Article by Keith Burton –

SHU has a corporate membership of itSMF (https://www.itsmf.co.uk/default.asp ) and we currently have 34 staff who have an account on the itSMF site. Most of these accounts are from staff who have been working in IT Service Management some time or have subscribed due to being involved in the Service Improvement Programme (SIP).

As corporate members of itSMF, anyone with an account can attend any of the regional user group meetings or the Special Interest Group meetings (SIGs) for free. We also get discounted costs on any Masterclass or workshop events. Via the site we can also access:

• Service Talk Magazine – You can read/download the previous issues and the latest issue is here
• Free access to a number of Whitepapers and case studies.
• Information about PSMF, Forums, ITSM Conference and Exhibitions,
• Bookstore, Video interviews from previous events, and the Blog and News pages.

Note: You will need to be logged into the site to access all the content.

Here is what some DTS staff have said about attending itSMF events:

“I find the itSMF meetings really useful to meet up with people from other organisations who are trying to solve the same sorts of problems that we are. We get together and share and discuss problems, ideas and solutions. The recent meeting at Leeds University gave me some great ideas for how to integrate emerging trends, such as DevOps, with existing traditional Service Management processes. I also learnt some useful information on getting ready for GDPR.” Tom.

“Attending the itSMF Conference really opens your eyes to what other organisations are doing with their Service Management processes. It’s like a therapy session to talk to others in similar roles and hear that you’re not alone with the challenges we face. Everyone no matter what sector they work in have the same issues, and hearing how others approach things really helps define what we need to do.”  Keith.

“The workshop was interesting and I took away a lot of food for thought. I valued the fact that it was a pragmatic CSI workshop and focused a lot on the proactive elements of the CSI process and on the importance of the commercial perspective of CSI – the view of the business customer.  I appreciated the practical examples that the facilitator was able to introduce from his experience.  The workshop took us through the CSI Improvement Model and gave us tips on what to do at each step.” Laurie

“It was beneficial to get an instructional overview of some of the practices that other organisations find valuable to their service delivery, as well as awareness of new developments. A high calibre of insight is available through listening to the experiences of, and engaging in discussions with, other IT professionals working with differing operating models. The interactive nature of the event generates an expansion in thinking and linking of topics which will be useful input into our process design and improvement.”  Leanna.

Finally, at the last regional meeting I briefly met Sally Bogg from Leeds Beckett University who has some innovative ideas on how to “Supercharge Your Support Teams”, rewarding and recognising staff to encourage delivery of great services to our customers. Sally has also written an interesting Blog for USCIA about using ITSM Tools http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/blog/?p=2771. It’s reassuring that her words of advice mirror the approach we have taken in the SIP. What we do need to consider now is that once Asysst is implemented that our work does not stop there…..  in fact that is only where it really begins!!

If anyone would like to sign up for access to the itSMF site please contact Keith Burton.