A far cry from the first event where free milk was offered to ticket holders, festival goers will now be able to upload video to social media sites and make status updates at superfast speeds, as well as access a free app with GPS mapping to help locate musicians and attractions.

“As the UK’s biggest and only superfast 4G network, we’re uniquely placed to use our technological expertise to help make the Glastonbury experience even better for those on site,” says EE brand director Spencer McHugh.

Ferrari required a security solution that would protect not only office PC’s and mobile devices, but also the computers controlling production lines used to construct road cars and protect processes used to keep drivers safe during races.

“To protect our sensitive intellectual property we needed a strong technological partner with a complete, cutting-edge IT security solution. We have chosen Kaspersky Lab for the quality of their endpoint product and because they had special customised options that could be developed specifically to meet our needs,” says Ferrari chief information officer Vittorio Boero.

ITSM – the John Lewis way presented by Simon Skelton

The John Lewis Partnership has gone through an enormous amount of change over the last 10 years. The driving force behind these changes is to better serve the customer, and IT has played its part by striving to follow this maxim. In a refreshingly frank presentation, Simon Skelton mapped out just how far they have come trying to achieve this aim.

The journey for John Lewis is a familiar one for ITSM teams – select a single tool rather than multiple incompatible ones; consolidate service desks rather than multiple desks at multiple sites; move towards self service wherever possible and away from expensive third line resolution.

What was different about this story was the approach and honesty.  Simon was brave enough to admit he’d never enjoy a comparable budget to front line service. However, customer expectations are driven by the experience of those front line services, which in turn are unpinned by IT and other business services. To cope, IT has focused on mimicking that customer experience where possible, as well as following the business on its technological journey.

Therefore, as the customer website has been designed to put all the available products and services in a clear to understand and navigate structure,  the service desk tool now accommodates a new starter process that allows staff to self-select certain services, such as having a company-procured mobile phone. Similarly, John Lewis has accommodated the Twitter and Facebook generation by offering live feeds within the ITSM tool.

It is a realistic approach to a user population whose expectations are being driven from outside the business and therefore colouring what they perceive IT should provide.

Who moved the service desk? By Barclay Rae

‘The death of the service desk’ has been wrongly parroted more times than I’ve had hot dinners. What Barclay Rae demonstrated is that ITSM and the service desk are actually items in constant evolutionary change, not revolutionary death throes.

His first focus was on ITIL, and the growing trend to declare ‘ITIL is dead’. However the issues it addresses e.g. incidents, change etc. haven’t gone away. What’s happening is more subtle; ITIL is perhaps no longer the de facto standard but is still useful for large chunks of ITSM. The skill is to understand when and where to use it for your business.

Similarly with service catalogue and SLA’s, we still need to advertise to the business what we do and measure those actions, but we should do that in a positive manner that better sells what we do.

He concluded by debunking apparent ‘threats’ to the service desk. Google, Twitter, crowdsourcing etc., are not enemies to the service desk, they can be used to compliment it, allowing the desk to concentrate on the issues those tools can’t fix.

This may not be the most eye catching message at this year’s conference but it doesn’t make it any less correct.

DevOps: DevOps – shattering IT’s operational barriers by Kaimar Karu

For those in the ITSM community who look outside of their ITIL bubble for approaches to service management, there are an increasing number of standards and frameworks being put forward. One of those gaining followers is DevOps. The principles of DevOps as described by Kaimar Karu vary in their practicability – from the invaluable (planning for failure – a lesson for any practitioner), to good practice (respect and no silos) to the more difficult to attain (automation and instrumentation).

The aim of DevOps is to enable faster times for implementation, often aiming for releases in the hundreds a day (cue service management practitioners fainting in the aisles). It also employs concepts that bring development and service together e.g. bringing the pain forward and ensuring developers are on call out so that they are the ones who field a call at 0300 if their code fails -  a suggestions that unsurprisingly went down well with the IT support professionals present.

The surprising part of DevOps according to Kaimar is the benefit it can present the business, as it can seem counter-intuitive to many ITSM basics. It can drive significant reductions in failed changes, principally because the frequency ensures each release is small. It aims for a ‘happy business’ because it enjoys a greater rate of innovation and also a better quality of service because developers have a more tangible stake.

Ultimately though, for this to be introduced into an enterprise, the advice is to go slow. Small steps, good communication and appointing business ‘champions’ are steps to achieving a wider goal: significant cultural change.

The Service Desk isn’t perfect – let’s reinvent it by Kathryn Howard

When your presenter comes in wearing a pair of fake cat ears, you know it’s going to go one of two ways. Fortunately this one went the right way. The premise of a seminar by Kathryn Howard is one that should be recognised by all, but unfortunately isn’t always. There’s a lack of traffic through the service desks’ channels – does this mean everything is going well or does it mean the customer has simply lost faith?

In an age where crowdsourced and peer-to-peer solutions are the norm for an increasingly large demographic, the service desk can no longer just assume it will be the first port of call for anything technology. So what does that mean and how can it be addressed?  Kathryn described the technology landscape perfectly – it is one where internal IT is now pitted in competition with a host of outside parties. Most crucially, outside parties that the business has access to.

Addressing the issue is one of restoring faith in the service desk. If the service desk is no longer the entry point to a monopoly supplier, it must become the trusted adviser to the business. To do this it must adapt its language and format away from the clandestine terms favoured within the industry to something more tangible. So the SLA could morph into a service charter; using the simpler Net Promoter Score rather than convoluted customer satisfaction survey; and use more human behaviour techniques e.g. ISO38500, rather than the technology driven factors we often favour.

