Schedule-At-A-Glance

Pre-1: HDI Support Center Director
Presented By:
John Custy, JPC Group

In this workshop, which focuses on the development and execution of strategic plans that will take your organization to the next level, participants will discover how to improve and communicate their value, focus on results, manage customer perceptions, and identify the processes and procedures that are necessary for success. This curriculum is recommended for seasoned technical service and support leaders who are responsible for an organization’s overall service delivery and provide strategic direction, financial accountability, and performance reporting. Attendees will learn about: &...

Pre-2: HDI Support Center Manager
Presented By:
Katherine Lord, Lord Consulting

A support center’s strategy drives everything it does: service delivery, infrastructure implementation, operational processes, workforce management, and support center marketing. In this workshop, learn how to satisfy operational demands and build a support center that aligns with the organization, adds value to the business, and delivers on its commitments. This curriculum is recommended for experienced technical support professionals who manage the day-to-day functions of a support operation, as well as those seeking to master critical performance and customer service strategies. &nbs...

Pre-3: Knowledge Management Foundations: KCS Principles
Presented By:
Rick Joslin, HDI

Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) is a methodology and a set of processes and practices that leverage knowledge as a key asset of the support organization. KCS enables service and support organizations to significantly improve their service levels, gain operational efficiencies, and increase the organization’s value to the company. This curriculum is recommended for support professionals and project managers who want actionable steps for improving time to resolve and reducing expenses by utilizing a knowledge management program. Attendees will learn: •    How to eff...

Pre-4: HDI Desktop Support Manager
Presented By:
Deborah Monroe, Ignite Achievements Int'l

Designed for both new and experienced desktop support managers, participants will learn how to satisfy operational demands and build a support center that aligns with the organization, adds value to the business, and delivers on its commitments. This curriculum is recommended for experienced technical support professionals who manage the day-to-day functions of a desktop support operation, as well as those seeking to master critical performance and customer service strategies. Attendees will learn about: •    The characteristics of effective desktop support managers; &bu...

Pre-5: HDI Support Center Team Lead
Presented By:
Pete McGarahan, McGarahan and Associates

In this workshop, participants will learn how to deliver exceptional customer support, promote process improvement, coach for success, and take charge of a team’s day-to-day operational activities. This curriculum is recommended for support professionals who need to develop fundamental management and leadership skills, as well as those who want to learn about support center processes and best practices, quality assurance monitoring, coaching and escalation management. Attendees will learn about: •    Essential team lead management and leadership skills; • ...

Pre-6: HDI Support Center Analyst
Presented By:
Rae Ann Bruno, Business Solutions Training

This workshop focuses on strategies for effective customer service and emphasizes problem-solving and troubleshooting skills, call-handling procedures, incident management, communication skills, and an introduction to ITIL processes. This curriculum is recommended for frontline technical support staff that need to learn the critical steps required to effectively manage and prioritize incidents and reduce escalations, and master the essential customer service skills required to manage difficult customers and improve overall customer satisfaction. Attendees will learn about: •  ...

Pre-7: Financial Management Skills for the Technical Manager
Presented By:
Jim Bolton, Propoint Solutions

Effective communication is critical to any business’s success. For the technical manager, understanding the financial goals underlying in an organization's business strategy is a fundamental component of successful partnerships within an organization. Thus, it is imperative that technical managers are capable of explaining how technical activities translate into financial benefits. Furthermore, by developing an understanding of costing, planning, accounting, and valuing, and by learning how to communicate that information to the business in financial terms, technical managers can add val...

Pre-8: Maximize Your Potential: Leadership and Management Boot Camp
Presented By:
Julie Mohr, Mind The IT Gap

Tap into the best person you can be! This boot camp focuses on developing key leadership and management skills to maximize your potential. Attendees will learn about the following skills: •    Managing with agility: When managing your team, it is important to be resilient and try new things; •    Feeding the positive: Learn how to feed the positive and leave the negative behind; •    Maintaining a can-do focus: Develop a can-do focus that helps you set, priorities, and achieve your goals; and  •    Cultivati...

Pre-9: Win Hearts and Build Teams: Facilitating Connections and Creating a Cool Culture
Presented By:
Kirk Weisler, Team Dynamics
Jim Cain, Teamwork & Teamplay

Learn to take your team-building and facilitation skills to the next level and beyond. In this workshop, Dr. Jim Cain and Kirk Weisler promise you a fun, fast-paced, confidence-building session that will leave with you with inspiration and insights on how you can facilitate a more connected team, a more powerful workplace culture, and perhaps even a happier life. Bring a journal, a camera, an open mind, and some tennis shoes because you will, without apology, be asked to move, groove, and be smooth. You will leave this workshop armed with new activities to share with your team and the facil...

Pre10: Bringing New Services onto the Service Desk
Presented By:
Malcolm Fry, Fry Consultants

For most service desks, managing current services is both a challenge and a never-ending journey, leaving little time for the successful absorption of new services. We would all love to have generous budgets, ample staff resources, and sufficient training, and although most of us do not, we still need to be better prepared to absorb new services. To get started, you need a list of new services requirements (NSR), or all the information that a service desk needs to install a new service that will be supported by the service desk. We will look at how to create an NSR, along with a suggested lis...

Pre11: Measures, Metrics, and Madness: The New World of Guiding, Not Grading
Presented By:
Phil Verghis, The Verghis Group

For a few years now, leaders at progressive support organizations have talked about moving customers from a transaction-based support model to a relationship-based model. This involves shifting your customers’ perceptions from seeing your support team as a place to contact only when there are break-fix or how-to questions to one that understands their businesses, including the technical and business context of their queries. With this new approach, you help can customers and their businesses become more successful by improving the way they use your products and services. However, after...

Pre12: The Fundamentals of Process Improvement
Presented By:
Mike Hanson, UnitedHealth Technologies

Continuous process improvement has long been a tenet of manufacturing processes. When it comes to services, it is a bigger challenge. Everyone is expected to do more with less, and one of the best ways to do this is by building a process improvement program. In this workshop, Mike Hanson will provide an in-depth look at how to establish an effective process improvement program, including, among other things, understanding each phase of the improvement process, identifying the desired process improvement, obtaining leadership buy-in, and using cause-and-effect tools and mind-mapping to establis...

Pre13: Support Wars
Presented By:
Kelly McLaughlin, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Jon P. Garvin, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dennis Gillespie, Indiana University

Based upon a recent HDI Higher Education Forum event, this informational, hands-on session will explore the fundamentals of project management and service management. Participants will work in teams to apply these concepts to a real-world scenario in a fun, fast-paced exercise. Each team will represent consultants hired to create and implement a support center for a growing business. Teams will be guided through and judged upon various stages, including planning, design, and implementation, while adjusting to surprise twists along the way. Participants will have the benefit of learning from ...

Keynote 1: Intentional Leadership in the New World of Knowledge
Presented By:
Joe Calloway

It’s time to look at your business with new eyes and open them to new ideas that may come from unexpected sources. Don’t leave your organization’s success in the new world of knowledge to chance. In this dynamic session of straight talk and real-world insight, Joe lays out a plan for aligning people and strategy and outlines six principles for intentional leaders of the future.

