Ticket Volume

Register to our next webinar with Gene Kim to discuss how to wire the organization to adapt to the future here: https://invgate.com/ticket-volume/live/!When it comes to understanding the future of the workplace, Christopher Dancy makes the argument that, before anything else, we have to take a good look at where we come from and where we are at today. With this in mind, and looking to drive away from unnecessary fear and uncertainty, first he explores the present context and work conditions to point out the importance of incorporating people’s singularity and values to the work environment. Then, he shifts the focus towards technology, going through a little bit of history to introduce the concept of “adaptive platforms” to think about possible future scenarios in tech. Christopher Dancy, also known as “The World’s Most Connected Person,” is a highly recognized voice within the ITSM community. Before going independent as a consultant, author, and speaker, he served in different roles for companies such as LANDESK Software, CTOBMC Software, PinkElephant, ServiceNow, BMC, Healthways, and Compassware. Christopher also founded ServiceSphere, the first ITSM organization to market with offerings combining Social Media and ITSM.

Download the 14 ITSM Framework Cheat Sheet here: https://bit.ly/43PAm6z | Register to the next live webinar here: https://bit.ly/3PO6amI. There's no unique way to decide how IT teams manage the delivery of IT services to customers. Multiple frameworks can come into play — and typically, simultaneously.The beauty of it is that your plan can be nurtured with multiple perspectives. The drawback is that you can get caught up in complex terminology and never implement said plan.Working with multiple expert team members is a challenge, but it's not impossible. And Jyoti Chopra and Darrel Popowich know how to do it.In this episode, they discuss how to think about and apply standards, frameworks, and concepts, introduce new ways of working with teams, and find and explore new methodologies. In addition, they emphasize the importance of solid communication within the team and with other teams to succeed with your ITSM project. Jyoti Chopra has over 15 years of experience stimulating and shaping business demand across various functions. She is currently the IT Business Relationship Manager at SCI Group Inc. Some of her previous roles include Director of IT at Sakshem IT Solution and Sr. IT Manager at Glaze Trading India. In addition, she was named Top BRM in 2023 by the Business Relationship Management Institute.Darrel Popowich is the Chief Visionary Officer and COO of the BRM Institute. He has over 25 years of experience in the IT world, occupying multiple positions — including Manager of IT Enterprise Services at TransAlta, Vice President of Information Technology at H&R Block Canada, and Managing Director at Online Business Systems. His primary focus is improving IT's capability to explicitly connect IT to business objectives that increase organizational value delivery.

Register to our next live webinar here: https://bit.ly/3Vkzjtm. What do ITSM, BRM, Agile, and Project Management frameworks have in common? Kicking off this year's season of Ticket Volume, David Tomlinson invites us to explore this question. He makes the argument that any successful framework implementation doesn’t mean obsessing over which one is better or finding a perfect fit and following it blindly. For this, he explains how organizations and leaders have to focus on adaptation, common sense, and the human factor when it comes to designing strong processes. David Tomlinson serves as Senior Learning Specialist and DevOps Ambassador for DevOps, Agile, Project, Program, and IT Service Management at QA Ltd. Before this, he also worked for over ten years as Senior Trainer Consultant at FGI Consultancy.

Register here to win an "Introduction to ESM" book: https://bit.ly/3RMDADo! Same as every year, December arrives with trends, predictions, and the need to try to take a glimpse at the future. For the IT industry in particular, 2023 brought several changes – and a few game-changers. The eruption of AI is clearly a hot topic, and we have also witnessed a more profound shift towards experience, as well as a focus on capabilities and measuring value. And since we're not fortune-tellers, we brought a panel of experts to reveal what's in store for 2024 in the IT Service Management world. Should we be prepared for another groundbreaking innovation? Is there something else we need to prepare for? Only time will tell – but you can listen for some spoilers and predictions! Rob England, Claire Agutter, and Mark Smalley join Matt Beran to discuss the future of Service Management, specifically focusing on IT and other shared service functions. Formerly known as “The IT Skeptic”, Rob England is an active contributor to ITIL Service Strategy, The Unicorn Project, The Agile Manager, Open Management, The DevOps Handbook, a lead author of the VeriSM digital framework. Claire Agutter is currently the Director at ITSM Zone and Scopism. She's a Service Management trainer, consultant, author, and Chief Architect for VeriSM. She was recognized as an HDI Top 25 Thought Leader in 2018 and 2019 and was nominated as one of Computer Weekly's 50 Women in Tech. Self-defined as The IT Paradigmologist, Mark Smalley is an ITIL author and co-author, IT Management consultant and trainer, advisor, and former ambassador of organizations such as DevOps Agile Skills Association and ASL BiSL Foundation.

