer while serving at Millennia III, IBM Canada Limited and Amdahl Canada Limited. David has spoken at IQPC, itSMF Fusion, the SIFMA Technology conference and has had many customer presentations at Consulting-Portal and AMDAHL.

Link to this session.

Session 803 - The Warning Signs of Failure: ARE YOU WATCHING?

Friday March 19 10:15AM - 11:15AM
Organizational failure is common (NASA, FEMA, Enron, JetBlue, the foreclosure crisis, Wall Street), but it does not have to be. There is a large and growing body of literature on failure that explains why organizations fail to perform and how to prevent them from failing. Preventing failure is not just a matter of having good leadership, well-defined processes and good technology, but resides in practicing good organizational management.

At the conclusion of the presentation, you will:

Understand the four principle causes of failure
Learn how to practice the concept of predictable surprise and how it impacts organizational failure
Show how every employee in an organization can play a role in preventing failure by using after-action reporting
Identify a set of tools and techniques that an organization can use to prevent failure

Action items will include:

How to assess potential areas of organizational failure
How to present one’s assessment to senior management

Presented By

Robert Last
HDI
Bob Last has been involved in the IT technical support field as a manager, trainer, consultant and industry analyst for more than 20 years.

Link to this session.

Session 804 - Healing What Ails You: How Internal Process Improvement Gains You IT Credibility

Friday March 19 10:15AM - 11:15AM
Referencing the ITIL® methodology we know that the primary goal of the Incident Management process is to restore normal service operations as quickly as possible, thus minimizing the adverse impact on business operations. Most service desks therefore focus on time-to-resolution (TTR) as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI). These statistics are accepted as fulfillment of our control processes, but do we recognize the opportunity these numbers present? It is easy to establish where you are; the challenge is determining where you could be and devising a way to get there. The presence of unmanageable factors in a support environment must be acknowledged. But what about the MANAGEABLE ones -- the ones that lie within your grasp within your own organization? The potential for process improvement results from capitalizing on those variables within our span of control. And by improving your own internal results, you improve your credibility with the departments to whom you escalate, thus creating a better opportunity to solve even the most critical issue more quickly. The service desk of Hospital Corporation of America employs a model for improving processes and promoting a goal of continuous improvement throughout the department. This presentation discusses the application of that model to improve performance on TTR of critical-severity incidents but the strategy could be implemented for any metric in any industry.

Learning Objectives:

Review the ITIL® continuous improvement model
Apply this model to the Time to Resolution KPI
Evaluate measurements to build understanding and question conclusions
Monitor processes and results to identify a course of action

Action items include:

Utilization and customization of a business improvement model
Developing commitment toward improvement by fostering accountability within your organization

Presented By

Tony Jones
HCA Inc. (Metroplex)
Tony Jones is the Assistant Vice President for Client Support Services at Hospital Corporation of America, based in Nashville, Tennessee. With 19 years of experience in Service Desk, Tony is responsible for the operational management of the enterprise service desk for one of the largest, privately owned healthcare companies in the nation. Tony and his leadership team provide enterprise system support for 221 applications to 173 HCA hospitals, 91 outpatient Surgery Centers, and the facilities of 4 other large Healthcare companies. Tony serves as the chairperson of the Service Desk Leadership Council which provides direction and oversight to HCA’s division based service desks. He has been a member of HDI for eleven years. Through Tony's leadership, the maturing adoption of ITIL standards into the Service Desk environment within HCA has been accomplished. Tony has a BS in Biology and in Medical Technology from the University of Evansville and an M.B.A. from Bellarmine College, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Link to this session.

Session 104 - Building Bridges. The Art of Successful Negotiations

Wednesday March 17 10:15AM - 11:15AM
To have control over your life and have a successful career, you must master the fundamental art of negotiation. For most of us, negotiation is the most acceptable way to build bridges that create long lasting relationships. However, negotiations may also be used for reaching a basic agreement, influencing decisions, and taking command of your professional life. Learn the fundamental communication skills that open up the potential for you to become more persuasive and have others more easily accept your vision, your projects, and your ideas. A powerful negotiator is an excellent communicator. In reality, we all recognize that we may not get what we deserve in life, but we know for sure that we will get what we are able to negotiate for.

In this session you will learn to do the following:

Identify your value as a communicator
Evaluate your potential as a successful negotiator
Clearly define the 2 reasons why people negotiate
Develop your complete potential and resources to gain power
Identify the 10 psychological secrets for a win-win situation
Recognize the 3 main sources required to lead a successful negotiation Work more efficiently with people in your immediate environment

Presented By

Guy Cabana

Danec Consulting, Inc.

Link to this session.

Session 105 - What R U Doing with 4 Generations on Your Team?

Wednesday March 17 10:15AM - 11:15AM
If you’re like most companies, you likely have 3-4 Generations on your Support Team: • Gen Y 15-30 yrs old • Gen X 31-44 yrs old • Baby Boomers 45-63 yrs old • Radio Babies 64-75 yrs old. So what are you doing to help them effectively communicate with one another and work as an effective team? Do you refer to Gen Y as “the kids” and the Radio Babies as the “old farts”? How’s that working so far? Got some animosities building? Come hear tips to helping bridge those 30-40 year age gaps. This session will explain how to attract and integrate the GEN Yr’s into your IT Support organization. We will discuss ways to foster their cutting-edge technical contributions with their high energy and new ideas, while training them on the fundamentals of business savvy. We will explore what the rapid ‘Aging of America’ means to your team and what you should be doing now to prepare … so you’re not caught short by the wealth of tribal knowledge exiting en masse. We’ll also explore what the future work teams look like and creative ways to get work done; how it will get done, where it will get done, and with efficiency and quality for your customers.

You’ll learn:

How to manage these age-diverse teams … managing older and younger workers than you
How to stimulate and foster creative ideas without cramping the Gen Y style
What motivates the Gen Ys? How does that translate into incentives on your team?
What areas are they most in need of some instruction?
How to best uncover and use the natural skill set of each team member?