Breakfast Briefing 1: Leadership on Fire: The Lessons of Mann Gulch
Presented By:
Jim Cain, Teamwork & Teamplay

The Mann Gulch fire remains one of the most dramatic and significant leadership lessons of the twentieth century. Learn how this single event changed an entire organization, how thirteen men lost their lives in just one hour, and how just three seconds made the difference for several of these men. Beginning with a short DVD presentation, author and teambuilding expert Dr. Jim Cain will share some insights and lessons from the fire, to help organizations avoid such failures in the future.

Breakfast Briefing 2: Becoming a Service Industry Rock Star!
Presented By:
Dan Wilson, Volkswagen of America
Bren Boddy-Thomas, Exchange Bank

If you step back for a moment and consider what your professional eulogy would say, think about the legacy you have left behind, the lives you have touched because you cared, because you got involved and became a service industry rock star. If you are having trouble thinking about specific instances, examples, and people, then this session is a can’t-miss for you! Dan Wilson and Bren Boddy-Thomas will share personal experiences and insights on how to get yourself out there and ROCK!

Breakfast Briefing 3: Mondays Stink! 23 Secrets to Rediscover Delight and Fulfillment in Your Work
Presented By:
Jo Ann Ream, PepsiCo
Janet Pittman, PepsiCo

According to Carl Dierschow, our lives seem to be disappearing beneath a tidal wave of stress and overwork. We enjoy the highest standard of living in history, yet we feel that our fundamental human happiness is at an all-time low. Employees at large organizations feel this acutely, and are worried their security, happiness, and value are controlled by others. So where do you find job satisfaction? Ideally, your needs and your company’s needs should intersect, but ultimately, you create your own job satisfaction. This interactive session will generate ideas for ensuring that you have m...

Breakfast Briefing 4: ITIL Jeopardy!
Presented By:
Eddie Vidal, University of Miami

Conferences expand your knowledge and stretch your brain, but they often send you into information overload. How many times have you left a conference full of excitement, expecting to change the world? The time has come to add enjoyment to your learning experience. Welcome to ITIL Jeopardy! Enjoy a fun, interactive, and competitive atmosphere as you challenge your fellow conference attendees to become the ultimate ITIL Jeopardy! Champion. This game is meant for everyone, from beginners to ITIL experts. It will provide you with an enjoyable learning experience, and you will leave with a model t...

Breakfast Briefing 5: Defusing the Irate User: Strategies for Difficult Customer Interactions
Presented By:
David Disney, Information Technology Services, Board of Regents, University System of Georgia

We deal with all kinds of behavior in our personal and business lives. As support professionals, we might find ourselves dealing with difficult interactions during initial contact with a customer. This presentation focuses on proven strategies and practices for defusing difficult behaviors, redirecting the focus of a conversation into a positive experience, and moving forward with the right understanding, skills, focus, and resources. This engaging presentation demonstrates roles and skills that can improve one’s ability to communicate and focus on the issue, not the emotion, and allow t...

Breakfast Briefing 6: Six Steps to Successful Service Delivery
Presented By:
Dian Survance, WORKNET

Regardless of who, where, what, or when you are delivering service to your customers, the same six steps will ensure that your customer has a satisfactory service experience. Dian Survance has experienced the successes and failures dependent on these steps and will share them with attendees. Attendees will leave knowing what the six steps are and why they are so important, along with many other tips that make the support experience a good one. Steps like communication, setting expectations, and follow-up all factor in to the service experience, and lacking one or all of these can spoil even th...

Breakfast Briefing 7: The Results of the 2012 HDI Desktop Support Practices & Salary Report
Presented By:
Jenny Rains, HDI
Roy Atkinson, HDI

The groundbreaking 2011 HDI Desktop Support Practices & Salary Report was released last spring; the second edition is set to be released at HDI 2012. In this session, Jenny Rains and Roy Atkinson will walk through the latest report and pull out key points, trends, and major changes from last year. Has the desktop support organization matured? Have there been any notable changes in structure, practices, or metrics? This dynamic session will deliver fresh information and provide an opportunity for questions and interaction.

Keynote 2: Play Like a Champion
Presented By:
Lou Holtz

After twenty-six seasons as a head coach, Lou Holtz is the only coach in NCAA history to lead six different programs to bowl games and four different programs to the top twenty, achieving his greatest success at Notre Dame. Through trial and error, victory and defeat, Lou learned that every success begins with a vision and a plan. Helping people understand what’s important, encouraging people to hold themselves accountable, and making leaders of followers, Lou will help you learn to assess your strengths, work as a team, and embrace values that can improve any organization.

Session 101: The Zen of Support: The Path to Strategic Enlightenment
Presented By:
Jeffrey Rumburg, MetricNet, LLC

The words “customer support” and “customer service” accurately describe the role of service desk and desktop support professionals. Unfortunately, these words sometimes carry negative connotations and do not accurately convey the strategic potential of user support. The fact is that very few support organizations operate in a strategic paradigm. The result is that most do not fully exploit the inherent leverage of user support to achieve a competitive advantage for IT. In this session, Jeff Rumburg discusses what it means to be a strategic support organization and ...

Session 102: Don't Roll the DICE with Your Next Project: Learn the Four Key Factors for Success
Presented By:
Mark Shell, Cherwell Software

Do you have a critical initiative planned for or underway in your organization? Are you worried that it will lose momentum and stall? Has it already? In this interactive session, attendees will learn about the four key factors that influence a transformation initiative’s chances of success. You’ll learn how to use the DICE model to measure these factors as they relate to your own project or major change initiative and how to identify specific changes you may need to make to ensure success. You will track your own scores for a project from your organization and we’ll discuss h...

Session 103: The Inner Game of Highly Effective Support Center Leaders
Presented By:
Kristin Robertson, KR Consulting

What does the inner game of twenty-first-century leadership looks like? (Hint: It is not at all like the previous century’s “organization man” paradigm.) How can you develop twenty-first-century leadership skills, enhance the effectiveness of your support center, and advance your career? By embracing the inner game of leadership and the habits of self-knowledge, self-management, and on-going reflection. Leaders must be on their game if they expect to achieve excellence. In this session, we will explore the six styles of leadership and identify the ones that are most effe...

Session 104: Major Incident Management Fundamentals for Success
Presented By:
Barckley Toole, The Coca-Cola Company

This session provides a repeatable framework for handling major incidents (i.e., incidents with very high impact on the organization, such as revenue loss). Organizations that adopt and master this framework can expect to reduce the time to resolve for major incidents, reduce the resource requirements for managing major incidents, increase the awareness of impact and restore efforts by the business/service desk customers, and improve the documentation of major incidents, which will enable improved root cause analysis.  Attendees will learn: •    How to determine wheth...

Session 105: Engagement and the Feelings Economy
Presented By:
Cheryl Rayfield, Juice Inc.

Welcome to the feelings economy, where what’s felt matters most. Great leaders are discovering a stunning secret at work: emotional engagement trumps rational engagement and unlocks 400 percent more employee effort (Corporate Leadership Council, 2004). When core emotional needs are met, employees perform better and their personal energy spikes. Managing employee energy is critical to providing an optimal employee experience, ensuring higher engagement and retention levels which spills into the customer experience and the results. Attendees will learn: How engagement and energy ...

Session 106: The Fear Factor: Managing a Virtual Team
Presented By:
Tim Dewey, B Virtual Inc.

From large companies to small companies, service delivery leaders are asking, “Has anyone seen my at-home agent?” This session takes a look at how organizations handle at-home agent-based models. We will take an entertaining look at the changing trends in at-home agent-based support models and how then can work effectively, regardless of size. We will poke holes in the assumption that anyone can work from home, and learn about what often happens when we send our teams home to work without controls. From this session, you will gain an understanding of changing workforce trends and y...

