Women in Services isn’t just for women any more. Sure there were rows and rows of bright, vibrant women professionals, but interestingly, I counted over a dozen men in the mix, looking, I assume, for enlightenment from a different perspective. Led by TSIA’s Diane Brundage, the panel was a stellar mix of women services executives representing companies that include. Introduced earlier this year at TSW 2009 Silicon Valley, this specialized group was an instant success and continues to grow. This afternoon’s session will be followed by a first-time-ever Women in Services networking dinner, where Helen Leah Conroy J.D. will discuss “Five Things Every Woman Should Know to Become a Successful Negotiator.” A portion of the dinner ticket price will be donated to Dress for Success, a charity organization that provides business attire for financially challenged women. The drawing will include a BlackBerry Smartphone, Plantronics Voyager Pro bluetooth headsets, Kenneth Cole computer briefcase, and many other great items.
Today began with four outstanding keynote presentations. In yesterday’s opening keynote, J.B. Wood presented a provocative picture of where the technology services industry is heading. This morning, TSIA’s Thomas Lah picked up where Wood left off, presenting a practical framework that technology companies can use to assess the impact of these market changes on company economics.
Next up was Eva Elmstedt of Ericsson, who discussed the transitioning telecom industry, followed by Richard Sills of CA Services, who spoke on the topic of IT services for the current and future market. Gary Budzinski of Hewlett Packard wrapped up the morning with a discussion of HP Technology Services transformation and its perspective on the future of infrastructure services.
My first stop of the morning breakouts was Thomas Lah’s “speed networking” session—a totally cool concept. Participants met one-on-one to discuss challenges they are currently experiencing in their organizations. Topics including service operations, managed services, services pricing, services marketing, education services, resource management, services delivery, and services engineering were put on the table for discussion. Each session was clocked at seven minutes, after which participants were instructed to change partners and topics, while the strains of the Jeopardy theme song played. The neat thing was that the face-to-face contact, the sharing of common issues, and the exchange of business cards created strong connections not only for the duration of the conference, but well beyond; in addition to current challenges being addressed, relationships were built for future problem solving. Stay tuned for more of this type of session delivery. We think its potential is significant.
Mid-afternoon, the action moved into the Tech Expo. John Ragsdale conducted the second of two Innovation Tours, focusing on the Recognized Innovator Award winners. He then took to the Solutions Stage at the TSIA booth for a look at the Solutions Heatmap, followed by interviews with solutions providers Oracle, KANA, Convergys, and Compuware.
The biggest news of the day? TSIA. That’s right, AFSMI, SSPA, and TPSA have become the Technology Services Industry Association…and the benefits are boundless. TSIA will continue to serve its members in the areas of professional services, field services, and support services with the rich content, cutting-edge research, and unparalleled events for which it has long been known. But now we can tap into the power of one—a single voice, a single presence at the forefront of the massive industry we know as services. Following the announcement, a champagne toast, led by TSIA CEO J.B. Wood, sealed the deal, with a sea of stemmed glasses raised in honor of the momentous occasion.
And if that’s not enough, this conference also marked the release of Complexity Avalanche, Wood’s new book. The book documents the growing consumption gap caused by the avalanche of complexity that today’s tech companies have unleashed on their customers. Wood discussed the topic in his opening keynote presentation and called upon these companies to better map their services portfolio to their customers’ true need: getting value from the product.
Monday afternoon also marked the opening of the Technology Services Expo, with close to 40 exhibiting companies in attendance, six of which—Compuware, Convergys Corporation, KANA Software, Language Weaver, LogMeIn, and TouchStar—were honored as part of the Fall 2009 Technology Services Recognized Innovator program.
The conference started bright and early with registration opening at 7 a.m. and four Professional Development Courses commencing at 8 a.m.
David Kay of DB Kay & Associates presented “Breakthrough KM with Knowledge-Centered Support.” Attendees took away specific information to kick-start their knowledge program with KCS best practices. Bill Moore of DG Associates and CRMI held “Building a Customer Experience Management Strategy to Acquire, Retain, and Grow Your Customer Base,” focusing on the 12 key components of a CEM strategy that can improve retention, profits, and sales by increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
The third session was “Creating Business Value Changes Customer Perceptions and Wins More Business,” presented by Bill Hall of Pretium Partners. Bill discussed how to improve the value proposition of services by implementing and emphasizing service offer attributes that drive value. The final session, “Global Resource Management Workshop,” was led by Mark Sloan of RTM Consulting. Mark offered a comprehensive methodology for PSOs to optimize the movement of resources, as well as to effectively balance the supply of resources with generated demand.
It was a great start to an exciting event, with tons more in store.
Technology Services World 2009 Las Vegas begins tomorrow at the Mirage. Wow! What a great venue. I arrived yesterday and was immediately impressed with both the hotel and the conference facilities. It never ceases to amaze me the planning and attention to detail that it takes to make TSW happen. It’s easy to see why this is the industry’s premier event. And in case you hadn’t heard, this will be the largest gathering in our associations’ history.
To stay fresh, we’ve added some innovative new formats for a number of our sessions and enhanced our social media opportunities, giving attendees multiple ways to connect to like minds and industry knowledge before, during, and after the event.
Monday begins with four pre-conference Professional Development Courses, while the ensuing conference program features eight brilliant keynotes, 10 timely and relevant tracks, and 62 breakout sessions. The Technology Services Expo will showcase the latest services and solutions from many of the industry’s foremost providers. And back by popular demand are John Ragsdale’s Innovation Tours.