Presented By

Brenda Iniguez
Pink Elephant
Brenda Iniguez is a seasoned IT Support Professional, with over 25 years proven experience in Fortune 100 companies, designing, building, consolidating, and managing their Enterprise Service Management initiatives. In addition, she is ITIL Service Manager certified, ITIL V3 certified, and was selected for the TSO V3 ITIL Live Content Review Group, a panel of 11 worldwide ITIL experts. Brenda is well-versed in the Service Management disciplines and has spent major parts of her career managing and as Executive Consultant with Pink Elephant, VP at Bank of America, Providian Financial, and as Service Management Strategy Director for FrontRange Solutions. She is currently doing Strategic Business work with Pink Elephant. Brenda is active in several professional industry groups, including President of the HDI One Association Board, Chairman Emeritus of the HDI-National Member Advisory Board, Board of Directors for the HDI Strategic Advisory Board, Officers Board of the San Francisco HDI Chapter (Help Desk Institute), Board of Directors of the AZ itSMF LIG, founding member Board of Directors for HDP (Help Desk Professionals), and served on the HDI, ITSM, HDP and itSMF National Conference Committees.

Link to this session.

Session 205 - The Lost Symbol: Breaking the Code for Effective Leadership Communication

Wednesday March 17 11:30AM - 12:30PM
Communication continues to be the number one stumbling block for organizations trying to accomplish major projects, shift culture or even just effectively communicate and keep alive a clear and compelling vision. While you don’t need to be Da Vinci to be more artful and effective in communicating for results, you will need to know why combing the elements of facts, symbols and emotions makes for more memorable and meaningful messages. Come join us as we break the code and reveal the “lost symbol”.

Presented By

Kirk Weisler
Team Dynamics
Kirk Weisler is widely recognized as chief morale officer (CMO) of the support industry. A veteran of the customer service management industry, Kirk has worked to develop and implement a revolutionary strategy, philosophy, and approach to the call center world. Kirk is widely sought after to share his insightful stories and foundational philosophy of culture- and team-building with customer service and support center organizations around the country. In addition to his role as professional speaker and trainer, Kirk is currently helping to build a wilderness treatment and training facility for at-risk youth. His unique and diverse background as part of Outward Bound's professional development team, as a former US Army Ranger, and as an experiential team trainer make him a dynamic, outside-the-box motivator, trainer, and an inspiring and entertaining presenter.

Link to this session.

Session 304 - High Performance Leadership

Wednesday March 17 3:00PM - 4:00PM
Why do some support center teams flourish, consistently exceeding goals, and other teams flounder, often falling short of the projected expectations? They use the same technical tools, draw from the same employee pool, deploy the same processes, and serve the same customers, yet some teams consistently produce lower employee turnover and higher customer satisfaction scores. Why? All too often in our industry we are given tools to 'manage' our agents, yet very little training or tools are offered to help us 'lead' our agents. Whatever your type of environment, this keynote will be informative, entertaining and motivating.

Presented By

Julie Mohr
BlueprintAudits.com
Julie Mohr’s experience includes teaching ITSM and COBIT, consulting, and functioning as a senior member of teams at IHS Support Solutions, Agilita, and Pomeroy.

Link to this session.

Session 305 - Martians & Venusians: Managing Diversity in the Workplace

Wednesday March 17 3:00PM - 4:00PM
You’ve probably heard the saying that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, or perhaps you’ve even read the book. Truth is, men and women are different, in a number of ways, and managing people is never a black and white situation. Rather we all have to be cognizant of different types of personas and personalities that affect the way we interact with others. Come join Bren Boddy-Thomas and Jeffrey Brooks through an interactive journey that will explore the differences we all face in managing the diverse employee base we are all working with. We will investigate how male managers’ interactions may differ from the interactions of female managers, and how an employee’s gender, region, or any other number of traits, may also impact the management style and outcomes. We will investigate how your management technique can be a means to achieve great effectiveness in your organization, or a hindrance if you are not accounting for your team’s characteristics. We will also examine role-reversal and how it can affect your productivity. This session will provide a very humorous look at management techniques through role playing, constructive argument and even a few surprises.

Key Learning Objectives include:

Managing people vs. managing processes
Understanding positive reinforcement vs. stick and carrot
Identifying the best management technique based upon personality
Understanding the differences in employees with regard to gender, region, age, etc

Action Items:

Re-evaluate how you interact with your team based upon the knowledge gained during the session. Are you spot on…or do you need to make some adjustments?
Review presentation materials, articles and research to gain a better understanding of managing in a diverse environment
Conference materials will have a number of articles, links and research that support the ideas we will be discussing

Presented By

Bren Boddy-Thomas
Exchange Bank
Bren Boddy-Thomas is a Help Desk Manager with over 20 years of Customer Service Management Experience and has been in the Help Desk Industry for the past 7 years. She is on the Computer Science Advisory Board with Santa Rosa Junior College, has a HDA certification from HDI, and is on the HDI Member Advisory Board. Bren built a Super Help Desk from scratch on solid Customer Service and is the Single-point-of-contact for her company. With the diversity of the Help Desk she supports, her experience will enlighten and entertain you.

Jeff Brooks
Peak 10
Jeffrey Brooks, co-author of “Helpdesk Manager’s Crash Course,” has been working in the technology industry for over 15 years. His expertise is in joining developing organizations with diminutive service organizations and organizing teams able to handle the customer issues in a timely and professional manner. Well-versed in a variety of technologies, from both traditional training models and job-based experience, Jeffrey has received a Masters in computer information systems and an M.B.A.

Putting the customers’ needs first, Jeffrey maintains close ties with his customer base and his employees by joining in the trenches to understand the problems faced by both the install base and the team trying to assist them. Jeffrey currently serves as the President of Charlotte HDI and also sits on the HDI Member Advisory Board. He is also active in other industry organizations and sits on the Board of Directors for the NC LIG of itSMF, as well as on the Advisory Board for several local schools.

Link to this session.

Session 405 - Talking Without Words

Thursday March 18 10:00AM - 11:00AM
Research has shown that words are accountable for only 7% of the communication process. In effect, more than 93% of our messages are transmitted through, postures, tonality, intonation and expressions. We can learn the silent messages of our body to analyze, observe, modify and change to enhance our communications and influence others’ actions and reactions. In this interactive, dynamic, hilarious, and informative session you will recognize your own communicational style and observe and interpret the different gestures of this most authentic language: non-verbal communication.