Session 107: Is Your Service Desk Lost in the Bermuda Triangle of Metrics?
Presented By:
Malcolm Fry, Fry Consultants

What to measure, when to measure, and how to use those measurements has always been a challenge for service desks. This challenge has been exacerbated by the "Bermuda Triangle of metrics," with incident management on one side of the triangle, problem management on another side, and change management completing the triangle. The service desk is sailing somewhere within this triangle, using its own statistics as a navigation device, but constantly having to alter course based on the pressures from the triangle's boundaries. Can we calm the waters somewhat by looking how the se...

Session 108: Seven Steps to Success and Satisfaction
Presented By:
Nancy Friedman, Telephone Doctor Inc.

There are probably more than seven steps to success and satisfaction, but Nancy Friedman, the Telephone Doctor, will demonstrate and, better yet, share the ones that can make you better at your job and make you look better to your customers. After all, looking better to your customers makes them happier, and making customers happier is your job. And then you get to be happy, successful, and satisfied. Get the picture? Attitude is the first step to success and satisfaction, but the other six may surprise you. And you'll be amazed at how you'll be able to apply these to your daily schedule and...

Session 109: Rock-n-Roll Support: iPods for Service Delivery
Presented By:
Staven Bruce, Thomson Reuters

Every support organization is challenged with equipping desktop support staff with mobile tools that are efficient and cost effective, and avoiding communication breakdowns with customers, colleagues, and ticketing systems, which can be especially difficult and expensive when BlackBerrys and iPhones are involved. But with the explosion of internal and external wireless LANs across the corporate landscape, companies now have a far less expensive option. Marketed most often toward music aficionados and gamers, the iPod Touch actually runs the same iOS as the iPhone, providing the same functional...

Session 110: The Future of the IT Service Desk
Presented By:
Jeffrey Brooks, Gartner

The only thing certain about the future is that it will happen. And while there is no way to truly know what the future holds, we can always learn from the past, look at what is going on now, and work towards ensuring the future works in our favor. Join Jeff Brooks as he answers the following questions: •    What current challenges are IT service desk organizations facing? •    What future challenges will IT service desk organization’s face? •    How will IT service desks modernize to position themselves for IT service and supp...

Session 201: If you Don’t Market IT Operations, Who is?
Presented By:
Bill Keyworth, BSMreview.com

If IT doesn’t actively develop and promote a compelling value proposition, who will? What are the ramifications of not marketing IT? As alternatives like the could are enthusiastically embraced by the business, how can IT communicate its unique differences? How can “marketing” IT’s value to the business customer strengthen ITIL service strategy’s contributions to ITSM lifecycle? How can IT keep from being marginalized, even though there’s significant improvement to be gained from delivering technology more effectively and efficiently? How can IT leverage th...

Session 202: Service Management Excellence: The Role of Leadership
Presented By:
Jim Bolton, Propoint Solutions

If asked, it’s likely that less than one third of organizations would claim to have a high or reasonably high level of ITIL maturity. In this session, based on John Kotter’s Leading Change (Harvard Business Press, 1996) and supplemented by examples and humor from the author’s personal experiences leading organizational change, attendees will learn about the eight key principles for successfully leading change in an organization: 1.    Establish a sense of urgency. 2.    Create a guiding coalition. 3.    Develop a vision and strat...

Session 203: Major Incident? No Problem!
Presented By:
Randy Steinberg, Migration Technologies

A major incident has just occurred! Does your support staff react in a disorganized fashion? Do you experience ineffective bridge calls with lots of support staff? Are support staff inundated with constant calls from users and executives asking for status updates? If so, this session will provide you with the knowledge and means to turn things around quickly. In this session, Randy Steinberg will share a problem management lifecycle approach that organizes support teams, generates productive action, gets to root cause quickly, and communicates effectively with the business. Using real-world ...

Session 204: Rock Star Employees: Building a Talented Service Desk, from Recruitment to Retention?
Presented By:
John Reed, Robert Half Technology

It’s no secret that great IT support talent is hard to find, and even harder to retain. In fact, recent research indicates that it takes five weeks, on average, to fill a staff-level IT position, and seven to fill a management opening. Additionally, most employees feel that two to three years is the longest they can stay in a position to advance their career. Add to this the changes in the ways top talent looks for jobs, new ways of networking, and the challenges inherent in recruiting and managing a multigenerational team—it’s a challenge to keep support teams fully staffe...

Session 205: Introducing the Playbook for Maximizing SOP Effectiveness
Presented By:
Brian Bolyard, Intel

This session will provide an overview of how Intel's service desk introduced the Playbook to address the challenges associated with discipline, understanding, and, most importantly, consistent usage of high-quality standard operating procedures to enhance the customer experience. The Playbook moves a service desk up the maturity scale by providing a common platform for consistent SOP storage and reference, an agent workflow that articulates agent contact management expectations and enables quick access to SOPs in a optimal sequence, and a single-portal approach for directing your entire organi...

Session 206: Lead, Manage, Mentor, Coach
Presented By:
Sharon Lewis, Questiam Leadership Development

Join Sharon Lewis for an exploration of the four essential functions demanded of today’s organizational leaders. This interactive session focuses on four key learning objectives: •    Understanding the differences between leading, managing, mentoring, and coaching; •    Identifying the most effective and appropriate situations for approach; •    Developing the discernment to know when to do what; and •    Grasping the essence and mind-set needed to master each approach. Attend this session and learn ...

Session 207: Making a Difference with Data: Aligning Metrics with Core Competencies
Presented By:
Eddie Vidal, University of Miami
Jenny Rains, HDI

According to HDI's research, 91 percent of organizations measure performance metrics. But what is being done with that data? When metrics are summarized and shared, they tell a story about your organization. Are you using that data to actually improve service and customer experience? Specifically, are you aligning your metrics with your performance management process? Have you considered building a program using core competencies with key metrics and using those to provide constructive feedback during assessments of team member performance? Join Jenny and Eddie as they share a unique combina...

Session 208: CES: A New Customer Loyalty Methodology Is Coming
Presented By:
Jean Mork Bredeson, SERVICE 800

Now that measuring customer satisfaction is a standard practice, the next step is to apply what we have learned from our customers’ feedback. For those companies who want to advance and improve by incorporating customer opinion into their strategies, there’s a new methodology that is getting attention over CSAT, CSI, Top Box, etc. The Customer Effort Score (CES), a measure of the effort that customers have to do business with you, is emerging as a tool for measuring and driving improvements that correlate with increased revenue and decreased outsourcing. Jean Mork Bredeson will sha...

Session 209: Desktop Support: Leveraging the Art and Science of Best Practices to Bridge the Gap
Presented By:
Katherine Lord, Lord Consulting

As a critical client-facing extension of support, desktop support plays a large role in customer service, public relations, and that all-visible, all-too-valuable value proposition. Times are changing, and organizations are starting to make significant structural, procedural, and cultural changes to alter the perception of desktop support and take it to a whole new level. Attendees will learn: •    How to understand the typical challenges associated with desktop support; •    How to leverage the HDI best practice guide as a benchmarking tool; •&nb...

