Date Published August 1, 2017 - Last Updated December 6, 2017
In January 2017, HDI presented the Top 25 Thought Leaders in Technical Support and Service Management. To help you get to know them better and learn what it means to be a community leader, we’ve interviewed each of our thought leaders. Today, we hear from Troy DuMoulin.
Tell us about your day job and also how you are involved in the community.
As VP of Research & Development, my role at Pink Elephant is to consider the current and near future market trends in respect to IT management topics and how they relate to current business problems. In doing so, I provide input to Pink's overall product strategy process. I also play a key role in supporting Pink Elephant's mission of “Translating Knowledge Into Results” as a thought leader and speaker at numerous events and webinars.
Over the years, I have been a contributing author and content provider for several of the current frameworks such as ITIL, COBIT and Lean IT. I share my thoughts and perspectives on these topics on my blog, which has been active since 2006.
What motivates you to be active in the community?
At heart, I am a teacher, and while I am a senior leader at Pink Elephant, I continue to teach classes, deliver workshops, and contribute content via social media. I do this primarily because I have a personal passion for learning and a talent for being able to quickly absorb, connect, and translate abstract concepts into easy-to-understand applications, metaphors, and examples.
What suggestions do you have for tech support professionals interested in getting more involved in the community?
If you have a story and would like to get it out there, take advantage of the many opportunities available such as speaking at conferences and being a volunteer content contributor for the various associations and user groups. Of course, with social media and the ability to blog, there is nothing stopping you from self publishing! In general, most of the IT management frameworks are alilgned with associations and user groups where people can become involved.
What trends do you anticipate for Lean IT and IT governance over the next few years?
A major aspect of Lean IT is the focus on IT value systems that translate demand into the supply of value via products and services. Currently, enterprise IT governance is a major gap for most organizations and focus is on tactical or operational level governance topics. However, to address the major problems of silo mentality and the issue of collaboration that DevOps is concerned with, we will need to re-focus on what it means to govern the end-to-end IT value system and not on isolated or vertical capabilities. This has been the topic of several of the podcasts and blog posts that I have recently written or recorded.
Enterprise IT governance is a major gap for most organizations.
Amy Eisenberg is the editor for HDI where she works with industry experts and practitioners to create content for technical support professionals. She has worked in B2B media and scholarly publishing for more than 20 years, developing content for print and digital magazines, print and email newsletters, websites, conferences, and technical seminars. Follow Amy on Twitter @eisenbergamy, and connect with her on LinkedIn.