Presented By

Guy Cabana
Danec Consulting, Inc.
Mr. Guy Cabana is a world renowned international keynote speaker and trainer. He is President of Danec Consultants Inc. He has designed a course on negotiations and international for the Masters Degree at the University of Sherbrooke and also teaches at the International Research Center for Advanced Management. Mr. Cabana is a gifted speaker with a remarkable ability and talent to attract and maintain the attention of his audience. He is enthusiastic, educational and enlightening. His is an entertaining speaker with an authentic approach and his humorous examples produce memorable results both in personnel and professional lives.

Link to this session.

Session 504 - Playing the Leadership Game: How Trivial Pursuit Can Teach You to be a Better Leader

Thursday March 18 11:15AM - 12:15PM
This fun, interactive session will highlight the true characteristics that make a great leader. Only attend this session if you are ready to step up and get involved, self assess your skills and put them to the challenge. We all know what it takes to be a leader…or do we? Is there a profile of a great leader? What do great leaders have in common? Are some people more likely to be leaders than others? Come to this session and find out where you stand on the leadership ladder. Join Sophie Klossner, HDI Director of Membership as she facilitates the “Leadership Game” and gets you to open up, meet new people, test your knowledge, and meet the challenge of this high energy, fast paced, exercise to get you motivated to take the next step on the leadership ladder!

Presented By

Kirk Weisler
Team Dynamics
Kirk Weisler is widely recognized as chief morale officer (CMO) of the support industry. A veteran of the customer service management industry, Kirk has worked to develop and implement a revolutionary strategy, philosophy, and approach to the call center world. Kirk is widely sought after to share his insightful stories and foundational philosophy of culture- and team-building with customer service and support center organizations around the country. In addition to his role as professional speaker and trainer, Kirk is currently helping to build a wilderness treatment and training facility for at-risk youth. His unique and diverse background as part of Outward Bound's professional development team, as a former US Army Ranger, and as an experiential team trainer make him a dynamic, outside-the-box motivator, trainer, and an inspiring and entertaining presenter.

Rita Pettinaro
N/A
Sophie has been an influential member of the HDI team since 1992. She focused on event planning, content, and coordinating speaker development for the first two years with HDI as well as managed HDI’s human resource department for eight years. In 1999, Sophie became the Local Chapter Membership Director and Chief Member Advocate, working closely with Local Chapter officers and members to maintain open lines of communication, representing members’ needs and issues, and building strong relationships with all of HDI’s chapters, officers and members. In 2009 Sophie became the Director of HDI Membership where she brings her many years of member advocacy and relationship strengths in expanding membership and bringing value to the HDI members.

Link to this session.

Session 505 - Renegade Retention: Strategies for a Top-Performance Service Desk

Thursday March 18 11:15AM - 12:15PM
Skilled service desk professionals are instrumental to a company’s success. As the economy improves and these workers have more opportunities available to them, organizations must take steps to avoid losing their top performers. A survey from Robert Half and CareerBuilder shows that about half of employees plan to make some sort of career change once the economy rebounds. During this presentation, Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, will provide specific, innovative ideas for re-engaging, motivating and retaining essential service desk staff. He’ll discuss what service desk employees value most in their jobs and their careers, including compensation, benefits and perks, training, career advancement and work/life balance. He’ll also provide tips for creating the most strategic staffing mix for your organization and hiring top performers.

Key objectives:

Understanding the employment market as it relates to the current economy and preparing for future changes that can affect your ability to staff the service desk
Identifying innovative ways to motivate existing service desk employees and keep them engaged as productive, loyal employees who will remain with the firm for the long term
Evaluating traditional tools including compensation, training and other benefits as part of an overall retention strategy
Learning effective hiring strategies that can help you build the team you need to lead you into the future
Evaluating alternative staffing arrangements that allow for the flexibility needed as economic conditions shift

Action ideas:

Applying retention and hiring best practices learned from presenter and shared best practices from session attendees
Creating a staffing model to maximize your service desk during any economic environment.

Presented By

David Willmer
Robert Half Technology
Dave Willmer is Executive Director of Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of highly skilled IT professionals on a project and full-time basis. He manages operations for more than 100 Robert Half Technology locations worldwide. Dave started his career with Robert Half International in 1998, and has since held numerous leadership positions within the company. Dave is a frequent speaker on career and employment issues. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Akron and a Master of Education with an emphasis in Educational Leadership from Ohio University. Dave is a member of HDI’s Mid-Ohio Chapter.

Link to this session.

Session 605 - Recession Proof Your Career

Thursday March 18 2:45PM - 3:45PM
Today, there is no such thing as job security. You’ve got to look beyond the job market and look within yourself. This session will teach you how to recession proof your career by teaching you: How to building your brand Understand who knows you, and what you’re doing to stay front of mind Getting involved in a "Big C" Community and much more!

Presented By

Phil Gerbyshak
Relationship Geek - Make It Great! Institute
Phil Gerbyshak, the Relationship Geek and the author of the book Help Desk Manager's Crash Course, has been working with clients to create great customer service experiences for the past 15 years. Phil's mission on this planet is simple: to help people unleash the greatness inside them, by connecting people to the ideas, people, and information they need to crank it up and take things to the next level. Phil has been writing at Make It Great! Institute since early 2005, where he has shared over 2200 articles on building business relationships management, leadership, customer service, personal empowerment, and personal productivity topics. Since 2007, Phil has also been writing for b5 Media, sharing his management and productivity insights. His work has been recognized as one of the top 50 HR blogs.

He currently serves vice president of information technology at a regional financial services firm in Milwaukee, WI, is president of the Milwaukee chapter of HDI and as Midwest regional director for HDI. Phil is a frequently sought after speaker at various companies and professional organizations. He energizes, educates, empowers, and entertains his audience by sharing the tools they need and helping them find the right questions so they can make it a great day.

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Session 704 - Lighten UP: What Bright Leaders Do

Friday March 19 9:00AM - 10:00AM
Do you inspire or require to achieve the results you desire? If you would like to do less requiring and more inspiring then this is the session for you! We’ll explore the attributes, actions and impact of the leaders who inspired the best in us. Core principles discussed will include, vulnerability, teach-ability, account-ability, response-ability.