Session 210: The IT Change Imperative: Technologies That Will Change The Way We Work
Presented By:
Pete McGarahan, McGarahan and Associates

As IT leaders, we must coach our IT professionals out of and beyond their comfort zones, raise the bar on their expected ingenuity and vision to meet future challenges, and establish a sense of urgency in them. We must help them reevaluate and retool themselves for the limitless opportunities and possibilities in front of them to deliver business value, competitive advantage, and customer loyalty. Rapid, breathtaking technological advances are forcing radical changes not only in how IT organizations function, but also in terms of their culture, leadership, and even careers. Combined with busi...

Session 301: Transformational Leadership: Beyond the Shiny Objects
Presented By:
Phil Verghis, The Verghis Group
Dr. Adam Krob, The Verghis Group

For a few years now, leaders at progressive support organizations have talked about moving customers from a transaction-based support model to a relationship-based model. This involves shifting your customers’ perceptions from seeing your support team as a place to contact only when there are break-fix or how-to questions to one that understands their businesses, including the technical and business context of their queries. After early successes in this journey, many organizations run into a seemingly impenetrable wall. Your senior team “gets it,” but this understanding d...

Session 302: Predictions for the Future: The Face of Technical Support in 2015 and Beyond
Presented By:
Meg Frantz, CompuCom Systems, Inc.

Rapid and dramatic changes are the norm. With the obvious trends in cloud computing, mobility, social media, and divergent tools, leaders in the world of technical support are wondering what support is going to look like in the future. The ability to strategize and plan effectively for that future is a paramount challenge. Over the past year, the panel has identified a number of topics that its members think will influence how we fund, staff, and deliver support going forward. In our business, though, trends come and go. What are the “hard” trends that will really stick with us? ...

Session 303: The Journey to Being a Quality Problem Management Team
Presented By:
LeeAnn McBride, Nationwide Insurance

This session will share the tips and tricks one team at Nationwide Insurance learned on their journey from wondering if they still had jobs to being the place for all things problem management. How did this happen? Many things had to change. Root cause analysis (RCA) efforts went from consolidated to distributed, and the teams responsible for running the RCAs now receive training on problem analysis. Nationwide began auditing RCA efforts and sharing audit scores with upper management. It also began tracking known error removal. Outage causes are now trended, tracked, reported and acted upon....

Session 304: The Service Recovery Paradox
Presented By:
Ian Clayton, Service Management 101

The rules of business have changed. We are truly in the service experiential economy where nothing differentiates an organization more than how they care for their customers. Service recovery is the term used in customer support centers for recovering the customer relationship, not recovering the services and systems. The service recovery paradox explains how a good recovery can turn angry and frustrated customers into loyal customers. For service support professionals who recognize exceptional support as the only sustainable differentiator for their customers, this session uses tabletop simul...

Session 305: You Must Be UP to Something
Presented By:
Kirk Weisler, Team Dynamics

The 7 UPpers that can change the way you lead, learn, and live your life will be discussed, explored, and maybe even experienced in this fun, fast-paced session with Kirk Weisler. The 7 UPpers include journaling UP, reading UP, huddling UP, lifting UP, learning UP, looking UP, and growing UP. You can’t give UP until you get UP, so come get your 7 UPpers today.

Session 306: Metrics That Promote Business Value, Minus the "Geek Speak"
Presented By:
Rae Ann Bruno, Business Solutions Training

Ever wonder if your business partners would notice if you just stopped printing their reports? If you think they wouldn't notice, then it's time to transform them! Leave "geek speak" like abandoned rate, average speed to answer, the "five nines of availability,” and first contact resolution in your IT meetings and design reports that matter for the business. These reports will clearly show how your team enables the business. Attend this session to learn how to transform your current metrics and reports into valuable business information. Participants will learn: •&n...

Session 307: Caring for Our Own
Presented By:
Mary Cruse, Integrated Oncology

Do we do less because a customer is “just an employee”? Customers—no matter who they are—have many choices in the marketplace, and if your support team isn’t creating a great experience, they will find an organization that will! Providing phone support and self-service applications, supporting SaaS, proprietary, and mobile applications…it's not easy. The IT infrastructure is critical to the business, and successful support is crucial. How do you do it with the limited resources deemed appropriate for internal support? Attendees will learn: • &n...

Session 308: Can’t We All Just Get Along? Changing the Face and Structure of Support
Presented By:
Deborah Monroe, Ignite Achievements Int'l
Danny Richardson, Pantex

Technical support and customer service is an ever-changing landscape of people and technology. Service desk managers follow IT governance principles, monitor customer satisfaction, and constantly search for new trends to help them stay on top of “support mountain.” But the real problem may lie in how we structure our organization, instead of how we use it. All-in-one (AIO) support blends the support center, desktop support, and team lead roles into one highly engaged, customer-focused, and well-trained team of professionals that work together to improve your customers’ expe...

Session 309: No Money? No Problem! Making the Most of Partnered Service
Presented By:
Donia Nolan, Tietronix Software
Michelle Croce, DB Consulting Group, Inc.

Donia Nolan and Michelle Croce are customer service agents for the Information Resources Directorate (IRD) at NASA's Johnson Space Center. During this session, Donia and Michelle will share their experience in creating a new customer support model to maintain top-quality service during a time of decreased budgets and increased customer demands. The new support model, which NASA calls “partnered service,” repurposes existing resources like SharePoint, WebEx, and social media tools to offer new ways for customers to interact with service providers. Partnered service also maximizes th...

Session 310: So You Want to Replace Your Ticketing Software? The Dos and Don'ts to Make It Successful
Presented By:
Melanie Ellsworth, Afni, Inc.

If you're in the market to upgrade or replace your existing incident management/ticketing solution, or even just tossing the idea around, you need to know what you should and shouldn't do to be successful. Learn about why you should negotiate a “pilot project” with your vendors to determine whether or not a new solution will complement or curtail your existing infrastructure. Find out how to use live data to plan for implementation and discover why a solid partnership with your vendor can be the most important product you purchase. Finally, learn how new solutions can rea...

Keynote 3: Mao's Last Dancer
Presented By:
Li Cunxin

Growing up in poverty-stricken rural China, Li Cunxin was selected by Madame Mao for the Beijing Dance Academy. After years of grueling training, he became one of the country’s most celebrated dancers, and was chosen to be one of China’s first cultural ambassadors to the United States. While dancing for the Houston Ballet, he defected, prompting a standoff at the Chinese Consulate, where he was detained. Li documented his extraordinary story in his memoir, Mao’s Last Dancer, which became an international bestseller and was adapted into the critically acclaimed movie of the sa...

Breakfast Briefing 8: Returning Identity and Access Management (IAM) to the User
Presented By:
Nelson Cicchitto, Avatier

Identity and access management responsibilities are often run with a discrete set of applications, with little to no visibility from line-of-business managers. What if application and network access was just another item to provision, like a security card or a computer from a storefront? What if a fault-tolerant, Trusted Identity Fabric™ transcended the network by managing all applications and resources with human activity reduced to a series of approval? Learn how MillerCoors, Intuitive Surgical, and A.J. Gallagher are using Avatier’s solutions to redefine enterprise IAM.

