The New Realities BSM Interview with Casey Kindiger

A couple years ago, the top-returned item in a google search of "BSM" was the "British School of Motoring." So it's a great leap forward already just to get to the clarification that it generally refers to "Business Service Management" (at least stateside).

Now for the next question, when a company says they do "business service management," what does that mean exactly? The entry in Wikipedia describes it as a "methodology for monitoring and measuring IT services from a business perspective" including both process and software. What it really amounts to is one of Peter Drucker's new realities of how you view and use technology to make your business work better every day.

If anyone knows what's at the heart of BSM, it's the CEO of IBM's top-ranked Tivoli partner and service management software reseller, Casey Kindiger. Here's an interview that just came out in TechRepublic where I sat down with Casey to ask ten questions about what is really at the heart of this new way of looking at the purpose of technology in business, as well as the three types of BSM players out there today.

Upcoming Webinar Series on Service Management

I'll be hosting a webinar series on service management coming up in October if you're interested in ways to make your technology act more businesslike.  The series is a prequel to IBM's big annual Pulse event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas next quarter.  The three webinar presentations will come from experts at generationE and IBM and will cover automating service management, service quality management, and the service desk of the future.  The first call is on October 8. For a full description and the registration page, see the link here.

generationE Makes the 2008 Fast Growth 100

generationE Technologies was pleased to be included among this year's 100 fastest growing IT channel companies. Average growth for the group from 2005-07 was 153% with sales of $106 million, so it's quite an honor to be included. All contenders are required to be independent IT consulting companies based in the US, with at least $1M in sales in 2005. The full list from CRN, parent company of Channel Web and VAR Business is here.

Webinar Next Week on Performance Management

We've got a great webinar put together for anyone interested in finding out more about IBM's performance management solution "Proviso."  I'll be talking with generationE's resident expert, Gordon Owens, about the competitors, the current state of performance management and of course, why now is the right time for taking a look at the Proviso solution.  You can register at no cost at this link - just click the dropdown for the 7/22 event.

The Pulse Event (IBM in Orlando)

Just got back from IBM's powerhouse "Pulse" event at the Swan and Dolphin in Orlando this week. If you can imagine every parking spot on the acres and acres of Disney property being filled, you get the idea. Of course, in the larger-than-life Disney/Epcot atmosphere, everything seems all the more enormous.

generationE Technologies was a major sponsor of the event this year as our focus on IBM solutions has become increasingly central to the business. Three big splashes were the service management partner award for our work creating a Google Earth-Tivoli Netcool mashup with Aircell (see their intro to wi-fi when you fly here), special recognition as the partner with the most certifications in IBM's new AAA partner ranking system, and a rollout of a collaborative wiki around the application dependency and discovery solution "TADDM," where generationE was a featured contributor.

In the photo above is generationE's Managed Services Director Gregg Spencer, who ranks as one of the people with the most diverse backgrounds I have ever met. Gregg has faced down an angry mob as a Dallas policeman, single-handedly rescued a large software-driven embroidery company, spent some time in firefighting, miraculously survived a high-speed truck crash and in his spare time takes care of all our internal technical systems. And he's an all-around great guy to work with.

The Business End of Technology

Here's an article I contributed to recently by John Hazard of eWeek on business service management and the best practice meme ITIL. -- Notable prediction by Forrester for 23% growth in the BSM market this year!