Presented By

Kirk Weisler
Team Dynamics
Kirk Weisler is widely recognized as chief morale officer (CMO) of the support industry. A veteran of the customer service management industry, Kirk has worked to develop and implement a revolutionary strategy, philosophy, and approach to the call center world. Kirk is widely sought after to share his insightful stories and foundational philosophy of culture- and team-building with customer service and support center organizations around the country. In addition to his role as professional speaker and trainer, Kirk is currently helping to build a wilderness treatment and training facility for at-risk youth. His unique and diverse background as part of Outward Bound's professional development team, as a former US Army Ranger, and as an experiential team trainer make him a dynamic, outside-the-box motivator, trainer, and an inspiring and entertaining presenter.

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Session 705 - Get What You Want in 30 Seconds or Less!

Friday March 19 9:00AM - 10:00AM
30 seconds can be more valuable than 3 minutes 30 minutes or 3 hours. In this session, participants will learn the art of communicating quickly and powerfully in 30 seconds or less. They will understand the reason communication works in 30 seconds and the importance of having a 30-second pitch. Attendees will explore a technique to get someone’s attention, keep their interest, tell a story, ask for and get what they want. Participants will list tips and techniques for delivery. Additionally, they will understand how to adopt the 30-second technique to all their communications including staff meetings and memos. Colleagues will leave with a 30-second pitch of their own and a template to use for future 30-second communications.

Presented By

Dana Olson
West Corporation
Dana brings nineteen years of experience from various roles in diverse environments including education, insurance, marketing, and information management. She has ten years as an active practitioner managing help desks, three years providing consulting to small and large organizations implementing best practices for help desks and six years of training and process management. Dana currently serves as the Process Manager at West Corporation. She sits on advisory boards and presents at local and national events. Dana acquired her knowledge through experience and continued education. She serves as President of the HDI Nebraska Chapter and as Central Region Director on the Member Advisory Board.

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Session 805 - Building the Service Desk Training Plan

Friday March 19 10:15AM - 11:15AM
This session explores ways to overcome the challenge of training service desk personnel. Finding the time, money and the “right training” is a constant struggle. This session will walk you through building an effective training plan.

Participants will:

Learn a systematic way to Identify training needs
Discuss various training delivery methods
Understand the importance of defining expected results of the training BEFORE the training
Discuss ways to measure success

Worksheets will be provided that can be used within your organization to customize your own training plan. This method for planning allows you to involve your team, peers, and sponsors so that there is buy-in at all levels. This lays the foundation for creating a continuous learning culture, not just a one-time training project.

Presented By

Rae Ann Bruno
Business Solutions Training
Rae Ann Bruno is an ITIL-certified instructor with more than 15 years of management experience emphasizing process reengineering, employee development, and business alignment of IT services. Formerly the vice president of strategic relations for Previo, Rae Ann consulted with Previo customers on process re-engineering and best practices and trained support professionals on industry best practices. Additionally, Rae Ann has authored many industry articles and white papers. Prior to joining Previo, Rae Ann was the director of IT customer service for Siemens Energy & Automation (SE&A).

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Session 106 - How the Help Desk Saved My Marriage

Wednesday March 17 10:15AM - 11:15AM
After years of marriage, Jeffrey Brooks realized that the spark in his relationship had died. He had spent so much of his life working to help other people with their problems and prioritizing career that he had neglected his own family. And then it hit him like a ton of bricks. After attending so many industry events, reading so many focus books, and learning his industry, the answers were right in front of him. The Help Desk that had consumed so much of Jeffrey’s life now had just what he needed to put that spark back into his marriage. Day in and day out he was helping others with their incidents and problems when he realized that the same concepts could be used to light a little romance in his home. Join Jeffrey for this light hearted PG-13 explanation of how HDI, SCC, ITIL, KM, KPI's, Metrics and more can put the bounce back in your relationships. You’ll also discover how many of these concepts can be more easily understood when put into a new context. Note: Jeffrey is not a relationship expert, but does know a lot of acronyms and fancy terminology.

Presented By

Jeff Brooks
Peak 10
Jeffrey Brooks, co-author of “Helpdesk Manager’s Crash Course,” has been working in the technology industry for over 15 years. His expertise is in joining developing organizations with diminutive service organizations and organizing teams able to handle the customer issues in a timely and professional manner. Well-versed in a variety of technologies, from both traditional training models and job-based experience, Jeffrey has received a Masters in computer information systems and an M.B.A.

Putting the customers’ needs first, Jeffrey maintains close ties with his customer base and his employees by joining in the trenches to understand the problems faced by both the install base and the team trying to assist them. Jeffrey currently serves as the President of Charlotte HDI and also sits on the HDI Member Advisory Board. He is also active in other industry organizations and sits on the Board of Directors for the NC LIG of itSMF, as well as on the Advisory Board for several local schools.

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Session 206 - 13 to 1: The Story of a Successful Support Center Consolidation at the EPA

Wednesday March 17 11:30AM - 12:30PM
This real-life case study focuses on actual support center consolidations that occurred at both EPA and Department of Labor. This presentation will chronicle how Heather successfully consolidated 13 regional support center/help desks into one fully functional, single point of contact support center in LESS THAN SIX MONTHS. The transformation began in April and ended successfully in January when all 13 support desks had been consolidated to a centralized location in Washington, DC. This session will focus on all steps that were followed, including using ITIL methodology and best practices from HDI to achieve highly successful, on-time, on-budget transitions. Heather will provide step-by-step details of the project plan, how to overcome change resistance, marketing the changes to the user community, and damage control strategies when things don’t go exactly as they had been planned. The audience will walk away with an understanding of how to's, SLAs/OLAs, technology utilized, as well as marketing templates and samples that can be used for their own consolidation or streamlining efforts.

Presented By

Heather Donnelly
MIL Corporation
Heather Donnelly has over 25 years experience in I/T and the Support Industry that spans government, healthcare and commercial environments. Heather is a recognized professional that regularly speaks at local HDI chapters and is a 4th time presenter at HDI’s Annual Conference. Heather recently obtained her PMP and holds ITIL V2/V3 Foundations Certifications, as well as being a Certified Instructor for HDI. Additionally, Heather holds HDI Certifications as a Support Center Manager, Support Center Team Lead, Support Center Analyst, Knowledge Manager, Help Desk Manager, Help Desk Analyst, Customer Support Specialist and Help Desk Professional.