Breakfast Briefing 9: Securing Remote Support for the Mobile Enterprise
Presented By:
Nathan McNeill, Bomgar

Enterprises have used remote access to support employees and customers for decades. However, the point-to-point solutions first used to support the LAN have failed to address key security requirements. For the last several years, remote access has been found to be the leading attack pathway for hackers. Remote support’s extension into post-PC devices like smartphones and tablets puts further strain on the old model, warranting a thorough evaluation of remote support security best practices

Breakfast Briefing10: IT Service Management and Access Risk Management
Presented By:
Kurt Johnson, Courion Corporation

Most people automatically associate ITIL and IT service management with its traditional foundations in request and problem management. Even though ITIL has evolved beyond these pillars, many people do not see IT security as a critical component.   This session will discuss the concept of access risk management, which entails ensuring that the right people have the right access to the right information and are doing the right things with it. It will explore the tight connection between stronger security and adherence to regulatory compliance with service delivery and efficiency. This ...

Breakfast Briefing11: Knowledge Management and Common Cloud Support Issue
Presented By:
Michael Scarborough, Global Knowledge

Effective IT support requires getting the right information to the right people at the right time. This is even more critical in cloud computing environments, where the service provider organization must adapt quickly and respond dynamically to customer and user needs. This presentation covers the effective use of the ITIL knowledge management process to ensure that service providers supporting cloud environments have the information and knowledge needed to provide high-quality and cost-effective support.  

Breakfast Briefing12: Winning the BYOD Game: How to Create a Realistic Governance Strategy
Presented By:
Matt Neigh, Cherwell Software

Breakfast Briefing13: IT Is No Longer about the Delivery of Magic behind Closed Doors
Presented By:
Robert Stroud, CA Technologies
Tim Rochte, CA Technologies

For IT, it is no longer about the delivery of magic behind closed doors. The focus is changing, and business technology management is a rising star. With BTM,  you are moving truly into the service industry, delivering IT-enabled business value by focusing on the service and its delivery. You can no longer hide behind rules that say “no.” You must alter your posture to say “yes,” while focusing on the risks involved and effectively communicating with and empowering the business to accept risk where appropriate, and mitigate it where it is not.

Breakfast Briefing14: Self-Service User Breakfast Club
Presented By:
Pulin H. Bhatt, Texas Tech University

Join Pulin H. Bhatt, along with several other BMC FootPrints customers, for a discussion focusing on the radical shift in user expectations that is driving IT organizations to embrace a self-service culture. You will learn how ITSM solutions are being leveraged to enable user self-service, resulting in improved customer satisfaction, expedited service delivery, and a reduction in costly, resource-consuming service desk calls.

Keynote 4: The World in 2030
Presented By:
Dr. Michio Kaku

Take a thrilling journey through the next hundred years of technological revolution with Dr. Michio Kaku, today’s most widely recognized international figure in science, and see how science will shape our lives. Our future is subject to the future of technology, which is in turn dependent on our ever-growing understanding of physics. Join Dr. Kaku, best-selling author and host of the Science Channel's Sci Fi Science, as he explores how developments in technology, computers, and quantum physics will forever change how we live and learn.

Session 401: What Are Hackers Hacking?
Presented By:
Rob Rachwald, IMPERVA

Vulnerabilities are everywhere. Knowing where they are is useful, but knowing which ones will be exploited is much more useful. Security professionals need to focus on the real threats plaguing today’s practitioners and provide up-to-date statistics on actual attack data. Where can they get this data? Rob Rachwald’s team analyzes hacker attack data on a regular basis and can answer questions like: •    What are the most commonly exploited vulnerabilities? •    What trending topics are hackers discussing? •    Where shou...

Session 402: Process Documentation: A Step-by-Step Approach
Presented By:
Buff Scott, III, Propoint Solutions, Inc.

ITIL says that a process should be measurable, documented, and controlled. What documents are necessary and what information should those documents contain? In this session, Buff Scott will describe and provide examples of the three documents that should be created for each ITIL process an organization plans to implement: the process policy, plan, and SOP. Attendees will walk away with a solid understanding of these documents and their content, and why they are important to any ITIL process implementation.

Session 403: Get a Clue on Problem Solving!
Presented By:
Dana Olson, Gavilon, LLC

We confront problems every day. Regardless of the scope, importance, or complexity, problems need solutions! Solving problems is a regular task in the support environment, so it is extremely beneficial for analysts to be efficient and effective at solving problems. Unfortunately, there are situations where teams either rely on one good problem solver for the tough problems or they lose momentum in transitioning problems to another tier. In this session, based on the investigative techniques in the classic board game Clue, attendees will learn about the benefits of a problem-solving process, di...

Session 404: Culture Shock! Getting to Know the World
Presented By:
Deborah Monroe, Ignite Achievements Int'l

Globalization has left us feeling culture shock! Through humorous stories and applicable takeaways, Deborah will explain why we judge one another so quickly, why the schema and mind-sets we live in are so comfortable, and why it is so difficult to accept cultural differences. Attendees will learn: •    How to identify their problem areas when it comes to dealing with different cultures; •    Why our brains judge people so quickly; •    How to create empathy and understand different cultures; and •    How to famili...

Session 405: Metrics 101: Understanding What to Measure and Where to Use the Metrics
Presented By:
John Custy, JPC Group

Determining the appropriate metrics is essential to managing an organization and leveraging its core functions to contribute to an organization’s success. Metrics for support organizations can be classified as one of two types: activities (leading indicators) and results (lagging indicators). Managers need to understand how to use each of them to enable good decision-making.   Understanding what metrics to use and where to use them challenges both new and experienced managers. Measuring the right things and setting goals enables support center management to communicate the value of...

Session 406: Drive Behavior That Produces Results!
Presented By:
Patti Albright, HDI

All too often, individual and team performance are based on an incomplete set of metrics. It's an approach that drives the wrong behaviors and creates an environment where analysts find ways to “game the numbers” so their measurements meet expectations, keeping them under the radar. Operational targets may be met, but customer satisfaction decreases, turnover increases, and employee morale sinks to all-time lows. This session presents a practical approach using real data and reports—not theory—that attendees can put to use right away using the template provided...

Session 407: Building a Customer Experience Management Strategy by the Numbers
Presented By:
Bill Moore, Customer Relationship Management Institute

Without customers, your organization would not exist. Why wouldn’t you do everything possible to consistently exceed your customers’ expectations for service quality? While companies compete on product and price, enduring market leadership is defined by something entirely subjective:  the quality of the customer experience. This is the exclusive responsibility of a company’s customer service organization, primarily the call center or help desk.   This session explains how a proactive Customer Experience Management (CEM) Playbook strategy helps the service organizati...

Session 408: Level Up Your Service Organization with Concierge Support
Presented By:
Shad Jessen, Boise State University
Kevin Smith, University of Minnesota

Customer care organizations can no longer be content with traditional methods of IT service delivery and support. Technology turns on a dime, and today's customers expect targeted, personalized service to help them stay ahead of the curve. That's the role of the IT concierge service. Concierge service is focused on building and fostering relationships with customers, anticipating their wants and needs, and providing proactive planning, advice, and support tailored to individual learning styles and technological proficiency. In this session, we will explain how to implement concierge service in...

Session 409: Supporting the Mobile-Device Workforce: The Newest Challenge
Presented By:
Michael Devaney, Enterprise Mobile

The use of iPhones, iPads, BlackBerrys, smartphones, and ruggedized devices as mission-critical tools is increasing exponentially, and supporting these devices poses new challenges for any help desk. Operating systems, applications, messaging, device management, and security are factors that contribute to more complex end-user support. This session will explore the best practices and technologies required to support today’s mobile devices, and you will leave with the knowledge required to develop a plan for successfully supporting a mobile workforce. Attendees will learn about: •...