The KCS offers a more collective approach to Knowledge Management through a defined method. Lana Kosnik, trainer in this system, explains here the main elements that make up the Knowledge Centered Service approach. She starts by explaining how the KCS coaching programs operate through a peer-to-peer perspective. Then she dives into the method’s main elements, including the eight solve and evolve processes, the core concepts, and the four principles that guide the whole system. To conclude, she shares some recommendations for what to do with legacy content when adopting the KCS, and lists the main benefits she has seen come along with the adoption. Lana Kosnik is a certified Knowledge Centered Service V6 Trainer and currently works as KCS Knowledge Management Practice Manager at Upland Software. Before this, she got her start in administrative roles and catering sales and operations. Lana also served as Part-Time Faculty at Oakland University.

Based on her experience working with teams to introduce the tool, Mariena shares advice on how to reduce the fear of Generative AI, and some strategies on how to incorporate it into businesses and people's everyday tasks. Along this, she explores the process of upskilling and gives out recommendations for those looking to expand their expertise and get into something new. To finish off, she brings up the work she does with data analysis, focusing on root cause analysis and the importance of introducing insights from support teams for engineers to make improvements based on systemic and data driven analysis. Mariena Quintanilla is an Independent Consultant that works with startups on data quality testing and support systems. She has honed her skills as an organizational leader by helping to build customer facing engineering teams focused on customer data, custom data solutions, and technical support for data products. Prior to this, she spent 10 years in Product and Engineering.

In Service Management, business process design lays the foundation upon which everything else arises. David Mainville makes the point that robust business processes are the starting point of any solid strategy, as they are what brings together the business with IT. He breaks down everything that should be included in the design process to make it accurate and complete from the start. David also talks about the Navvia Process Designer, his own software company, and touches on some of the most frequent mistakes related to process building, and what he sees coming in the future for this field of practice. David Mainville is the CEO and Co-Founder of Navvia and a well known member of the Service Management community. Before this, he got his start as a Field Engineer and progressed through Senior Technical and Management roles over 13 years to eventually become National Manager of Professional Services at Amdahl Canada.

When looking to improve ITSM processes, Ryan argues that the focus should be put on learning from practice. He shares his experience of ten years as an ITSM consultant, pointing out how important it is for organizations to look inwards, avoid working on autopilot, analyze the why’s behind their operations, and, when possible, come to their own conclusions for where and how to improve. To finish off, Ryan touches on knowledge sharing, identifying the need for it to be short, functional, and practical to engage with. Ryan Ogilvie has worked for the last ten years as an independent ITSM Coach and Consultant for Blackfriar Consulting. In the past, he has also served as Service Management Lead and ITSM Consultant at Shaw Communications, as an IT Process and Procurement Analyst at CalFrac Well Services, and other ITSM related roles at Burnco Rock Products, Interpipeline, and Agrium.

A proper Knowledge Management strategy is essential to an efficient IT support offering. However, achieving this may present some challenges. It requires time, effort, consistency, and, most importantly, to create awareness of its relevance. But all hope is not lost! In this live session, Liz Bunger and Michelle Stumpf dive deep into the factors determining Knowledge Management success, including the Knowledge-Centered Support function, the knowledge funnel, and the path from knowledge to an article. Plus, they share tips and tricks for documenting, writing, and measuring. Liz Bunger is the KCS Program Manager at Motive, where she develops and implements the strategy for the Customer Support Knowledge program. Prior to this, she was the Business Program Management - Knowledge at Paychex. Michelle Stumpf is the Head of Knowledge Management at Celonis, a KCS-certified trainer, and a Knowledge Management strategist. She has solid experience developing and implementing enterprise-level taxonomy, metadata, and governance strategy. Previously, she was the KCS (KM) Practice Director at RightAnswers and the Content-Knowledge Information Architect at Verizon.