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Session 306 - SupportU 24X7: Implementing and Maintaining a Co-Managed Help Desk

Wednesday March 17 3:00PM - 4:00PM
Historically the Technical Support Center at the University of Northern Colorado was available to faculty, staff and students 8:00am – 5:00pm M-F. Additional support was not provided for nights and weekends, only an ability to leave a voice message for the next business day. The expanded use and infusion of technology into courses and classrooms established a need to match support with the changing needs of the campus community. The first step was to establish an identity and philosophy for support, which we addressed by transitioning from a Help Desk to a Technical Support Center. Once the framework of the Technical Support Center was in place, it was then expanded and progressed into a 24-7-365 environment where clients could receive multi-tiered technical support, request resolution and/or ticket escalation. This presentation will focus on the research behind and considerations made when selecting to co-manage support, lessons learned during the implementation phase, and insight into the on-going maintenance of the relationship.

Presented By

Samual Penn
University of Northern Colorado
Sam Penn is the Technical Support Center (TSC) Manager at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) where he leads an on-campus group of full-time and student Customer Support Coordinators and co-managed technical support staff. During his time with the TSC he has helped facilitate the growth of the team and expansion of support into the current 24/7/365 model. He has been working in the UNC Information Technology department since 1997 and has served as a Student Representative, Customer Support Coordinator and Server System Administrator prior to managing the TSC. While obtaining a Masters Degree in Psychology at UNC he was honored as the UNC Graduate/Teaching Assistant of the year. Sam is a member of HDI and is ITILv3 Foundation Certified.

Ryan Rose
University of Northern Colorado
Ryan Rose is the Director of CORE services within Information Technology at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC). The CORE services area encompasses Network Communications, Security, Server Administration and the Technical Support Center. Ryan has been with the UNC Information Technology department since 1994 serving in multiple roles and has since been responsible for the development, implementation and management of the core infrastructure. He also identified the need for technical support processes to be intertwined with core technologies and processes in order to more effectively manage and communicate regarding change practices. Ryan has obtained the CCNA and is a certified PMP.

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Session 406 - Silence Fails: Five Crucial Conversations for Flawless Execution

Thursday March 18 10:00AM - 11:00AM
An organization’s success is determined by how well people execute on its high-stakes projects and initiatives. However, current execution trends are anything but promising. In this engaging, interactive, and hard-hitting session, Stacy Nelson will share compelling research that helps leaders identify potential failures far in advance, and prevent them by increasing effectiveness at these five crucial conversations. More importantly, Cricket will teach practical, actionable skills participants can use today to substantially improve their organization’s ability to execute on high-stakes projects and initiatives by breaking a code of silence on the five common, yet largely ignored problems.

Presented By

Stacy Nelson
VitalSmarts
A Master Certified Trainer in Influence, Crucial Conversations, and Crucial Confrontations, Stacy has extensive experience introducing and teaching these crucial skills to major organiza¬tions including BMW, Nortel, Allstate, the IRS, Massachusetts General Hospital, Loma Linda University Medical Center and Walt Disney Company. Clients continually praise Stacy for his ability to help them achieve hard-hitting results to the areas where they need it the most. A recipient of the Zapara award for excellence in teaching, Stacy consistently receives acco¬lades for his charismatic presentation style and highly effective training design. His experience, coupled with an engaging presentation style, has clients asking for his return again and again.

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Session 506 - The FOUR Crucial Conversations for Financial Agility

Thursday March 18 11:15AM - 12:15PM
Financially agile companies adapt to changing economic circumstances far more rapidly and effectively than the rest of the pack. A study of 1,400 executives and managers attributed their financial agility to the capacity to handle four crucial conversations around fiscal challenges. Your answer to requests around budget cuts and general cost management can mean the difference between fiscal success and failure. This fast-paced, hands-on session demonstrates how these four crucial conversations profoundly affect the resilience and responsiveness of teams and organizations. Firms that handled the following conversations well adapted over ten times faster and weathered downturns far more intelligently than their peers:

Debate, Dithering, and Denial—managers drag their feet rather than respond assertively to financial challenges.
Undiscussables—enormous efficiencies and reductions are possible but seem politically risky to discuss.
Silent Collusion—when leaders fail to follow through on committed reductions, others fail to hold them accountable.
Irrational Slashing—executives impose across-the-board reductions or other policies that middle managers realize will create serious downsides the executives may be unaware of.

Learn how to step up these conversations to improve your organization’s financial agility.

Presented By

Stacy Nelson
VitalSmarts
A Master Certified Trainer in Influence, Crucial Conversations, and Crucial Confrontations, Stacy has extensive experience introducing and teaching these crucial skills to major organiza¬tions including BMW, Nortel, Allstate, the IRS, Massachusetts General Hospital, Loma Linda University Medical Center and Walt Disney Company. Clients continually praise Stacy for his ability to help them achieve hard-hitting results to the areas where they need it the most. A recipient of the Zapara award for excellence in teaching, Stacy consistently receives acco¬lades for his charismatic presentation style and highly effective training design. His experience, coupled with an engaging presentation style, has clients asking for his return again and again.

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Session 606 - Super Delicious Services: A Roadmap to Service Delivery Excellence

Thursday March 18 2:45PM - 3:45PM
Super Delicious Services was created as a framework that optimizes the IT Operations Service & Support team’s service strategy at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The framework successfully integrates a company’s strategy with time-tested models including Katzenbach’s Wisdom of Teams, Senge’s Fifth Discipline, the HDI Support Center Standard, ITIL v3, CMM-I, and Knock Your Socks Off Service. The framework is also structured to take advantage of a continuous approach towards building a “roadmap” of service delivery improvements.

The four key learning objectives of this session are:

Learn and be able to describe to others the framework, including the sources of each milestone in the roadmap.

Successfully apply and categorize the relevant tenets while engaging in service delivery and service management activities.

Gain an intermediate-level understanding of the processes and procedures and tools that were used to establish this framework in an ongoing service delivery organization.

Examine and analyze mechanisms for translating the framework successfully to all levels of analysts within the organization.

Specific action ideas resulting from the session include:

Performing a self-guided ITIL v3 assessment that results in a set of actionable next steps towards increased organizational maturity.

Build your own roadmap for your team’s vision and mission.