Session 410: Putting the Service Catalog into Action
Presented By:
David Dahl, Spectrum Health

This case study focuses on Spectrum Health, a large, regional, integrated healthcare system with over 150 locations and nearly 18,000 employees. At Spectrum, we’re following a multiyear strategy based on ITIL v3—our Service Excellence initiative—to transform IT service management into a model of customer-centric performance. A cornerstone of that strategy is the deployment of commercial service catalog software to provide better access to IT services. In this session, David Dahl will review the latest iteration in Spectrum’s service management journey, walking thro...

Session 501: Ensuring the Organizational Fortitude to Put and Keep the Customer First
Presented By:
Elizabeth Cholawsky, Citrix Online

Today’s organizations create value for their customers differently from the way they have in the past. Therefore, today’s business leaders must seek out new solutions to ensure their organizations stay relevant and competitive, often with fewer resources. Success requires organizations to follow a philosophy of empowering employees, embracing technology, and always putting and keeping the customer first. Citrix Online has developed the organizational fortitude to put and keep the customer first, no matter what. Its strength comes from a dynamic blend of action, intellect, fun, an...

Session 502: Clockwork Orange: Mobility, Big Data, and Precognition
Presented By:
Chris Dancy, ServiceSphere

We are living in the future. Our devices can see, talk, and translate the world around us. Our instant link to knowledge gives today’s children access to more data than physicians of fifteen years ago. In a single day in 2011, more data will be created on the web than was created between 1995 and 2000. Before the end of this decade, users and enterprises will be exposed to precognitive news and events, and navigating the streams of this “big data” will be a skill that every IT professional will need. How will supporting this virtual time travel change the way you interact wi...

Session 503: ITSM Implementations: Patterns, Trends, and Lessons
Presented By:
Dhiraj Gupta, Capgemini Financial Services USA Inc.

In this presentation, Dhiraj Gupta will present a thorough analysis of current patterns and emerging trends in ITSM implementations. Specifically, Dhiraj will discuss the reasons for initiating an ITSM implementation, where ITSM lives within the IT organizations, the structure of the team delivering the project, and various models for implementation. Additionally, Dhiraj will share six key lessons learned through his years of extensive experience in ITSM implementations: 1.    Adoption over invention. 2.    Process and tools. 3.    Integration not...

Session 504: Why Did the Titanic Sink? The Art of Effective Problem Management
Presented By:
Phillip Kimball, University of Utah Hospital

Whether your organization supports two applications or 2,000, problem management and critical thinking skills are key success factors for any business. In this session, attendees engage with the fundamentals of problem analysis by participating in a hands-on exercise that will teach them how to ask the right questions and will help them refine their problem-analysis skills. Attendees will learn:     * How to define the value of the problem management process;     * How to implement problem management;     * How to get buy-in for problem managemen...

Session 505: Putting the Team in Charge (And It Wasn’t a Disaster!)
Presented By:
Alan Block, University Hospitals of Cleveland

While we often rely on managers, trainers, or human resources to create development plans for our employees, it’s actually the employees themselves who—when engaged to do so—best develop themselves and their teammates. In this session, Alan Block will provide actual examples of techniques used with the thirty-member service desk team at the University Hospitals of Cleveland. He will speak about the Manager for a Day program, the onboarding process for new team members (conducted by the team itself), the Sunshine Club (managed by the team), meeting delegation, and the resolver...

Session 506: Make Service Desk Measurement Relevant to Senior Management
Presented By:
Charles Cyna, ThinkITSM

In the current atmosphere of cost cutting and outsourcing, it is increasingly critical for service desks to demonstrate their value to IT and the organization. Moving from being just valuable to “visibly valuable” is essential if the service desk wants to continue to receive the investment it needs to effectively support the organization. The key to becoming “visibly valuable” is making the information gathered on the service desk relevant to senior management. Come to this session and learn how to build an executive scorecard that will raise the profile of the servic...

Session 507: Customer Satisfaction: Breaking Out of the Rearview Mirror
Presented By:
Eric Zbikowski, MetricNet, LLC

The pursuit of customer satisfaction and loyalty through continuous improvement programs is high on most service desk and contact center agendas, yet most still fail to understand the totality of customer expectations and, therefore, deliver services that miss the mark. Fewer than 25 percent of companies have institutionalized a successful customer satisfaction measurement and management system. In this session, Eric Zbikowski will illustrate a world-class approach to implementing a continuous improvement program that works. Attendees will learn: •    Why having satisfie...

Session 508: Supporting the VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Presented By:
Jeremy Gruenke, Johnsonville Sausage
Jeff Pitts, Johnsonville

At Johnsonville Sausage, virtualzation is more than just the new buzzword. Attend this sesion to hear about the real-world challenges of a team that supports 250 internal users (in a company of 1,400) on virtual desktops. We'll share the highs and lows of implementing and supporting production-critical virtual desktop machines at the front line and the impacts on the IT service desk, including capacity, bandwidth, and resource planning. Attendees will also learn about our known issues and workarounds, which zero client we selected and why, what works better on a virtual machine than on a regul...

Session 509: The Fundamentals of Desktop Support Operations
Presented By:
Danny Mar, Texas Tech University

In this session, Danny Mar will present the fundamentals and best practices of desktop support, geared toward the management and support personnel involved in those operations. Shannon will cover the various methodologies and techniques used in desktop support, along with the appropriate steps and tools necessary for retrieving electronic data, migrating from one operating system to another, and storing customer data and information. 

Session 510: Social IT: It's About People, Not Tools
Presented By:
Roy Atkinson, HDI
Chuck Tomasi, ServiceNow

This dynamic session concentrates on shifting the discussion from social media tools to the people who use them. The session will cover current practices (based on HDI Research Corner data), innovative uses, social media policy, and leveraging social media for support. We will discuss the variety of social media, from forums and message boards to SharePoint and Twitter, and we will look at some emerging practices related to making the tools work, leveraging subject matter experts, and making support rapid and relevant. Attendees will explore the answers to the following questions: •&nbs...

Session 601: CIO Perspectives: From Operations to the Executive Suite
Presented By:
Richard Razon, PureShare, Inc

This session will provide an overview of the core tenets that apply to CIO-level metrics and will demonstrate how to turn metrics into everyday knowledge tools and strategic insights. Rich Razon will share perspectives from the executive suite, as well as five basic guidelines that ensure that performance measures deliver maximum value at the highest levels of an organization. He will present examples of successful IT performance management metrics for executives and case studies from several large organizations to highlight how operationally oriented measures can be transformed into strategic...

Session 602: The Emergence of Social IT: Technology for the People
Presented By:
Fred Luddy, ServiceNow

Just a few years ago, business executives worked with IT departments to block, limit, or track employee use of social media tools in the workplace. But now companies are not only opening up social media to employees, they are also leveraging these “social IT” tools to deliver faster, more integrated solutions to business users looking for IT support. In this session, Fred Luddy will discuss how organizations today are leveraging employees’ use of social media to create an enterprise where collaboration and information sharing is as simple as posting to Facebook or Twitter. Ac...

Session 603: Raising the Bar Through Internal and Ongoing Training
Presented By:
Michael Connors, Follett Higher Education Group

In Steven Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press, 1989), the final habit is called “sharpening the saw.” Your support staff and your customers deserve nothing less. Learn how to plan, prepare, execute, and measure return on investment for your own home-grown training sessions. There are many benefits to this approach, including: •    Interaction and relationship building between your support staff and subject matter experts in, for example, development and quality assurance; •    Professional development of ...