The strength of this presentation was in the practical approach to adapting and evolving. An apocalyptic or revolutionary message will often capture the headlines but doesn’t always give a usable call to action to take away. Kathryn succeeded by offering a bright future for those brave enough to take an honest look in the mirror.

And the cat ears? The message was release your inner Catwoman and you’ll receive more calls that the dyed-in-the-wool Batman of this IT world ever will!

Duncan Watkins is an independent IT delivery consultant with almost 20 years experience in IT service delivery, project management and information security.

Mr Haider has more than 15 years experience in systems engineering, technical marketing, and sales, and will be responsible for driving innovation across the organisation, as well as developing strategic partnerships.

“He (Haider) is a forward-thinking, driven technology leader who creatively assists our clients in recognizing the full benefits from leveraging a communication platform in IT, business operations and emergency operations,” says xMatters CEO Troy McAlpin.

The primary drivers towards cloud adoption include cost savings, faster deployment, and scalability over traditional delivery methods.

“At SysAid, we’ve been extremely focused on developing our cloud platform and have had a significant increase in cloud adoption rates since last year. This increase reflects the current shift towards the cloud in the ITSM market, and I estimate that we will have 80 per cent of our new customers choosing the cloud solution by the end of 2013,” says SysAid Technologies chairman Israel Lifshitz.

Issues arise when social media is used to not only communicate marketing messages to customers, but also for internal tasks such as reporting IT problems. The risk being that information damaging to brands and products can inadvertently enter the public domain, with ICCM calling for better understanding of social channel use and policies.

“Businesses need tools in place which support the creation of bespoke processes and provide a means of applying policy and approval controls to public social media communications,” says ICCM Solutions ceo James Gay.

With a recent SDI study finding that nearly half of service desk staff are spending the majority of their time fire-fighting, the conference aims to offer guidance and practical insight into how IT teams can become more proactive and increase performance.  A stacked content programme features the likes of Barclays, Avivia, Pat Bolger, Barclay Rae, Rob England (The ITIL Skeptic), and Chris Dancy.

“Delegates will not only be able to hear from some of the world’s leading experts, but also take part in interactive breakout sessions to help better understand how they can practically solve many of the key challenges they face,” says SDI managing director Tessa Troubridge.

The show reflected an improving ITSM market after a period of reduced budgets and austerity, with vendors commenting that this year buyers were ready, and more importantly, able to do business.

“My first impression from this year’s show is that the quality of attendees was high, and the people we spoke with have real projects and a business need,” says managing director of long-standing exhibitor Cherwell Software Tony Probert.

The paper, produced by Service Desk Institute (SDI), in conjunction with Cherwell and SITS gives a current ‘state of nation’ overview, including the results of a new survey completed by hundreds of service desk professionals, and aims to give readers a definitive guide to the metrics which will allow them to demonstrate business value.

Download the full White Paper by completing the form under this story.

The authors want to know what you think of this paper: is there anything else you would have like to see covered?  How have you been able to apply it in your organisation?  Do you feel it has helped you to discover the metrics that the business wants you to report on?  Please comment below.

Tellingly, the naysayers were nowhere to be seen.  Perhaps the reason is that while no live event with so much happening in a short space of time can be perfect, attempts to iron out ongoing problems are transparent and bold.  Take for example the pre-booking scheme, which offered a solution to those disappointed at seminars being full, or the expanded education programme which introduced many new faces, which shows that SITS positively responds to feedback.  Laura, Carsten and the Diversified UK team have proven again they don’t want to maintain SITS, they are striving to make it better each year.

Onto specifics, there is too much for me to cover in one article.  Separate pieces will be fed through next week.  But before that, here’s my SITS13 Awards.

The ‘You can stick Your stereotype’ Award

Perhaps unfairly labelled as the anti-ITIL guy, Noel Bruton continues to be the most down-to-earth, insightful and knowledgable IT support consultant in our industry.  Bruton immediately grabbed the audience’s attention, rejecting corporate speak and buzz word nonsense.  Simply put, Bruton says how it is, but backs his ideas up with solid evidence.  Watch this space for more Bruton, including a full report on his Managing IT support session.

The ‘Wow, who’s THIS guy’ Award

Sure it was leftfield, but entrenched thinking never moves things forward.  Peter Johnson, Fairday Research, stunned the audience with an amazing dissection of ITSM, referencing the likes of Kant in a presentation that was as informative as it was bracingly radical.  Johnson announced himself on the ITSM stage at SITS13, expect to hear more from the man soon.  Again, a full report will follow.

Award for best audience reaction

The woman on the Hornbill stand who won an iPad Mini from a scratch card.  The look of joy on her face as the Hornbill team promptly presented the device was priceless.

Best newcomer (who should have been here years ago) Award 

Arriving like an out of town sheriff, Gartner’s Jeff Brooks quickly showed the breakfast briefing and keynote attendees they were in good hands.  Brooks, quite simply, is the man.  Intelligent, witty, commanding, and happy to butt heads with some of our best thinkers, Brooks was a great asset for SITS, let’s hope he becomes a regular.

Group Award – the Twitter community

Yes, the names were familiar, but this was the year that Twitter simply managed itself, with a rich seam of content using the #SITS13 hashtag flowing all day and into the evenings, doing exactly what Twitter should do – inform and entertain.  We just need to see more imagination from the exhibitors beyond ‘visit us on stand #xxx for a chat and prize draw’.

The ‘How can she walk in those shoes, let alone run this whole show’ Award

She spends the best part of a year orchestrating SITS, keeps everyone happy at the event, and still manages to look salon fresh (pictured to talking to itSMF’s Ben Clacy) on the afternoon of day 2.  Laura Venables – we salute you.