Presented By

Bill Payne
Amylin Pharmaceuticals
Bill is a results-driven Information Technology leader with 25 years of diverse professional experiences. He is an expert in the design, delivery, and support of cost-effective IT solutions that deliver quantifiable business benefits. At companies such as Pepsi-Cola, Dell, and Whole Foods Market, Bill has proven himself to be a principled, supportive, and open-minded leader. His previous roles have included: data communications consulting, messaging systems analyst, managing multiple infrastructure engineering teams, medical information systems deployment, and retail and infrastructure systems management. Bill is currently fulfilling an IT Director role at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, leading the IT Operations Services and Support group.

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Session 706 - Reduce Support Costs with a “Tribal” Help Desk!

Friday March 19 9:00AM - 10:00AM
This session will address how to reduce support costs by tapping the expertise of an organization’s end-users. Debora will show how a trained team of expert end-users can serve as a Tier 0 “Tribal” Help Desk. She will share evidence that 88% of these expert end-users will proactively assist co-workers and lower the volume of calls to the official Help Desk. Finally, Debora will share the following 4-step model Help Desk Managers can implement to create a Tier 0 support team within their own organizations.

Step 1. Define problematic desktop applications and needs most appropriate for “Tribal” support;
Step 2. Identify key end-users within each department who can most easily be elevated to a level of expert;
Step 3. Implement skills-gap training and proficiency measures to certify these selected end-users as experts;
Step 4. Motivate the “Tribal” team to look for opportunities to offer Tier 0 assistance to co-workers.

Participants will leave this session prepared to select key end-users within targeted departments and empower them to function effectively as a “Tribal” Help Desk. Participants will also know how to measure ROI and the success of using this model within their own organizations.

Presented By

Debora Collins
IT Learning Consulting, LLC
Education consultant Debora A. Collins has been a curriculum developer and practitioner in the IT industry for more than 20 years. Her customized training models have empowered thousands of desktop users in organizations worldwide, including employees of Microsoft Corporation. Her specialty is teaching organizations how to reduce internal support calls by certifying their power-users on common office applications. Debora is a Microsoft Certified Learning Consultant, a Microsoft Certified Trainer, a Microsoft Certified System Engineer, and holds an M.S. degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Brigham Young University, Utah.

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Session 709 - Challenges and Best Practices for Managing a Virtual Team

Friday March 19 9:00AM - 10:00AM
In 2010, a growing number of support centers will have to adapt their style of team management due to the networking of regional offices and work-from-home agents. Managers and supervisors who will have to deal with this reality need to rethink how to mobilize and coach team individuals without human presence.

This session will address those challenges by presenting:

Successful steps to build a virtual team
Required fundamentals in remote management and coaching
Key features and competencies of a virtual manager
Best practices to train and coach team members
Tips for team bonding of a virtual group

Participants will be encouraged to share their challenges and best practices in managing off-site employees and virtual team. A check list will be provided to verify if improvement could be made to existing practices and future results.

Presented By

Pierre Marc Jasmin
Triad Services, Inc.
Cumulating over 16 years of knowledge in human resource management and customer relationship for the call center environment, Pierre Marc Jasmin is president of Triad Services, a consulting firm he founded in 1996. Triad‘s consultants have realized more than 200 mandates and 50 benchmark studies, analysing and comparing operational practices of 50 major North American and European call centers. For 7 years, Pierre Marc has been on the board of directors of Contact Centre Canada. He often acts as speaker for seminars and conferences in America and Europe and also contributes articles for a variety of specialized journals in the call center industry.

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Session 806 - Titanic Lessons for IT Projects

Friday March 19 10:15AM - 11:15AM
R.M.S. Titanic was considered by many, including its designers and builders to be an unsinkable ship. With redundant safety systems that used the latest emerging technologies of the day, the ship was considered so safe that it did not even need a full complement of lifeboats. Yet, a collision with an iceberg put an end to the ship on its maiden voyage and led to the deaths of thousands of passengers and crew. The sinking of Titanic is one of the worst maritime disasters ever.

This presentation analyzes the project that designed, built, and launched the ship, showing how compromises made during early project stages led to serious flaws in this supposedly "perfect ship." In addition, the presentation explains how major mistakes during the early days of the ship's operations led to the disaster. All of these disastrous compromises and mistakes were fully avoidable. Paying attention to how historical projects and emerging technologies of the past solved complex problems of the day provides some very valuable insights into how to solve today’s more challenging business problems. Learn how the lessons learned from Titanic’s disaster can be applied to IT projects today. In modern IT projects, we often have situations where we believe that we have designed, built, or launched a "perfect" solution. The presentation juxtaposes the Titanic story and modern IT projects so that we can learn from the disaster how non-functional requirements can get overshadowed by functional requirements, the executive sponsor can unwittingly compromise the project, and how project over confidence can invalidate some project stages. Entertaining and full of intriguing historical details, the presentation helps project managers see the impact of decisions similar to the ones that they make every day.

Presented By

Glenn LeClair, CMC
LeClair & Associates
Glenn LeClair is an experienced, “hands on” consultant with an active interest in applying the “Lessons from History” to modern challenges. As a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) he has been an active practitioner in a variety of fields for 20 years. For the last 10 years he has been focused on the domains of ITIL and IT Service Management, is a certified instructor and v3.0 Expert. He is a graduate of Trent University and holds an Honours Degree in Policy Studies. He is a former member of the faculty of Humber College, and an author of several ITIL and IT Governance publications. He is currently authoring a new book in the Lessons From History Series on IT Governance. He is currently and independent consultant in the field of Service Management, and is a former Director of Management Consulting with DMR/Fujitsu Consulting and former Senior Consultant with Hewlett-Packard Canada.

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Session 107 - A Recipe for Success: Defining the Elements of a Winning Service Management Program

Wednesday March 17 10:15AM - 11:15AM
Many times in the course of beginning an ITSM program, it is difficult to determine not only where to begin, but also (and more often of greater importance) are planning for and executing a series of actions that will drive you and your organization to your stated goals with as little wasted effort as possible. This session will discuss and demonstrate elements that are recommended for a successful ITSM program, regardless of the scope or scale of the effort. Discussion will include: Business Case, Program Planning, Communication Planning, Training Plans, Cultural Change Management, and much more. Detailed real-world examples will be provided and discussed.