Session 604: What the Heck Did my CIO Just Say? Translating Communication from the C-Suite
Presented By:
Bren Boddy-Thomas, Exchange Bank

Bren Boddy-Thomas understands her CIO’s focus and perspective and has learned to speak his language. Drawing upon her experience earning a place at the table, Bren will share ideas about how to communicate with your CIO and take a more active role in strategic and business-centric discussions. She will offer some real, practical guidance for building a more effective relationship with your senior IT management and being a part of that team, not a bystander. Attendees will learn the answers to the following questions: •    What does the CIO value about the role of t...

Session 605: Raise the Bar on Service Quality: KPIs That Drive Value
Presented By:
Julie Mohr, Mind The IT Gap

It's time to raise the bar for IT organizations and define a new status quo. Problem management is the key to increasing service quality, but it requires both reactive and proactive problem management—measurements that are linked to value creation for the business—and real tangible outcomes. This presentation explores both ITSM and IT governance frameworks and the proposed key performance indicators, and maps these and other measurements to business value. After exploring a framework for measurement, we will then evaluate the problem management process, activities, roles, and outco...

Session 606: Customer Insight Metrics
Presented By:
Frederick Van Bennekom, Great Brook

Unless you're in a churn-and-burn business, customer retention is critical to achieving long-term profitability. But how do we know what drives customer retention? How can we identify those customers that are very likely to return and to give good word of mouth? Recently, several key metrics have arisen to reflect customer sentiment. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the best known, but the Customer Effort Score (CES) is a new entrant to the field. Both are controversial, but this presentation will discuss both of these metrics and put in perspective the approaches to arriving at the nirvana of ...

Session 607: Enhancing the Spectrum Health Experience: A Customer Service Improvement Initiative
Presented By:
Heather Deane Strickland, Spectrum Health

In a world where Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Nordstrom, and Apple have set the customer service bar quite high, is your organization struggling to meet expectations? Is better customer service no longer a “nice-to-have,” but a “must-have” for your organization? Are you ready to stop just talking about better customer service and actually put your customer at the center of your business? Come learn how the IT shop in a $4B regional health system took on exactly that challenge by partnering with a company renowned for its customer service and adapting its model to an I...

Session 608: Desktop/Service Desk Collaboration: Case Studies in Successful Partnership
Presented By:
Jeffrey Rumburg, MetricNet, LLC

The service desk and desktop support have historically operated independently of one another. There are many reasons for this, but the end result is that most support organizations are suboptimized due to lack of coordination and cooperation between the two groups. This, in turn, leads to higher support costs and lower customer satisfaction. In this session, Jeff Rumburg will share three case studies from support organizations that have “cracked the code” on service desk and desktop support collaboration. He will discuss how these partnerships operate and demonstrate the performanc...

Session 609: Does Your Mobile App Do That? Instant Metrics for the CEO
Presented By:
Anne Vail, General Information Services
Michael Estep, General Information Services, Inc.

Delivering the right metrics at the right time to the right stakeholders can be tricky. And the mobile revolution has heightened C-level expectations, requiring IT professionals to find new ways to provide instant access to performance metrics. In this session, you’ll listen to real-world examples of how one support desk learned to harness and present instant, relevant performance metrics from on-site and remote teams across various networks, and share that data in a multitude of different formats to deliver the right message to the right stakeholder or client. Walk away with creative, e...

Session 610: Create, Innovate, and Get Out of the Cave
Presented By:
Patrick Bolger, Hornbill Service Management

IT has evolved so quickly that the average consumer now has access to more online services and collaboration tools at home than they do at the office. Social media and collaborative technologies are setting expectations around delivery of IT services that most IT departments fail to meet. Business managers have already started to bypass their IT departments to obtain services faster and IT appears to be losing control. IT organizations that are too slow to evolve face a real threat from outsourcing. This session looks at the technologies you cannot afford to ignore in 2012. What can we learn f...

Keynote 5: Life Would Be Easy If It Wasn't for Other People
Presented By:
Connie Podesta

Successful personal and professional growth hinges on your ability to learn as much as possible about yourself and others, including why people do what they do and say what they say, so that you can act, rather than react, to whatever life throws your way. Learn to stand out from the crowd so people will choose you to be their friend, colleague, leader, salesperson, partner, and employee. Connie’s funny, on-target, and intuitive presentation will reveal the secrets to dealing effectively with every type of personality (including the ones who drive you crazy) so you can enjoy new levels o...

Session 701: Heads in the Clouds: "People and Change"
Presented By:
Ray Cornelious, Comprehensive Cloud Services

In this session, Ray Cornelious will examine role of human resource management as it relates to job creation and potential job loss in the cloud. He will detail the costs and types of resources used in the cloud, from hardware, paper, power usage, and heating and cooling to the number-one resource, people. He will also address issues like compensation, performance management, organization development, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training. Attendees will learn about: •    The common cloud types and strategies; •    Resou...

Session 702: The Service Desk and Service Level Management: The Perfect Pair
Presented By:
Lou Hunnebeck, Third Sky, Inc.

Many organizations work diligently on the capabilities of their service desk while paying little or no attention to the vital partner of the service desk function: the service level management process. In this session, attendees will learn about the critical role that a mature service level management process plays in service desk excellence. We will also talk about the complimentary and mutually supportive roles that service level management process and the service desk function play in delivering real IT-business alignment. Then we will discuss how to put these ideas into practice by raisi...

Session 703: Managing Your Image
Presented By:
Zebedee Agbanyim, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Carol Fester, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

 Your image can make or break your career. How are you managing your image? There are three components to the image someone forms about you: the way you look, the way you act, and your body language. These are all, to a degree, under your control. We will cover several techniques for controlling others’ perception of you by managing personal appearance, mindset, and body language. This exciting, fun-filled session will include interactive activities to help you become the author of your own identity. You will leave armed with ways to dress for success!

Session 704: People, Personalities, and the Plague
Presented By:
Gregg Gregory, Teams Rock

Getting everyone to play nicely in the sandbox—with cohesive, productive, working relationships—is something every organization strives for. Gregg Gregory will steer attendees through the process of designing cooperative teams that produce results by utilizing the most effective players to accomplish the mission in a productive timeframe. Attendee will learn: •    Why mutual accountability makes the team stronger; •    Why understanding a team’s chemistry is important; •    Why generations work and communicate so d...

Session 705: Grab the Oxygen, Your Service Desk Is Suffocating
Presented By:
Cindy Priester, BDO USA, LLP
Josh Lorenz, BDO USA, LLP

Frontline support professionals play a major role in creating and building solid client relationships; they are the voice of the company they work for, and have the potential to be a powerful force within your firm. That potential, however, remains largely untapped. As a result, employee burnout is on the rise. Providing meaningful challenges and empowering your customer service professionals to introduce change helps eliminate employee burnout while building a more effective and motivated team. In this session, two accomplished service desk analysts explain how to eliminate the monotony and t...

Session 706: The Three Stages of a Metrics-driven Services Transformation
Presented By:
Charles Araujo, The IT Transformation Institute

Based on a forthcoming book, this session will explain how to develop a metrics strategy that can help drive a services transformation, progressing through three stages: understand, design, and embed. Attendees will learn: •    Why you need to break your addiction to data; •    What the true purpose of metrics is and how you can use them to create a performance-driven IT organization;   •    What the different types of metrics that exist in the "metrics ecosystem" are and when to use each of them; •  &nbs...