Neal Travis brings on the importance of building community, fostering strong relationships, and encouraging effective communication within a Customer Support team. He shares his current experience in AIHR, focusing on the work he does to motivate connections and share knowledge throughout the support team. Neal also talks about his experience with Support Driven, a community for Support professionals, and how his participation allows him to grow and improve in his day to day tasks. Neal Travis is currently the Support and Admissions Manager for AIHR, an online learning and edtech company, and an active participant of the popular Support Driven community. He has collected over a decade of experience in Customer-Centric Roles, getting his start managing customer and sales teams in retail Telecom.

Have you ever wanted to leave your current position and become an ITSM consultant? Here’s a little help in that direction! ITSM independent consultant and mentor Sophie Hussey shares her work process and how ITIL4 continues to provide a solid structure that allows organizations to focus on simplifying processes and finding what really is adding value to their workplace. For this, she specifically points out the importance of Change Enablement and Risk Management and lists other frameworks and strategies that she incorporates to her program. Sophie Hussey has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry and since 2022 has dedicated herself to ITSM independent consulting, serving as Director for Lapis Consulting Services. She has also worked in different roles that go from Support Analyst and Service Desk Team Leader to Head of Service Management at companies like Lewis Group and Lowell.

Help desk staffing gets more and more complex over time. How do you know when to hire, how to hire, and how many people to hire at the service desk? If you don't know, we have a panel to try to answer that for you! Jacob White, Kincy Clark, Simone Jo Moore, Daniel Breston, and Matt Beran discuss staffing for service, available models, and training to build the best IT support team. Jacob White is a Consultant/Advisor with a rich background in Sales and Support. Before that, he was the Head of Customer Service at Adaptiva and the Director of Technical Support Engineering at CrowdStrike. Kincy Clark is the Founder of OneStudy.ai and the former Director of Support at Bolt. He has over 12 years of experience in team leadership, Program Management, strategy, operations, communication, and technical experience. Simone Jo Moore is a renowned author and coauthor guiding organizations and individuals in adopting a "Humanising IT" perspective. She's been in HDI's Top 25 Industry Thought Leaders for the last five years and is a WomenTech & DevOps Institute Ambassador. Daniel Breston is a retired coach, blogger, speaker, and writer with more than 50 years of experience in IT. He's currently a board member of itSFMF UK, and once in a while, he picks up his old habits with part-time mentorships and workshops.

The power of emotional intelligence capabilities in leadership shouldn’t be underestimated. Building upon her experience in IT and in learning and development, Deborah Monroe makes the point that strong psychological awareness and a people-centric approach can take you a long way. And, not only that, but it is also measurable and science-based information that has to be taken seriously. To finish off, she shares some practical insights on her experience with HDI training. Deborah Monroe, also known as the people person in IT, is currently the president of Ignite Achievements International, and HDI Faculty Member at Informa Tech. She also works as Subject Matter Expert at Gerson Lehrman Group, Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network, and Rehabilitation Enables Dreams. Before this, Deborah served as a facilitator for over 30 years for Oxford Health, Spherion, Visiocom and STI knowledge.

Following simple, straightforward, and adaptable rules to design Service Management processes was what Stefan Kempter had in mind when putting together the YaSM (Yet Another Service Management Model). However, as the name smartly implies, this idea doesn’t stand alone. Here, Stefan shares the process behind the making of the model, how it brings together different ITSM framework principles, and what organizations get from implementing it, including documents, templates and diagrams that avoid having to start every process from scratch. To finish off, he also gives out some valuable advice for other process-geeks like him. Stefan Kempter is the Founder and current Managing Director of IT Process Maps GbR, Germany. He is also author of the YaSM Service Management Model and ITIL Process Maps. Stefan started off as a Pre-Sales and Technical Consultant at Signalbau Huber, served as Head of IT Architecture and Strategic Planning at ADAC, and spent five years as a Process Consultant at IDS Scheer AG.