Key Learnings / Takeaways:

Understanding of the key elements of a Service Management program
Simple approaches to beginning a program of your own
Lessons learned from others failed programs
Guidance for managing the program and its various elements
Information on measuring the results of your program

Business Benefits:

Improved alignment of IT Services to Business needs
Improved communication and training to end users
Less disruption to the IT and Business organizations during program implementation
Better alignment of IT Products and Services to Business needs

Presented By

Shane Carlson
Cognizant Technology Solutions
Shane Carlson is a dynamic ITIL-certified and Six Sigma-trained IT professional with 10+ years of practical experience transforming organizations with IT service management.

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Session 109 - The Human Side of ITSM

Wednesday March 17 10:15AM - 11:15AM
Many IT organizations are embarking on ITSM initiatives to improve the overall quality of their service delivery and support and achieve the most coveted 3 “e’s” (efficiency, effectiveness and economy) for everything they do, while ultimately working towards true business partnership. It is often said that the process and technology is easy…it’s the people that can often be the biggest challenge. In this session you will learn how to plan for the common people related challenges, minimize the impact of these challenges and leverage classic organization change management tactics to your advantage.

Presented By

Katherine Lord
Lord Consulting
With six years of hands-on service management consulting expertise, more than ten years of IT management experience, and a variety of certifications and accolades including, ITIL v3 Expert, and ITIL v2 Service Manager (with distinction), Six Sigma Yellow belt, Katherine’s skill set and knowledge turns support centers into value added entities. Katherine is a seasoned ITSM Practitioner with significant consulting expertise in the ITSM/ITIL education and implementation space. As a certified instructor for HDI and part of their global faculty, she teaches all of the HDI certification courses.

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Session 207 - Implementing ITIL: Welcome to the Real World

Wednesday March 17 11:30AM - 12:30PM
In 2006, Owens-Illinois recognized the need for improving it’s IT related business processes to improve service levels to their internal customer base. A decision was made to leverage the ITIL framework and a journey began. Based on the experiences learned, and still underway, Jason will be presenting on Owens-Illinois’ high-level IT business processes and some of the detailed transition and operational processes. He will speak to the lessons learned, challenges, risks and roadblocks and the organizational change aspects of the program. Some of the processes that will be discussed are:

IT Demand and Supply Management
Incident and Service Request Management Knowledge Management
Change and Release Deployment Management

Presented By

Jason Carlton
Owens-Illinois, Inc.
Jason Carlton is the ITIL Program Manager for Owens-Illinois Inc. The Program Manager role at O-I is a rapidly growing role, which spans all aspects of program management including a heavy focus on training and education. As O-I heavily incorporates lean six-sigma within the organization Jason is currently working on his Black belt certification, and is already certified in ITIL Foundations, ITIL Support and Restore, ITIL Release and Control and varied Service Delivery certifications. To supplement this education he brings 2+ years of related practitioner experience to the table.

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Session 307 - Implementing Knowledge-Centered Support: The Air Products Journey

Wednesday March 17 3:00PM - 4:00PM
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. is a leading global supplier of electronic materials, hydrogen, helium and select performance chemicals. It serves customers in healthcare, technology, energy, and industrial markets worldwide. The company is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Like most companies, the globally distributed IT support desks had a need to lower support costs, improve productivity, and raise customer satisfaction. For Air Products, the result of these demands was found in the implementation of a knowledge-sharing methodology known as Knowledge Centered Support (KCS).

Thus began the KCS initiative at Air Products. KCS focuses on the basic premise of capturing, sharing, and the reusing of knowledge. Starting with the principles outlined by the Consortium for Service Innovation, along with guidance from a certified KCS consultant, Air Products developed their own implementation strategy to move forward with this innovative approach to integrated support

This real-world presentation will take you through Air Products journey and discuss the challenges and triumphs they faced. In this session you will learn how the team:

Gained necessary leadership backing to transform the KCS strategy into an operational reality
Used strategic marketing tools to gain the support of level 2 teams
Developed a knowledge sharing culture in a time of economic uncertainty
Deployed a technology that supports the foundations of KCS
Formed and managed a team of individuals with diverse skill sets and backgrounds to reach the desired goals

This session will review the challenges and faced during the KCS implementation and the successes and rewards that resulted from the efforts.

Presented By

Asgar Bhallo
Air Products & Chemicals Inc
Asgar Bhallo currently serves as Manager of KCS implementation and adoption within the Information Technology group. Asgar has developed a strategic framework for KCS process usage at Air Products and led the adoption of KCS, achieving maximum efficiencies in utilization of knowledge at the lowest cost.

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Session 407 - How to Determine (and Use!) Key Performance Indicators

Thursday March 18 10:00AM - 11:00AM
Measuring services is the third step in strategy generation and the ITIL v3 Service Portfolio Management process. After defining and valuing your services, you have to measure them to know where to improve. ITIL v3 offers some intriguing new insights into the measurement of quality, gap analysis, and establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metrics. Join us to uncover what to measure, how to measure, and why to measure.  

Realize that measuring IT service quality requires a very different approach than what you might think
Understand how quality is truly in the eye (and perception) of the customer, and how to capture that perception
Learn how to measure IT service quality the only way that matters, and then use those measurements to improve
Practice gap analysis in class and leave the program knowing exactly how to measure your own services
Take home reusable templates so that you can measure services and establish appropriate KPIs as required
Determine how to improve your services based on your KPIs

Presented By

Hank Marquis
Global Knowledge
Hank Marquis leads the business service management practice area for Global Knowledge, the worldwide leader in IT and business training. He is responsible for BSM strategy -- integrating ITIL, ISO-20000, COBIT, Six Sigma, and project management into seamless solutions for clients. Hank has more than 25 years of information technology industry experience from both enterprise and vendor positions. He holds advanced certifications in BSM topics, is a senior member of the American Society for Quality, and has extensive experience helping IT executives implement IT governance and operational frameworks. He held operational management positions at MCI, was CIO at e-commerce financial services provider Celexis, served as VP of marketing and CTO at management software company Opticom, and rose to senior product management at Compuware. Hank has helped dozens of companies develop and implement ITSM best practices.

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Session 409 - Where Does the Service Desk Fit into ITIL v3?