Take my word for it, this will be a landmark event. Keep watching this blog for the latest insights, key takeaways, and late-breaking industry and association news.
Our final day started with 20 breakout sessions, which once again pulled great crowds. The much-anticipated Awards Luncheon followed. The room glittered in gold and the luncheon fare itself was worthy of kudos. Happy recipients from SRII, SSPA, and TPSA took their turns on stage to be aptly honored for their accomplishments. Read award details on our press release page.
Following the awards ceremony, keynote speaker Jeff Howe, contributing editor of Wired Magazine and author of Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business, took the stage. Jeff was the first to analyze the phenomenon and coin the word “crowdsourcing” for how business is embracing the digital herd by enlisting the masses to help stoke popular trends. He pointed out, however, that perhaps the hardest lesson for businesses to learn is the importance of including people in solving problems with whom they don’t ordinarily work. The crowd, he feels, can lead you down a less-traveled path. Inspired by Howe’s insights and their application to technology service and support, conference attendees left our event on a truly high note.
I checked in with J.B. Wood again and he couldn’t be happier. He said that seeing this type of attendance is tangible evidence that services are needed now more than ever; it validates not only our Associations’ value propositions, but those of our member organizations as well.
In this economy, it’s a true testament to our membership communities that they came out in such high numbers to attend this event. We thank both our members and partners who attended―we couldn’t have done it without you.
View photos of the event on Flickr.
The Tech Expo was a flurry of activity today―from breakfast to Innovation Tours to Expo Theater presentations to our end-of-day reception and prize drawing. My impression from both the member and partner perspective was one of great success.
I talked to an exhibitor over bagels this morning who extolled the virtues of our conference due to the caliber of our attendees. We have the top-level executives and decision makers, he said, which places this event at the top of his list.
With regard to our members, I talked to a 13-year member this afternoon who expressed is pleasure at having all the Associations at one conference. We discussed the symbiotic relationship that now exists between all areas of services and support, and how this conference responds to that by offering cross-Association content to its members.
And so, I’m looking forward to another inspiring day…
The breakouts have started, with 29 concurrent sessions covering 12 different tracks—and that’s just today. There was something for absolutely everyone as evidenced by the crowded session rooms.
Meanwhile, down in the Tech Expo, John Ragsdale played host to two Innovation Tours that visited the booths of the finalists and winners of the Spring Innovator Awards. Both tours drew a sizeable crowd, allowing each partner to present their solutions, field questions, and engage in commentary provided by John.
I stopped J.B. Wood in the Expo Hall to ask him about the highlights of the conference. We ended up talking about his book, due to be released in September. J.B. said a number of notable things, one being that now is a watershed moment for technology services, with the pressure on the economy and the financial models, and that new financial and value models were needed. He went on to state that we have to take the services part of the technology world more seriously than we have in the past, and that we need to figure out what this means for the customer, the shareholder and the value of the products. J.B. is convinced that we’ve ridden the technology service model as far as it can go, and now need to work more efficiently—and cutting cost is an inadequate answer for service strategy.
We’ll keep you posted about his book, the foundation of which is the growing recognition that service is becoming a science, and that companies should embrace the idea that service research and innovation is becoming something they can invest in with confidence.
Oh, to be two places at once! In the theater was the “2009 Technology Trends: Spring 2009 Recognized Innovator Awards,” with John Ragsdale, our vice president of technology research, while Hall B hosted a “CIO Perspectives Panel,” moderated by Thomas Lah, TPSA’s co-founder and executive director.
Prior to the presentation of the awards, John shared the results from the annual member technology survey. We heard how spending on service and support technology has been impacted by the recession, including technology areas with the highest satisfaction, spending, and member adoption. With the economy as a backdrop, John presented case studies on how companies are leveraging innovative technology to lower operating expenses and increase service revenues. Quite enlightening. For the details on the Recognized Innovator Awards, presented to partners of the AFSMI, SSPA, and TPSA for outstanding innovation, visit John’s Eye on Service blog, where he offers a rundown on the winners, the categories, and the criteria.
Tom’s panel of ex-CIOs offered their perspectives in a number of areas, including what enterprises need from their services providers in an economic downturn, what motivates organizations to spend money when funding is tight, and how technology buying behaviors are changing.
The next set of keynotes included “Consumer Support in a Down Economy: Recession-Proofing Customer Loyalty,” geared toward AFSMI and SSPA members and presented by Tara Bunch, vice president of global customer support operations, Imaging and Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard, and “The Art of Aligning Professional Services for Sustained Productivity Improvement within an Enterprise Software Vendor,” that had a TPSA focus, from David Lavanty, vice president global services, BMC Software.
Tara shared HP’s strategy for building customer loyalty amid the economic downturn and the industry-wide trends impacting all of us. In a time when many companies are cutting spending on service and support, customer expectations are often increasing, which poses the conundrum of how to keep front lines of service strong and maintain customer loyalty in a recession. Smart companies, Tara revealed, maintain spends and investment, trim costs through greater efficiencies and operational excellence, and monetize opportunities for value-added services.
In Dave’s presentation, he discussed how to use a balanced scorecard and stakeholder’s assessment to drive aligned productivity improvement during economically challenging times. He shared practical approaches to managing the myriad of expectations and priorities of stakeholders―corporate executives, product development, support, sales and marketing, partners, and employees―while ensuring customer value realization and delivering bottom line results.
I’ve found that the presentations so far have really zeroed in on the reality of what we are facing in the industry and the economy right now, offering a great deal of food for thought on how to approach the future.