Session 707: Service Recovery: Do It or Die
Presented By:
Mitch Bryant, Norton Healthcare

The internet and mobile phones have empowered customers; now, it just takes one click to say goodbye to a company forever. It is not enough to have the lowest price or the best technology; there will always be competitors who can do it better, faster, and cheaper. And no product can be 100-percent ready when you take it to market; eventually, your product will fail, and you will have to make it right. But if we learn to take advantage of our customers’ complaints and mend the relationship, those interactions are worth their weight in gold. Complaints are so important to your business tha...

Session 708: Dispatches from Afar: Building and Managing a Distributed Desktop Support Team
Presented By:
Michael Fisher, Molina Healthcare

In companies with offices in multiple geographic locations, it's the nature of desktop support to work in and manage teams that are widely scattered. Ten years ago, companies had the budget and resources to bring people together for training and team building, but in the current climate of reduced staff levels and nonexistent travel budgets, how do you build and maintain an effective distributed desktop support team? Attendees will learn about: •    The essential technical and nontechnical elements for building a cohesive distributed desktop support team; •  ...

Session 709: The Service Catalog and the Cloud: How to Prepare for the Coming Storm
Presented By:
Andrew Kramer, PMG Software

Cloud computing is here. Powered by mature virtualization technologies, public and private cloud initiatives are being implemented at best-of-breed enterprises. If you’re just getting started, you might find your users wondering why they can get cloud services in minutes, but getting similar services internally is slow and often more expensive. Bridging this gap between the online world and the in-house world has taken on new urgency. It is now imperative that you provide equivalent services, with equivalent speed, agility, price, and performance. Providing cloud services in a structured...

Session 801: Partnering for Award-winning Support: Volkswagen's Five Steps to Outsourcing Success
Presented By:
Dan Wilson, Volkswagen of America
Brian Fox, CompuCom Systems Inc.

Not all outsourcing relationships boil down to “us” and “them.” This session focuses on creating a business partnership of “we.” Specifically, Dan Wilson and Brian Fox will discuss how the Volkswagen Group of America, through a formal RFP, selected, built a relationship with, and works on a daily basis with its business partner, CompuCom. This business partnership was the basis for turning a “helpless” IT support organization into an international award-winning team. Brian and Dan will focus on five key steps and provide the customer and partner...

Session 802: The Perpetual Idea Machine: Incremental Improvement Programs for IT People
Presented By:
Daniel Lafever, Franciscan Alliance

Your management wants you to improve IT and develop your staff, yet your workload is overwhelming and your team is overworked. What do you do? The answer is implementing an incremental improvement idea program focused on steady improvement over time. The manufacturing industry has used this approach for decades, saving time, reducing costs, and improving quality. In this session, Dan Lafever will teach you how to turn your staff's IT expertise and knowledge into real improvements that they can implement themselves. You will also see how this quality program can be used to generate hun...

Session 803: Augmenting Knowledge-Centered Support with Proactive Knowledge Management
Presented By:
Rick Joslin, HDI

 Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) is recognized as the set of knowledge management best practices within service management. KCS complements ITIL by integrating knowledge management into the incident management and problem management processes. While KCS success stories are growing in number, KCS is reactive knowledge management and should be augmented with proactive knowledge management.  In this session, you’ll discover how to integrate knowledge management more deeply into problem and release management, how to augment KCS with proactive knowledge management, and how to...

Session 804: Customer Support and Satisfaction: A 360⁰ View
Presented By:
Joseph Arsenault, Time Warner

Key customer service metrics and customer satisfaction surveys have often been used independent of each other to measure a company's service goals. For example, a daily problem report may identify why your customers are contacting your organization, but it does not measure your customers’ satisfaction with that support. Conversely, a customer satisfaction survey may measure overall performance of customer service representatives, but not with the problems they support. Linking support service metrics and costs with customer satisfaction surveys provides a true 360° view of the ...

Session 805: Jump into the Bullpen
Presented By:
Lisa Weaver, CACU

Help desks are not always dispatch centers. “Jump into the Bullpen” is a conversation about a real-life example of how you can tier your support between applications and desktop by simply defining roles and physically relocating them, without a formal flow chart, to create a more proactive and successful support organization. By simplifying the concept of support tiers, this session explores the continued evolution of a desk that struggles with escalation and explains how changing roles and proximity has helped alleviate these challenges.

Session 806: Stop Hallucinating and Start Achieving
Presented By:
Manley Feinberg, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc.

“Vision without execution is hallucination.”—Thomas Edison Edison said setting goals is easy. Why, then, do we fail to achieve so many of our goals? Staying focused, making consistent progress, and achieving our vision is a critical challenge we all face in life. In this session, Manley Feinberg will share a powerful framework that you and your team will be able to follow every day to stay focused on key goals and get immediate results. Attendees will learn about: •    A daily process to keep you focused and moving towards your goals; • &nb...

Session 807: Myths, Misconceptions, or Just Plain Lies
Presented By:
Lisa Marcum, Progress Energy

Progress Energy has taken metrics to a whole new level! They have a weekly metrics meeting where they take a "micrometric" look at their current statistics, such as customer satisfaction, mean time to resolve, on time resolution, and average speed of answer. These actions not only affect their overall dashboard and roll up to organizational KPIs, they also ensure that Progress Energy can rapidly respond to changes in the environment. Lisa Marcum will leave you with a sample of their weekly metrics meeting agenda showing the type of reports they review, as well as a copy of their curr...

Session 808: Do Something: Solving the Know-Do Conundrum
Presented By:
Kirk Weisler, Team Dynamics

It’s not what we know that counts, it's what we do. We all know better than we do…the question is, how can do better with what we know? Kirk Weisler promises that you will leave with an inspirational and actionable answer to this question, something you can take home and do with your people, not just to them.

Session 809: Working Alone Can Get You Into Trouble
Presented By:
Thomas Smetana, Technisource

In many IT service and support environments, the help desk is managed independently from the desktop support operations, which contributes to inefficiencies in the provision of support services. Integrating the two groups can result in a more efficient, seamless operation, providing value and benefit to the organization, including savings in time, energy, and money. This session will cover how to effectively integrate the help desk and desktop support so that they complement each other and enable greater efficiency in the operation of the IT service and support environment. The end result is a...

Session 810: The Security Risks of Mobile Environments and How to Protect Against Them
Presented By:
Ken Huang, CGI

The level of service offered by mobile technologies is advancing rapidly. Used correctly, your organization can make huge gains in customer service by exploiting these advances. But they also create new dangers to your customer data and intellectual property. This session will go over the capabilities of cutting-edge mobile technologies, the new risks they present, and how to use them to full advantage while keeping your business running securely.

Keynote 6: Why Not Enjoy the Process?
Presented By:
Steve Rizzo

A healthy state of mind is essential to producing quality sales, quality customer service, quality teamwork, and quality communication. In this presentation, Steve will show you how to overcome the everyday pressures that can stifle productivity and creativity in the workplace, while enjoying the process. You will learn how to acquire the attitude you need to succeed, use the power of choice to your advantage, seek the brighter side of potentially negative situations, find the laughter between and during the tough times, and maintain emotional stability and eliminate stress.