Thursday March 18 10:00AM - 11:00AM
ITIL v3 has been around for some time, and enough time has elapsed for the dust to settle after initial reactions to the newer version of the framework. One of the key questions was, and still is, how does the Service Desk fit into ITIL v3? Other key questions include; is it more important or less Important than it was in v2? How does the Service Desk fit into v3? Is the Service Desk more or less influential? Should the Service Desk take an active role in Service Management or adopt a more passive role? In this dynamic, interactive session we will explore these questions while simultaneously exploring the role that the Service Desk plays in v3.

In addition to answering the key “burning” questions, we will look at some of the factors that drive the Service Desk’s focus on delivering fast, high quality, value-added service. We will start by looking at the difference between a Help Desk and a Service Desk and from this foundation springboard to address other questions posed here. If you have a Service Desk plus ITIL v3 or are thinking about implementing ITIL v3 then this session will blow away the doubts and help you to define the role of your Service Desk so that you can contribute fully to ITIL v3.

Presented By

Malcolm Fry
Fry Consultants
As a recognized IT industry luminary with over 40 years experience in Information Technology, Malcolm Fry serves as an Independent Executive Advisor, and brings an unparalleled breadth of knowledge and experience in IT business and technical issues. Malcolm is the author of many publications on IT service and support, has had numerous articles and papers published, and is regularly contacted as a source of information by technology journalists. His latest publications are 'A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a CMDB’ and a new ITIL complementary book 'How to Build a Service Management Department'. Malcolm was also a member of the v3 Advisory Group and a mentor for the 'Service Operations' book. In April 2009 he was awarded the prestigious ‘Ron Muns Lifetime Achievement Award for IT Service and Support.’

Link to this session.

Session 507 - The End of the Rainbow: Achieving Integrated Change/Release/Configuration Management

Thursday March 18 11:15AM - 12:15PM
ITIL v3.0 represents a step change in the maturity of IT Service Management thinking, but the old problems still rear their heads. Why can’t organizations achieve the levels of maturity that software vendors promise with the use of integrated ITIL support tools? What can be learned by saying “How can we make it work” and not “How can fit within the defined best practices as our software defines them?” The challenge is knowing when to compromise and when to “Stick it out” This session will provide an overview of practical concepts in the Service Transition area.

Learning Objectives:

Understand how to recognize what is “Good Enough” for a first pass
Understand how the interdependency between Chance and Configuration Management can become an advantage
Learn about the concept of Managed and UnManaged CI’s
Understand the framework relationships between Change, Configuration, and Discovery

Presented By

Glenn LeClair, CMC
LeClair & Associates
Glenn LeClair is an experienced, “hands on” consultant with an active interest in applying the “Lessons from History” to modern challenges. As a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) he has been an active practitioner in a variety of fields for 20 years. For the last 10 years he has been focused on the domains of ITIL and IT Service Management, is a certified instructor and v3.0 Expert. He is a graduate of Trent University and holds an Honours Degree in Policy Studies. He is a former member of the faculty of Humber College, and an author of several ITIL and IT Governance publications. He is currently authoring a new book in the Lessons From History Series on IT Governance. He is currently and independent consultant in the field of Service Management, and is a former Director of Management Consulting with DMR/Fujitsu Consulting and former Senior Consultant with Hewlett-Packard Canada.

Link to this session.

Session 607 - Service Quality Metrics: Understanding How to Measure Services

Thursday March 18 2:45PM - 3:45PM
IT organizations are infamous for generating reams of reports, yet often these reports don’t tell the story that the support organization is trying to communicate. IT reporting tends to provide detail from a technical IT perspective, often losing the overall organizational viewpoint in a sea of uninformative data. Since the purpose of a service-oriented organization is to provide the IT Services that enable businesses to succeed, it is essential for service organization management to understand the difference between product reporting and services reporting.

Learn what constitutes service measurements; how to identify what to measure, the compo

Strategy and Leadership

Session 101 - Building an Effective Customer Service Strategy

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Session 201 - How to Define and Value Services: the Cornerstone of ITSM

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Session 301 - Creating a Successful Sourcing Strategy

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Session 401 - What the CIO Wants You to Know

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Session 501 - Creating a Virtual Support Strategy

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Session 509 - Arise Ye Service Leaders, The Time is Now!

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Session 601 - Organization Readiness and Cultural Change

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Session 701 - Service Management TOP GUN: Learn What the Best of the Best Do

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Session 801 - Build your Technology Roadmap to Success

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Essentials for Support Managers

Session 102 - Five Hallmarks of Help Desk Excellence

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Session 202 - Metrics 101: What to DO with the Measurements You SHOULD be Collecting

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Session 209 - Making Sense of Service and Operating Level Agreements

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Session 302 - Keep Training Alive Without a Budget

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Session 402 - Performance Management: Rewards, Rework and Replace

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Session 502 - Service Level Management: A Journey of Baby Steps with Big Results

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Session 602 - Project Leadership for Support Center Professionals

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Session 609 - Developing an Effective Service Delivery Model

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Session 702 - Making the LEAP from Helpless to Helpful

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Session 802 - The Mechanics of Empowerment and Delegation

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Achieve Operational Excellence

Session 103 - Service Desk + Continuous Improvement = Energized Results

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Session 203 - Don't DO That: 50 Things That a Service Desk Should Never Do!

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Session 204 - Call Effectiveness Monitoring…Scoring for Success

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Session 303 - How to Create an Actionable Service Catalog

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Session 403 - Bridging the Gap between Incident and Problem Management

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Session 404 - Cataloging our Services: A School District’s Adventure in ITIL

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Session 503 - Eliminate the Big Impacts: Leverage Problem Management

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Session 604 - Engaging PM Communications Techniques for Bulletproof Support Relationships

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Session 703 - Process Design Simplified

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Session 803 - The Warning Signs of Failure: ARE YOU WATCHING?

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Session 804 - Healing What Ails You: How Internal Process Improvement Gains You IT Credibility

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Maximize Team Performance

Session 104 - Building Bridges. The Art of Successful Negotiations

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Session 105 - What R U Doing with 4 Generations on Your Team?

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Session 205 - The Lost Symbol: Breaking the Code for Effective Leadership Communication

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Session 304 - High Performance Leadership

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Session 305 - Martians & Venusians: Managing Diversity in the Workplace

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Session 405 - Talking Without Words

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Session 504 - Playing the Leadership Game: How Trivial Pursuit Can Teach You to be a Better Leader

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Session 505 - Renegade Retention: Strategies for a Top-Performance Service Desk