Abby Sininger is taking her first steps in IT having landed an internship as support analyst at GRE and shares her insights into what it’s like working on the front line of a help desk. As a young adult making her way into this field of work, she talks about which skills she believes are most important for the job, her educational background and current studies, and how she first got interested in tech through the program Women in STEM. Finally, Abby gives out some advice for people with similar interests and professional goals, and goes through what she expects for her future. Abby Sininger is a Computer Science Major at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota and an aspiring software developer with a passion to inspire women to join STEM fields. She has served in roles as an administrative assistant at Simonson Lumber Company, a manager at House of Pizza, and recently landed a role as IT support analyst at Great River Energy.

ITSM is all about serving the people. And that counts for both sides of the equation. IT industry veteran James Gander walks us through the power of simulations in ITSM training and service desk environments. He highlights their ability to encourage communication and collaboration amongst teams, and real-life experiences over pure books and theory. He also shares some recent projects, such as The Project Phoenix and MarsLander, and examples of remote simulations. James Gander has over 30 years working in the IT industry. In 2010 he left full-time employment and started serving as Managing Director of Gander Service Management. He worked in the past in many IT roles at different companies like Xansa, Waikato District Health Board, Genesis Energy, the University of Auckland, Northpower, and Carter Holt Harvey. James is also a contributor to VeriSM and has made appearances on other IT media channels, like The ITSM Crowd, Karen Ferris's Conversations, and more.

There's no point denying that IT Asset Management is a vital business process. However, implementing a strategy and improving it is no easy task. Matt Beran and David Foxen go over the most common ITAM challenges (and how to solve them). Plus, David's vast experience on the topic helped him collect (and share!) some epic fails, stories, and learnings. David Foxen has dedicated his career to IT Asset Management. He's the Founder and Principal Consultant for SAM Beast Consulting Ltd and was named the ITAM Consultant of the Year in 2022 by "The ITAM Review." He has also founded the ITAM Volunteers, which helped organizations struggling during the COVID pandemic through ITAM.

Co-founder of the ITSM Academy almost 20 years ago, Lisa Schwartz knows a thing or two about how to effectively train help desk staff in their jobs. Here, she goes through the training approach that went from classroom to microlearning, highlighting however the importance of not losing the sense of community. She also shares some practical strategies to stay relevant in teaching, such as adapting to different learning types and undergoing simulations and role changings. Finally, for the company's side of things, Lisa goes through advice on how to make sure they really are getting value out of the training investment. Lisa Schwartz got her start in hospitality and applying Service Management standards, and currently specializes in ITSM, ITIL, Agile, DevOps and VSM training. She is also the Co-founder and CEO of ITSM Academy, Founding Partner for XLACollab, and the Co-founder for the DevOps Institute.

How do you build a strong team culture? And what makes up solid leadership to do so? Gregg Gregory, a practiced expert, provides some key points on teamwork and guiding positions, and how to keep up both productivity and morale across the workplace. He goes through the foundations of what makes up an efficient team: teamwork, team culture, leadership, ground rules, and shared core values. He also shares some advice for leaders, such as the importance of sharing the whys, adapting to changing scenarios, and consulting behavior models to organize your team’s positions. Gregg Greggory is an experienced trainer and consultant, and a national leading authority in the areas of teamwork, leadership, and organizational culture. He has worked with over a thousand companies to build highly effective employee training and development strategies to build more cohesive teams. Gregg is also the host of the podcast “The Teamwork Advantage” and the author of two books on Leadership, “ONE Team - ONE Dream” and “The GPS of Leadership”.

Hardware and Software Asset Management are the two sides of the IT Asset Management equation. This means, one simply can’t exist without the other. ITAM professional David Foxen takes us through the importance of IT Asset Management and where both practices stand today, especially after the pandemic, the steady movement towards remote work, and the supply chain issues that were faced along 2021. He points out how central being mindful about HAM has become for cost saving opportunities and the current shift of focus in SAM from compliance to a customer service mentality. David Foxen is an ITAM Professional and principal consultant for SAM Beast Consulting Ltd. He worked doing ITAM at companies like Aeroflex, Santander, Arup and Johnson Matthey, among others. He also started ITAM volunteers, an organization that helped companies struggling to adapt Asset Management during the pandemic and currently serves as a committee member for ISO.