Three inspiring keynotes will rejuvenate the audience
Five custom-tailored session tracks
Networking opportunities to meet and greet your peers
An intimate expo with tools built for your business


Sign up by August 15 to save $100!
HDI Members (silver and above) receive $100 discounts on conference registration and pre-conference workshops.
HDI Conference Alumni receive a $100 discount.
Buy 5 conference registrations, get the 6th free with our Team Discount!
Take your new knowledge home! Conference handouts, Power Points and PDFs will be available for download beginning October 15th!




Pre-Conference Workshops
Pre 1 - HDI Support Center Director
Sunday, October 12, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday, October 13, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Course Overview
The HDI Support Center Director course is designed for experienced directors and managers who provide strategic leadership for the IT support organization. Participants will learn how to use their knowledge and communication skills to align their department with organizational goals as well as discover techniques to help them market the support center to upper management.

What You Will Learn
  • How to support strategies with business goals and objectives
  • Support leadership skills
  • How to develop policies and goals that advance your business
  • Support center maturity assessment
  • Strategies for continuous improvement
  • IT financial principles
  • Strategies for professional development and succession planning
  • Methods for selecting technologies and managing vendors
  • The ITIL processes
  • How to justify a service improvement project with a business case
  • Tools such as: Balanced Scorecard, Morning Report, Executive Brief, Business Case, Report Distribution Matrix, Succession Plan, Return on Investment Calculator (ROI), and Decision Matrix.
Who Should Attend
Experienced IT support organization leaders.

3-day Course Includes
Instruction, on-line exam, breakfast, lunch, and breaks.

John Custy
JPC Group
Principal
John Custy has more than twenty years experience in designing, developing, and implementing IT service 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 service management practices.

John is certified IT Service Management Manager, Practitioner and an ISO/IEC 20000 Consultant. He is also a member of the HDI faculty and an HDI site certification auditor, and serves as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the HDI Individual Certification and HDI Support Center Certification Standards. He is also a member of the HDI International Certification Standards Committee. John has been involved with industry certification programs for over 15 years and was a key participant in the development of the HDI Support Center Certification program and the SSPA Support Center Practices program, for which he served as an auditor and consultant.

He holds an M.S. in Innovation and Technology from Boston University.



Pre 2 - HDI Support Center Manager
Sunday, October 12, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday, October 13, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Course Overview
Gaining C-level management support and effectively communicating the pivotal role of the support center is crucial to any support operation’s success. For this reason, the support center manager must act as a support leader and strategically align the support center to the organization. The HDI Support Center Manager course focuses on best practice standards and the skills necessary to successfully manage the strategic and tactical components of a support organization. Additionally, this course provides participants with a raised awareness and understanding of the ITIL® best practice framework and its application.

What You Will Learn
  • How to build a support center strategy that aligns with organizational needs
  • Formal procedures for increasing productivity, driving consistent service delivery, and increasing customer satisfaction
  • How to calculate costs, reiterate value, and demonstrate a greater return on investment (ROI)
  • ITIL best practices to meet ongoing business challenges
  • Tools and technology that maximize service delivery
  • Training and retention programs
  • Mentoring for high performance teams
  • Key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure support performance
  • Ways to manage customer perceptions and build strong internal relationships
  • How to promote and market the value of the support center across the organization
Who Should Attend
Support center managers and supervisors manage both the strategic and tactical aspects of their organizations, and those seeking HDI Support Center Manager certification. 3-day Course Includes
Instruction, on-line exam, on-line exam prep, breakfast and breaks.

Rae Ann Bruno
Business Solutions Training
President



Pre 3 - ITIL v3 Foundations -This class has reached it’s maximum class size and is n/a
Sunday, October 12, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday, October 13, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Course Overview This APMG®-accredited ITIL® v3 Foundations Certification course provides IT professionals with industry certification of the ITIL best practices framework. During this three-day course, participants will learn how to improve IT operations and demonstrate overall business value.

What You Will Learn
  • Service Strategy - How to align IT strategy with business goals and expectations.
  • Service Design - Transform business requirements into strategic solutions.
  • Service Transition - Manage change, risk, and quality assurance.
  • Service Operation - Establish day-to-day business operations and customer expectations.
  • Continual Service Improvement- Strategize for overall process and service improvement.
Who Should Attend IT professionals who want a foundational level understanding of the service lifecycle and processes. ITIL v3 Foundations certification is the prerequisite to all other ITIL v3 courses and certifications.

Free ITIL v3 LITE® Course!
All participants in the ITIL v3 Foundation course will also receive one registration for ITIL v3 LITE®, a one-hour online introduction and review of ITIL v3.

3-day Course Includes
Instruction, on-site proctored exam, breakfast and breaks.

Katherine Lord
Business Solutions Training
Certified Instructor
Katherine is a seasoned ITIL practitioner with significant consulting expertise in the ITIL education and implementation space. As a certified instructor for HDI, and part of their global faculty, she teaches a variety of support center certification courses, KCS, and public, private, and custom ITIL Foundations classes across varied industry verticals. Katherine’s expertise also spans creation and delivery of customized education solutions geared towards attaining sustainability, adoption and alignment with ITIL best practices, and optimal service delivery to the business.

Katherine has more than three years of hands on ITIL consulting expertise, focusing on benchmarking, gap assessments, and road map development for process improvement. Core philosophies underlying all consultative and educational pursuits include: education, awareness, the human touch, and defining and reaching the “look of success.”

Prior to consulting, Katherine spent more than 10 years managing support functions, specifically help desks, service desks and training functions within Canada and the US. She has specialized in turning “help-less desks” into value added entities with an improved business focus, renewed vision, and customer centric fundamentals.



Pre 4 - Knowledge Management Foundations: KCS Principles
Sunday, October 12, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday, October 13, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Course Overview
This course will provide support center supervisors, managers, and directors with a set of practical steps for capturing, storing, and successfully reusing mission-critical knowledge. This course will help you adopt a Knowledge-Centered Support (KCSSM) strategy that will shift your support center from a call-centric model to a knowledge-oriented model. KCS, developed by the renowned Consortium for Service Innovation, defines a set of principles and practices proven to allow IT service and support organizations to significantly:
  • Improve service levels to customers.
  • Gain operational efficiencies.
  • Increase the organization’s value to their company.

What You Will Learn
  • How to efficiently create and maintain quality, easy-to-find content in the knowledge base
  • Ways to motivate support analysts to use the knowledge base and to effectively assess individual and team contributions
  • How to articulate the value of knowledge management practices for your organization
  • A strategy for sustainable success that minimizes investments in knowledge workflow and maximizes the return
  • How to identify and avoid the common pitfalls associated with knowledge management
Who Should Attend This course is designed for support center professionals, supervisors, managers, and directors responsible for managing their support centers’ resources and improving service. Includes certification exam.

3-day Course Includes
Instruction, on-line exam, breakfast and breaks.

Rick Joslin
HDI
Executive Director, Certification and Training